Posted on 04/15/2016 8:57:58 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
He won a big victory in Wisconsin. He pierced the Donald Trump mystique. He even got some of the Capitol Hill lawmakers who regard him as a revolutionary and renegade to slink cautiously into his corner. By all logic, this should be a Ted Cruz moment — if only the next primary weren’t in New York.
But on Tuesday, New Yorkers go to their polling places, and though Cruz has been the beneficiary of the calendar before — his performance on Super Tuesday helped force out of the race Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a demographically identical and philosophically similar rival — his success still depends on another man to stumble.
Or — just as frustrating to a man with a sense of destiny and a fast-forward vocabulary of ambition and determination — his success requires another man to fail to stumble across the finish line represented by the figure 1,237, the number of delegates required to win the Republican presidential nomination in Cleveland this July.
And even if that other man — Manhattan businessman Donald Trump, as the whole world knows — fails to clinch the nomination as the last primary votes are cast June 14, when the District of Columbia’s tiny Republican minority goes to the polls, there is no guarantee that the remainder candidate, which is what Cruz is, would prevail in a contested or open convention.
All of which is why, though the cage fight between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is great sport, and perhaps precursor to an upset, the struggle between Trump and Cruz is more compelling.
“The focus of New York is on the Republicans, period,” Richard Ravitch, former head of the New York City transit system and a former Democratic lieutenant governor, said in a recent telephone conversation. “Bernie and Hillary are going to campaign, and they are going to fight, but it’s the Republican mash-up that’s really worth watching.”
That’s because, for all unexpecteds in the Democratic race — no one on New Year’s Day thought a 74-year-old self-proclaimed Democratic socialist from a state with three electoral votes would defeat the mighty Clinton machine in Michigan and Wisconsin, states carried by Clinton’s husband, Bill — the Republican race is a symphony of surprises.
The first of those surprises was that a candidate such as Trump would be a serious threat to win the GOP nomination. The second was that voters would tolerate torrents of invective and insult from a candidate for a position that Franklin Roosevelt, the president against whom modern presidents are measured, described as being primarily an office of moral leadership.
Now, as some powerful Republicans seek to deny Trump the party’s presidential nomination, some of the assumptions about Cruz are being challenged, especially the twin notions that the Texan could win no adherents among party leaders and that he has no ties to Republican thinkers and theorists.
In the event, Cruz has been Velcro to all manner of Republicans who agree with the notion that he is the only living soul who stands between Trump and the scene many Republicans dread the most: the real estate-and-casino tycoon standing with his arms raised high as balloons and confetti rain upon him in Cleveland.
Cruz, whose rhetorical repertoire includes the phrase “Washington cartel,” now has the support of increasing numbers of important GOP fundraisers. He has the allegiance not only of perhaps the most conservative lawmaker on Capitol Hill, Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, but also of, among others, former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who once suggested that deciding between Cruz and Trump was a Hobbesian choice.
“Whether it’s death by being shot or poisoning, does it really matter?” he asked.
In truth, Cruz has stronger relationships on the House side of the Capitol than he does on the Senate side, where he has toiled for about three years and, according to multiple accounts, set a Washington record for alienating his colleagues. But many of his Senate aides formerly worked in House offices and, in an example of how Washington works, they provide a bridge to their former bosses and their former colleagues.
Also, long before he formally entered the presidential race, or even before he mounted his 21-hour filibuster in 2013 against Obamacare, likely undertaken to attract attention from devout conservatives, Cruz began establishing himself as a moderator in forums designed to combat moderation in his party. These events, attended by Republican lawmakers and top staff, were convened to examine contemporary issues from a conservative viewpoint.
Now, those relationships — in some ways more important than ties within the Senate chamber — are bearing fruit. This is as former Sen. Phil Gramm of Texas launches a massive effort to pull in more senators, perhaps Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the first black to be elected to both the House and the Senate and a conservative avatar, or Sen. Steve Daines, whose principal political attribute is that he represents Montana, which votes June 7 and could be important in blunting Trump’s drive to the nomination.
Of such things a convention majority might be built — or at least a wall against Trump. But first there is the New York primary.
Trump holds many, if not all, the cards. He was born in the state, reared in Queens, and works and lives in a glittery Manhattan tower that bears his name. Not since early February has his advantage in New York State polls fallen below 26 points, flaring to 52 points a month ago but now cruising along at just over 30.
Yet Cruz is playing on a bigger field, trying to peel off first-ballot votes from delegates elected but not formally pledged, or strategizing to conduct guerrilla wars in state capitals, such as Bismarck, North Dakota, and Denver, where delegates are floating like uncharged molecules and might ultimately become, in the Cruz mold, free radicals.
