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EIB: Rush Limbaugh's take on the CNN screw-up and subsequent dodge:

Forces Align to Assault the First Hispanic-American to Win a Presidential Primary

[snip]

"I know campaigns are what they are, and victory is what it's all about, and going after people is how you do it. I understand all that. This is the big leagues. I'm an adult. But this Ben Carson thing, I mean, he started it; CNN propelled it. And Ted Cruz has apologized for it, more so than anybody else. You know, Cruz could have blamed a staffer for this. Cruz didn't do this. Cruz could have gone out there and said, "A staffer did it," and satisfied what Carson wanted and fired somebody. But he didn't. What did he do? He went up there and he took the hit himself.

That's a sign of tremendous character to me.

Have you stopped to think what Ted Cruz overcame to win the Iowa caucuses? He overcame $8.5 million arrayed against him, all of the ad money arrayed against him, all of the so-called, "He's not even a legit candidate 'cause he was born in Canada," all of these "religious revival evangelist nutcase," all of that stuff thrown at him. "Phony Hispanic," all that, and he still wins. And after that victory, Ted Cruz is the first Hispanic-American to ever win the Iowa caucus. He is the first Hispanic-American to win any presidential primary for any party.

It didn't happen in the Democrat side.

The first Hispanic-American to win a presidential primary happens to be Ted Cruz, who happens to be a Republican -- and furthermore, it was the Religious Right that propelled him to victory. And I knew this was gonna happen precisely because the establishment and everybody else anti-Cruz is arraying all of that arsenal and resources against Cruz precisely... Well, not just precisely, not exclusively. But a big reason is because the Religious Right or the evangelicals were the margin of victory.

"We can't have that! No, no, no. We have got to destroy that. We have got to shoot that down. We can't allow that to be the message coming out," say the opponents and enemies of Cruz. "Oh, my God," the Republican Party's out there saying. "These are the people we want to get rid of! These are the people we think are causing us problems, the pro-lifers, the social issues people. Oh, no! They're the reason Cruz won?" He's the first Hispanic to win. What's the Republican Party...?

[snip]

"PPP's "newest national poll finds the race on the Republican side tightening considerably in the wake of Donald Trump's surprise loss in Iowa on Monday night. Trump's lead has fallen to just four points." He's at 25%. Ted Cruz is at 21%. Marco Rubio is at 21%. Ben Carson, who's not there, in New Hampshire is at 11%. Jeb Bush, Kasich, and Rand Paul are at 5%. Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina 3%, and Jim Gilmore still in the race at 1%. Santorum had zero supporters in the Public Policy Polling final poll.

To be clear, CNN is not blameless. The way CNN presented this story (breaking) and the speculation which followed gave the impression Carson was suspending his campaign is par for the course. No surprise there.

How the story was used by the Cruz campaign has nothing to do with CNN. In the words of Steve King, "Carson looks like he is out."

No Carson was not out. Even so, King did not man up.

"I respect Ben Carson & regret any miscommunications. Perhaps @RealBenCarson r unaware of this CNN story

Let me rephrase that...

I am sorry caucus voters were [thankfully] ignorant of the entire CNN story I used to miscommunicate false information to voters.

There was no miscommunication. King knew exactly what he was saying--Carson was out, change your vote to Cruz. King is a seasoned politician having served in an elected office since 1997. He lied by what he did not say. Politicians do it so well.

I used King as an example, but others were involved. It smells of a coordinated effort immediately before and during the caucus vote hoping to manipulate voters into a drawing a false conclusion.

As a voter, I find it repugnant, more than a dirty campaign trick. Accepting it under 'that's they way the game is played' is why we are where we are in this point of time.

This does not speak well of Cruz. Blaming CNN misses the point. Cruz apologized for not sending out followup memos, not for the tactics ("fair game") used by his campaign. He looks less of a principled conservative and more like a ruthless politician who will do anything to gain the upper hand.

I disagree with anyone saying Iowa is over, move on, this is not that important or other reasons. It is important to voters [like me] not impressed with any primary candidate. My primary vote will go to the candidate I believe will screw me the least.