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Ted Cruz Will Bank on the Base
National Review Online ^ | December 15, 2014 | Eliana Johnson

Posted on 12/15/2014 1:36:04 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife

To hell with the independents. That’s not usually the animating principle of a presidential campaign, but for Ted Cruz’s, it just might be.

His strategists aren’t planning to make a big play for so-called independent voters in the general election if Cruz wins the Republican nomination. According to several of the senator’s top advisers, Cruz sees a path to victory that relies instead on increasing conservative turnout; attracting votes from groups — including Jews, Hispanics, and Millennials — that have tended to favor Democrats; and, in the words of one Cruz strategist, “not getting killed with independents.”

Twenty-three months from the presidential election, it seems all but a given that the freshman senator, who has been in Congress just two years, will mount a bid for the White House. “He’s looking at the race very seriously,” says a senior adviser, who confirms that Cruz’s campaign headquarters would be based in Houston. Cruz strategists see a way to win both the nomination and the general election. They are assiduously cultivating the party’s top-dollar donors, almost all of whom remain uncommitted. Internally, the senator has shaken up his staff to address problems and to set the stage for a presidential bid. All that’s left, it seems, is an official announcement.

It’s almost conventional wisdom now that presidential candidates woo the party faithful in primary contests and tack to the middle in the general election to attract more-moderate voters. Not Cruz......

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalreview.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Government; Politics/Elections; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: 2016; 2016election; conservativebase; cruzorlose; election2016; gop; tedcruz; texas
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To: House Atreides

None of my shots are veiled, and unfortunately nobody is paying me to take them. :)

I do find it intriguing that, at least on the right, I haven’t heard much birther talk about Cruz. Here’s a guy who really is ineligible, if you apply the standard for NBC many did to Obama.

TC was born outside USA to an American citizen mother and a non-citizen father. Assuming you’ll agree Obama was born in HI, this makes Cruz less eligible than Obama.

Which has nothing to do with whether he’d be a good president. Frankly, I’d have no problem with repealing the NBC provision of the Constitution. It doesn’t seem to serve a useful purpose anymore, if indeed it ever did.

Although you’d think with 300M Americans we’d be able to find someone who meets the not all that strict standards of the Constitution.


81 posted on 12/15/2014 8:07:20 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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To: rawcatslyentist

Right - there are no “independents”.

Really, what is an ‘independent’?

Someone who doesn’t have an opinion? Someone who doesn’t care? Someone who doesn’t know where they stand on the role of government? Someone who doesn’t know what their world view is? Someone who is indifferent on guns, abortion, fiscal policy, the Constitution, social issues, taxes, freedom, foreign policy?

They can call themselves independents, but I call these people “democrats.”

Go Ted Go!


82 posted on 12/15/2014 8:10:31 AM PST by privatedrive
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To: Norm Lenhart; SoConPubbie

” It wouldn’t matter who it was. There is a faction here that is determined to keep the pot stirred so as to prevent someone like Cruz from the entire premise of this thread. Namely relying on the base.

It’s what they do. It’s why they are here. They have done this same routine for 3 election cycles and I am only surprised by two things. One, that many can’t see it and Two, that it is allowed to continue.”

Good questions.

” We can either get on the same page or not folks. Today they tell you there’s time to see other options. in 16 these same people will again, as they did before, tell you there is no time and we should have coalesced after the last election. And they will tell you to get behind the RINO again, because Hillary/Warren is worse again and then cost a conservative like Cruz the election again.”

100% predictable, sad to say.


83 posted on 12/15/2014 8:10:59 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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To: Sherman Logan

“None of my shots are veiled...”

****************************************************************************************************
Well, to me they’re not veiled. I can recognize them readily.

I think that those of us who are clear thinking constitutional conservatives who actually want to WIN ON THOSE PRINCIPLES will rally around Ted Cruz as our candidate for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. If he gets the nomination, HE WILL WIN THE PRESIDENCY AND HE WILL BE VERY EFFECTIVE IN THAT OFFICE.

Progressives and faux conservatives know this and will be doing all they can to derail the effort.


84 posted on 12/15/2014 8:16:34 AM PST by House Atreides
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Go Ted Go!

My vote and financial support are his.


85 posted on 12/15/2014 8:23:16 AM PST by TheConservativeParty
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To: oldbugleboy

Ditto all that. I suspect that with you (like me) it was a matter of principle. In my case, I took our first and greatest president’s position...factionalism was dangerous to the republic. And he has been proven right...over and over and over again.


