Rush’s math is WAY off. He’s “forgetting” that we are talking about votes that shifted, not voters that simply did not show up.
For instance, if Rubio had beaten Carson by 10 votes all it would take to create that ten vote gap is 5 voters switching from Carson to Rubio. That would lower Carson by 5 and increase Rubio by 5, creating a 10 vote gap.
In other words, if Rush had done his math right, it would have shown Carson was potentially in range of a third place finish. No wonder Carson is still mad.
The math is different, but it is also possible that this dirty trick is what put Cruz over Trump.
This is NOT the minor little thing Rush is trying to make it. It very well may have changed the whole dynamics coming out of Iowa.
Speaking of Rush’s math being off....wasn’t it just the day after that Rush suggested CRuz give Carson a couple of delegates? That would’ve put Trump as the delegate leader/winner of IA.
No, it is not possible that this put Cruz over Trump. Cruz beat Trump by about 6,200 votes. Carson got about 17,400 votes (9% - which met or exceeded his pre-caucus polling numbers). In order for the Carson rumors to have put Cruz over Trump, that means that around 23,600 people would have had to enter the caucus intending to vote for Carson, and that 6,200 switched their votes to Cruz. 23,600 votes would have put Carson at 13%, well above his pre-caucus polling (and well above his entrance polls, too). And that is assuming that EVERY voter who was affected by the rumors switched from Carson to Cruz (and not to some other candidate)
There is simply zero evidence that any voters were swayed by the Carson rumor, much less 6,000+ voters.