An independent PAC, which claims to support Cruz, but which is not part of his campaign, ran an ad showing a picture published in a worldwide gentleman's magazine, which the now Mrs. Trump posed for.
Whether they support Cruz is debatable. This whole sh*tstorm was predictable, all downside, and any benefit in a Conservative Western state would be questionable. Folks out here don't take kindly to attacking someone's womenfolks and the likelihood that Cruz would get the blame for something he didn't do was tremendous, as the whole crapfest has shown.Are these people supporting Cruz? With "support" like that, who needs enemies?
If anyone puts forth that this whole thing may have been instigated by the (former?) GOPee operatives in the Cruz campaign, who may well be there to sabotage it, not help it along, well, at first, even I thought that they were most qualified available people for the job, but now I am not so certain that they aren't there to throw the fight.
It sure seems that way.
Ted Cruz, upon discovering this, did not immediately condemn the ad. Instead, he chose to merely distance himself from it, saying in effect, “I dindu nuffin.”
Cruz said 'it isn't one of ours'. That is a disavowment, by definition. It isn't the type of histrionic display many Trump fans are used to, but in any part of the world, saying something isn't yours is, in effect, disavowing it.
Trump rightfully came out with strong criticism of the ad,...[Sure he did. After all, the ad was sleazy, by benefit of the image. But it isn't (first off) Ted's ad, it was from an independent PAC. Second, no one went window peeking to get the photo and (I assume) there were no roofies involved, just a straightforward skin shot as part of a modeling job for GQ Magazine..]...and of Ted, for failing to call it what it was - pure sleaze politics, which Ted benefited from.
As for sleaze politics, well, yes it was. As for Cruz benefiting from it? Nope. The ad, even conducted by an independent, has hurt him, fed the 'lying ted' meme (through the usual distortion of fact), and has been used to smear Cruz for days. I would not call that a benefit, and like I said, those results would be entirely predictable.
In addition, Trump and his pals in the tabloid media are fully attacking Cruz and his wife and their marriage. All over an ad some alleged supporters put out.
And they are laughing so hard at DU they are having trouble breathing.
Well, except for the fact that Cruz’s campaign manager bought the rights to the picture and passed it off to the PAC.
That makes pretty much your entire argument fall apart.
“Trump and his pals in the tabloid media are fully attacking Cruz and his wife and their marriage. All over an ad some alleged supporters put out.”
“Alleged supporters”? It’s a Ted Cruz PAC, fer cryin out loud.
All Ted had to do to completely defuse this situation (at least on his end), was to unequivocally condemn the Melania Trump ad in his first statement.
He could have captured the high ground and held it, by refusing to politicize it in any way. It would have been easy for him to dispense with the whole thing in less than a dozen words.
When the ‘cheating’ allegations hit, he would have had at least a thin skin of armor, but he left himself with no shielding, because he’d already put a political spin on the prior issue.
To make matters worse, he then goes and blames Trump for the National Enqirer expose’. WTF? That’s desperation squared.
I’d be surprised if Ted has any toes left, given the way he’s been shooting himself in both feet.