86 posted on 12/15/2014 8:31:32 AM PST by Wonder Warthog (Newly fledged NRA Life Member (after many years as an "annual renewal" sort))
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

I love Ted Cruz. My only fear is that he is not going to be able to raise the money to compete. Usually the big money donors want a moderate like Jeb or Mitt. Time will tell.


87 posted on 12/15/2014 8:31:58 AM PST by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Big money Texans are watching to see if Jeb is going to step in (the vaunted Bush dynasty loyalty requirement). The two actual Texans are Cruz and Perry and they’re going to go after that money too.

With 2015 right around the corner maybe things will start to take shape.


88 posted on 12/15/2014 8:50:59 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Cincinatus' Wife

Well you’re in good company believing that. The entire left wing of Free Republic supports your position.

The actual on the ground reality and history is that by supporting leftist republicans, not so left republicans accomplished two things. First, they, by definition, moved the party leftward. Secondly, From personal experience, experience BTW that anyone can have by speaking with non Republicans, they are trusted less than Democrats. The mere name GOP/Republican now makes non political junkies cringe. They WILL NOT vote for one.

Now, since we have REPEATEDLY lost by NOT doing what I and many, many others have suggested over they years, perhaps it’s time to DO what people like me suggest. Because you cannot lose at any worse level than is happening right now.


89 posted on 12/15/2014 8:52:03 AM PST by Norm Lenhart
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To: Norm Lenhart
I haven't listened to this yet [just turned it on and have it up and running in another window].

Why not listen to it with me? The Power of Friendship: Embracing Allies to Revitalize American Leadership

90 posted on 12/15/2014 9:20:53 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: Jim Robinson

Amem.


91 posted on 12/15/2014 9:22:43 AM PST by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: A CA Guy

Amem = amen.. lol


92 posted on 12/15/2014 9:23:37 AM PST by A CA Guy ( God Bless America, God Bless and keep safe our fighting men and women.)
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To: Cincinatus' Wife
This is the 5th presidental cycle I have watched here at FR. 22 months out, and I can say I have never seen the level of congealing around one candidate so soon.

No doubt about it........FR is quickly becoming Cruz Country.

93 posted on 12/15/2014 9:28:23 AM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: Jim Noble
Most Republicans (meaning >50%) would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than Ted Cruz. It’s time to let them go in peace.

Where did you get that statiistic? Daily Kos?

94 posted on 12/15/2014 9:31:14 AM PST by catfish1957 (Everything I needed to know about Islam was written on 11 Sep 2001)
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To: Norm Lenhart

I just wish Cruz wasn’t a Bush man. Or at least that he might distance himself from his former associations with Bush, especially domestic policy adviser on immigration. Does that concern you? Perhaps it means nothing. Time will tell.

“Ted Cruz, elected to the U.S. Senate in 2012, is the former solicitor general for the state of Texas, previously serving as the director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission, an Associate Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a domestic policy advisor on the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign, according to his campaign biography. “

http://www.politifact.com/personalities/ted-cruz/


95 posted on 12/15/2014 9:31:37 AM PST by IAmDiversity
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To: Norm Lenhart

I enjoy watching Perry republicans and rabid Texas dems choking together in unison over the prospect of Cruz as a Presidential candidate. You would think the guy had stolen their precious senate seat out from under them. Nothing would please me more than to see Ted Cruz run for President.


96 posted on 12/15/2014 9:32:26 AM PST by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: Norm Lenhart

Concern trolls are concerned about Ted Cruz, Norm.


97 posted on 12/15/2014 9:33:47 AM PST by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: IAmDiversity

A lot of advisers are hired guns. They have a skill and access to knowledge that successful candidates need to co-opt in order to run a national campaign.


98 posted on 12/15/2014 9:42:38 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
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To: IAmDiversity; TADSLOS; Norm Lenhart; SoConPubbie; catfish1957; All

” I just wish Cruz wasn’t a Bush man. “

Well Concern Troll....you just signed up to post this drivel??


99 posted on 12/15/2014 10:52:18 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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To: TADSLOS; Norm Lenhart; SoConPubbie; catfish1957; All

IAmDiversity 12/14/2014

SNIFF...................


100 posted on 12/15/2014 10:54:03 AM PST by stephenjohnbanker (The only people in the world who fear Obama are American citizens.)
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