Playing with Fire, Republican Bigwigs Want to Take Out Cruz

National Journal ^ | January 26, 2016 | Josh Kraushaar

[2ndDivisionVet]

Party officials and strategists believe that if Trump wins Iowa, Rubio's path to the nomination is clearer.

To many out­side ob­serv­ers, the wave of seasoned Re­pub­lic­an of­fi­cials and strategists sound­ing in­creas­ingly com­fort­able with Don­ald Trump as the GOP's pres­id­en­tial nom­in­ee is a sign of sur­render. Wheth­er it's Iowa Gov. Terry Bran­stad root­ing for Ted Cruz to lose the Iowa caucuses or Or­rin Hatch "com­ing around a little bit" on Trump's can­did­acy or the paucity of money spent at­tack­ing Trump on the air­waves, it feels like of­fi­cial Wash­ing­ton has sided with Trump over Cruz.

In real­ity, many are try­ing to sal­vage the cam­paign of Sen. Marco Ru­bio (or any oth­er more-main­stream al­tern­at­ive), and are bet­ting that it's easi­er to de­feat Trump in a one-on-one show­down than Cruz em­boldened by a strong show­ing in Iowa. To di­min­ish Trump at this point, Re­pub­lic­an strategist Alex Cas­tel­lanos wrote in an email Monday, "per­versely helps both Cruz and Trump, which is not what many con­ser­vat­ives in­tend."

The think­ing goes as fol­lows: If Cruz loses Iowa, he peters out in New Hamp­shire and doesn't pose a risk of fin­ish­ing in a re­spect­able second place. That al­lows the es­tab­lish­ment win­ner out of the Gran­ite State to build mo­mentum as the anti-Trump al­tern­at­ive. A de­cent num­ber of Cruz's sup­port­ers, when asked to choose a second can­did­ate, grav­it­ate to Ru­bio. Polls show many more of Trump sup­port­ers, by con­trast, would sup­port Cruz. And even with Trump's im­prov­ing fa­vor­ab­il­ity num­bers with­in the GOP, there are more Re­pub­lic­an voters who wouldn't vote for him un­der any cir­cum­stances than say the same about the sen­at­or from Texas....

[don-o]

Wow. New buggers at work? Tried the

http://dan.hersam.com/tools/smart-quotes.html

Did not clean it up.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I did use that site. WTH?

[elhombrelibre]

This is what they want.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcUCLwWCihE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UO3nn7awUk

[DannyTN]

"Re­pub­lic­an"

­­­­­­­­­­­­uuuuuuggggggghhhhhh!

[dinoparty]

Nonsense. They just hate him because he exposed them for the wimps that they are.

[Cicero]

It would help if Cruz and his admirers in the lamestream media could speak and write English.

[twister881]

I want a POTUS that all the elitists on all sides hate — Ted Cruz is that individual. In 1976 & 1980, that person was Ronald Reagan...and many of the same @sshats were out to destroy the real conservative then, as well.

[SubMareener]

Optional Hyphens in your soup! ;-)

To many outside observers, the wave of seasoned Republican officials and strategists sounding increasingly comfortable with Donald Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee is a sign of surrender. Whether it’s Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad rooting for Ted Cruz to lose the Iowa caucuses or Orrin Hatch “coming around a little bit” on Trump’s candidacy or the paucity of money spent attacking Trump on the airwaves, it feels like official Washington has sided with Trump over Cruz.
In reality, many are trying to salvage the campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (or any other more-mainstream alternative), and are betting that it’s easier to defeat Trump in a one-on-one showdown than Cruz emboldened by a strong showing in Iowa. To diminish Trump at this point, Republican strategist Alex Castellanos wrote in an email Monday, “perversely helps both Cruz and Trump, which is not what many conservatives intend.”
The thinking goes as follows: If Cruz loses Iowa, he peters out in New Hampshire and doesn’t pose a risk of finishing in a respectable second place. That allows the establishment winner out of the Granite State to build momentum as the anti-Trump alternative. A decent number of Cruz’s supporters, when asked to choose a second candidate, gravitate to Rubio. Polls show many more of Trump supporters, by contrast, would support Cruz. And even with Trump’s improving favorability numbers within the GOP, there are more Republican voters who wouldn’t vote for him under any circumstances than say the same about the senator from Texas.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I’ll bet they do. Now that they’ve figured out what Trump is, they’ll be more than happy to get him in the WH. Cruz is the real Conservative and he scares the crap out of them.

[don-o]

Copy from page source

To many outside observers, the wave of seasoned Republican officials and strategists sounding increasingly comfortable with Donald Trump as the GOP’s presidential nominee is a sign of surrender. Whether it’s Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad rooting for Ted Cruz to lose the Iowa caucuses or Orrin Hatch “coming around a little bit” on Trump’s candidacy or the paucity of money spent attacking Trump on the airwaves, it feels like official Washington has sided with Trump over Cruz.

[hey Bean]

LoL!!

[don-o]

How did you do that?

[SubMareener]

Actually, the GOPee “Big Wigs” are loosing their minds, and it is about time! :-)

[txrefugee]

they don’t know much, do they.

[TheRake]

Just sent Cruz another $50! If this and some of the other news today (Trump’s crass words), I’ll be broke by the end of the day! LOL

[SubMareener]

Cut and past into Word. I have mine set to show all special characters. Replace All..Special...Optional Hyphen. Then wash the result through the site: http://dan.hersam.com/tools/smart-quotes.html

[don-o]

Thanks. This seemed to be a new and worse level of hash.

Just sad this cannot be fixed.

[Reaper19]

They’ve found a moderate who is eager to make deals with the Democrats and who is more than willing to play the same old game that everyone else in DC plays. and he’s leading nationally in the primaries. They need to ensure that Cruz doesn’t beat him.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

So Christian behavior is of no importance any longer? Their only value is to win, and by any means and at all costs?