So while the television cameras are on the outdoor game — rallies, street encounters, visits to ethnic enclaves and upstate urban centers — Cruz is playing the sort of indoor game where he has surprising strength. Ted Cruz might have his moment in Cleveland.
This debate is Cruz playing fast and loose with the US Constitution, which he took an oath to protect and defend... NOT subvert... This is when I knew he was a fake conservative, and the Constitution means nothing to him.
Texas...you can take it from there.
Interesting article. Thanks for posting.
It’s not going to matter anyway because the Don is looking for an escape from this race.......and he’ll get it by purposely going to convention....and lose there...but be able to tell all you Trumpsters it was rigged from the beginning...and leave you guys swaying in the breeze....
The only rigging going on here is your guy got in over his head, and never wanted to really win this....now they’re all busy paving the way so he can get out gracefully and save face.
Do you think his meetings with the RNC recently and just prior with Homeland Security (FBI) was to cater to him???? Do you think he was a no show at all these states conventions he lost delegates to was because he wants to win????
Think.
If you think working hard within the rules is stealing delegates, just think of it as Eminent Domain.....>>>> that is a fair comparison. corruption of government is corruption every where it exists. I say that Jim crow and slavery where rules but where still wrong. letters from a birmingham jail for us all.
I see what you did there...
LOL I'm sure that has nothing to do with the relentless, slanted character assassination campaign being waged against Donald Trump 24/7/365 by the unholy alliance consisting of the Left/Mass Media/Establishment/GOPe who are all terrified at losing their spot at the feeding trouigh, and the "me too" Ted Cruz campaign, for whom Trump serves as a catch-all boogeyman that's responsible for every woe they encounter.
If it weren't for the non-stop demonization of Trump, which is still only marginally effective, and is indeed failing right before our eyes, Donald Trump would be even stronger.
Trump's progress has been blunted somewhat by the corrupt, entrenched Establishment, and all the Cruzbots can do is cheer the GOPe onward in the hopes that there candidate will benefit in some Machiavellian way.
Just despicable on the part of all those involved in the all-out attempt to destroy a good, red-blooded American who loves his country, is passionate, and who will work tirelessly to make America great again...
Here’s the thing. The next couple of weeks are gonna be good for St Donald, praise be his name. But after that it will be into more Cruz friendly territory. St Donald, praise be his name, will not get the delegates needed to secure the nomination and at Cleveland he will fail.
So, gloat while you can trumpeters..but perhaps you need to go back and read the story about when to count your chickens.
So, so true. The Tea Party is strong in the House, but the Senate is full of “get along, go along Republicans”.
So we see the members of the Senate demagogue Cruz, the Democrats demagogue Cruz, and now the wing of the conservative movement (those who want to win at all cost, and destroy the system), doing the same. All I keep hearing is name calling from some, and no substantive discussion of conservative values, or issues.
There hasn't really been a debate yet. All I keep seeing is name calling, and personal attacks, by those who go by the creed of the end justifies the means.
Cruz or Trump will be our nominee and I will support that nominee. But why do so many on our side, side with the Liberals and socialist?
Why do people keep pumping up Cruz?
It soon will be over for Lying Ted.
The debate over whether or not Senator Ted Cruz is eligible for the U.S. Presidency is about to end. It has now been confirmed that Senator Ted Cruz is neither a “U.S. natural born Citizen” or a “legal U.S. citizen.”
I want an AMERICAN for President not a Canadian.
What the HELL is wrong with you people. Get your head out of the sand hole. Wake up !!
The Wheels are turning and will keep TURNING.
Do you want an American for President or a want-a-be American/Canadian?
Will Chris Christie Body-Block Ted Cruz From New Jersey Ballot: Law Professor/Candidate Victor Williams Files Emergency Petition Demanding Ted “Canadian” Cruz Be Disqualified
Apr 15, 2016, 19:28 ET from Law Professor/Candidate Victor Williams
I already posted that as a thread Einstein.
Here’s one you might want to checkout and review.
Monday, March 7, 2016
Ted Cruz: Neither a Natural Born Citizen Nor “TrusTed”
By Mario Apuzzo, Esq.
March 5, 2016
“TrusTed” (one of his campaign slogans) Ted Cruz, born in a foreign nation to an alien father, is running for President. Eligibility to be elected President is found in Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 which provides: “No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” Since Cruz was born in 1970, he must be not only a “citizen” of the United States, but a “natural born citizen” of the United States in order to be eligible to be elected President. So, is Cruz a natural born citizen? The answer is “no.”
Read more......
http://puzo1.blogspot.com/2016/03/ted-cruz-neither-natural-born-citizen.html
I believe what I’ve heard Trump say after watching dozens of his speeches, and Cruz’s as well for fair balance, and can tell the difference between a man speaking from his heart who may be a little rough at times, and a man speaking from rehearsed scripts written by focus groups after thousands of dollars of market research.
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