Is Ted Cruz Losing His Grip on Iowa?

Slate ^ | 1/13/2016 | Josh Voorhees

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Heading into Christmas, Ted Cruz had emerged as the clear favorite to kick off the Republican nominating contest with a victory in Iowa. He was racking up endorsements from evangelical leaders/kingmakers and was starting to pull away in state polls. But with less than three weeks to go until the GOP caucus, Cruz now has real reason to worry.

The latest sign Iowa could come down to the wire between him and Donald Trump comes via a new Des Moines Register/Bloomberg state poll, which shows the fiery Texas senator's lead on the loud-mouthed tycoon shrinking from 10 points to 3 points among likely Republican caucusgoers in the past month:

Ted Cruz: 25 percent, down 6 points

Donald Trump: 22 percent, up 1 point

Marco Rubio: 12 percent, up 2 points

Ben Carson: 11 percent, down 2 points

As Ann Selzer, the well-respected director of the poll, points out, the narrowing race isn't the result of a late Trump surge--the Donald's been holding remarkably steady in Iowa for months--as much as an erosion in Cruz's support. "It's hard to say Donald Trump is back, because his support grew only one point," she said. "It seems more a matter of slippage for Cruz."

His drop could be the result of the increased attention that comes with being the favorite--which has included plenty of chatter about his Canadian roots--or it could be explained by something else, including statistical noise. Either way, Cruz doesn't look as strong in Iowa today as he did in late 2015.

[BlackFemaleArmyColonel]

Ok, okay.

[cornfedcowboy]

Cruz’s ground game is as strong as I have ever seen. It isn’t going to waiver. These are back-boned committed seasoned caucus goers. His endorsements are meaningful too. Steve King, Vander Plaats, even James Dobson campaigning for him in Iowa. Go Cruz!
I am excited though to see Trump bring a lot of new folks in to the party. We shall see. I am glad he is in the race.

[elhombrelibre]

Have you noticed, too, that when he buys them he is very upset if they don’t stay bought. They’re never supposed to disagree with him again on anything if he’s given them any money. It’s one more example why he’d make a poor president. No one can disagree with him, and his supporters agree with that sentiment too.

[elhombrelibre]

Well, you got me there. He's never held an elected office, so he's got the advantage of that, like anybody else in the USA. He never made a deal that wasn't to personally enrich himself. He never made a sacrifice or contribution that wasn't suppose to lead to a profit for him personally. No doubt if he were elected president, he'd continue to build his empire, like his cronies the Clintons did, High Office would be for sale.

http://www.nationalmemo.com/21-questions-for-donald-trump/

[elhombrelibre]

Yes, when people are anxious they often become gullible. It’s the backstory of the Trump campaign and along with the failures of Obama and the Republican opposition, a mountebank Reality TV Star seems plausible by only bragging about his wealth and spouting some conservative slogans, half of which he probably doesn’t understand.

[newgeezer]

This thread finally showed up in the Iowa list today for our FRiends who monitor Iowa news in the sidebar.

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