Posted on 01/08/2016 4:58:10 PM PST by VinL
Is it unfair to put a question mark in that headline? Cruz fans will say, "What's so surprising about it?!"
But look, it is surprising. A politician's favorable rating is typically treated as a measure of his personal likability, and Cruz is not known as a guy to whom people easily take a shine the way they do to, say, Ben Carson or Marco Rubio.
Cruz is aware of this too, cleverly joking at the CNBC debate on October 29th that he might not be the candidate you'd most like to have a beer with but he'll get you home safe if you let him be your designated driver.
His endless grandstanding can be off putting even to people who agree with him on policy up and down the line. People who don't agree with him on policy, from the left all the way over to centrists in the GOP, tend to treat his name as a curse word.
The 2013 effort to defund ObamaCare and ensuing shutdown continues to look more like an early campaign commercial for Cruz than a fully baked strategy to accomplish the stated goal. He can be hard to like, but that only makes these numbers more impressive.
It takes an unusually deft politician to overcome a likability problem so thoroughly that he's topping even a candidate with easy charm like Rubio on a metric like this.
Rich Lowry has a smart piece out this week arguing that, for all the hype, Cruz is less a rigid ideologue like Barry Goldwater than he is a shrewd if personally awkward maneuverer like Richard Nixon. There's something to that...snip.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
>> I hear C. Edmund got the zot.... any truth to that?
Suspended, at least. Maybe zotted.
Bummer! Wonder why. I didn’t agree with him 100% but I appreciated his comments and insight.
Yes and they may well do so. But lets not forget that at this point in the 12 cycle, no one was gonna vote for the Aborted Baby Chef. And then suddenly, they did.
Exactly-that’s why he’ll win, and why he’s winning in Iowa!
You really don't get the Christian Right, do you? If they like him, they'll double their ranks of voters. Their ability to network outside of the MSM, and put volunteers on the ground *anywhere* makes them incredibly formidable- y'all haven't seen a full on Conservative uprising in a long time. TEA Party loves him... the Christians love him... all it takes now are the military, and I really can't see them voting for anyone else.
See, the thing 'up-the-middle' folks don't get is that we don't need to go up the middle. There are way more votes in the disaffected Right. There really is no counter-balance to the Christians if they come out hard.
And for the first time, in a long time, it looks like they will come out for a candidate that the rest of the Conservatives will come out for too. If the three legs of Conservatism come together on Cruz, there will be nothing you can do to stop it.
What is this insanity about Ted Cruz not being likable, or being awkward? I attended one of his first Senate campaign events where 10 or more candidates spoke to a crowded Republican club event. I liked every candidate who spoke, but it was his name I remembered and who stuck with me afterward. The rest were lost in the crowd.
A little later, I was running for office in 2012 when Cruz was running for his senate seat. I heard him speak numerous times on the campaign trail. I also attended his events as a supporter. He’s very likable, witty, lighthearted and passionate by turns. And, he’s always brilliant. What more could we ask for in a candidate?
What more could we ask for in a president?
They need to also ask the respondents how important likeability is to them during this election. With the anger in this country, likability may be a low priority.
However, I agree, Cruz is the most likable of all the GOP candidates.
Don’t count your chickens.....I am to the right of Genghis Khan some say, am a dyed in the wool Christian, and a Tea Party member, and I am voting for Trump!Ted Cruz turns me off big time. He is just another politician, has never worked in the real world, and has sold out America on more than one vote.
What more could we ask for in a president?
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Someone who puts AMERICA FIRST!
Agree with a lot of your post. The thing is, McConnell, Ryan, Graham, McCain, etc., are all about stabbing conservatives in the back, then saying "conservatives can't win." They KNOW a true conservative can win. Reagan proved it. They funded Planned Parenthood in the budget because they wanted to. I have no idea what was going through their heads when they provided funding to bring in 300,000 Islamists, but the point is, they did that, then sent bills they knew Obama would veto to defund PP, so they could tell conservatives, "see, we tried." People act like Karl Rove was some kind of genius, but Rove hated the Swift Boat Vets, and Bush would have lost without them.
People were afraid to endorse McCain, cause every time a conservative endorsed him, McCain attacked him.
The GOPe will do everything they can to kill Cruz or Trump, best case, get Jeb in, Rubio acceptable to them. That's why I won't say anything bad about Cruz or Trump.
If Rubio or Bush wins, we continue our slow spiral. If Hillary wins, we see a Muslim invasion with the Feds protecting mosques and telling us to be tolerant.
Well then, I, and everyone I know are farther right than you. I have yet to meet a supporter of Trump IRL, and no Christian I know would touch him with a 10' pole.
It's just a temporary suspension. But one more strike and he's out: http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/3380952/posts?page=207#207
McCain is an avowed enemy of every Conservative, out of his own mouth. Even with Palin bolted on, maybe half of my friends voted for them (I did not).
Romney tried to woo the Christians - but the focus was on his Mormon faith (which is a somewhat legit thing), but his long support for gays, abortion, and outright communism were the problem here - That may be different than elsewhere... We've a lot of Mormons hereabouts, and while there are differences, they are considered to be an upright people, and only some would have had problems voting for a Conservative Mormon. Almost no one I know voted for him, to include me.
Even Dubya - I pulled the lever for him, but I didn't want to. And quite a few of my friends stayed out.
There really hasn't been anything to stir the Christian vote in a long, long time. I think that folks are going to be mighty surprised if they rise up for real. In fact, jaw-dropped-on-the-floor-stunned.
This is as close as we've been in a long, long time. Pray hard.
For the longest time it was Ben Carson.
My mom likes Rubio, I liked him before he went after Cruz, who is not my favorite, FWIW.
Not many, from that I read.
I’ve read that they are registering so they can vote for Trump.
Article from Dec 19- maybe things have changed now-
Donald Trump Campaign Lags in Mobilizing Iowa Caucus Voters
Not sure how a conservative can like a guy that joined the Gang of 8 to push amnesty.
9 short weeks to Super Tuesday! The mystery will be over soon!
Yeah right. 2 months ago Ben Carson had the highest favorable s too - just more media manipulation
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