Posted on 02/06/2016 4:27:51 PM PST by spintreebob
He won Iowa for one reason: He excelled among people who described themselves as very conservative.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Good lord....these people need to get a life.
Cruz won Iowa because he campaigned hard for it. Good for him.
We’ll see how he does in New Hampshire, which is another obscure, quirky, state with an OPEN primary. So it’s not really an accurate reflection of Republican voters. It is a reflection of who’s machine can turn out voters to affect the other side in a negative way.
So, I would say that you can expect the number of voters for the democRATS will be lower than they will be for the Republicans, and I suspect that Bush and Kaisich will pick up significant support of those democRATS who cross over to give Killery an easier track in the general elections.
The ones who say it can't win are usually the same who are embarrassed by it.
Unfortunately, in the big scheme of the election, perception matters more than the explanations contained in the links that you have provided here and in numerous other threads. The media is not going to be trying to give Ted any boosts along the way... they will continue to dig for dirt. The best thing he can do is run a squeaky clean campaign and work on his ground game as he did in Iowa.
But most importantly Cruz and Trump need to call a truce; leave the name calling and digging in the dirt to the media and the Democrats. They will do more than enough of that to keep everyone happy. If Free Republic is any indication there are many people who vacillate between the two. No matter how much fun it may seem to be... insulting the candidates or their followers is just a bad and counterproductive idea. I know that I am guilty as charged, but I am trying to reform myself. ; )
3 things in politics:
Money,
People,
the Brains to know what to do with them.
Conservatives/libertarians have always had money and people.
They have lacked the third in presidential races and in many lesser races. So far, Cruz comes the closest to knowing what to do with money and people.
Reagan didn’t promise revenge because he was more interested in restoration.
I remember how Cruz took the election for his seat in Texas, and also that was attributed to his throughness. I think that is a great credential for an executive. Go Cruz!
Point taken. But I think it is next to impossible to compare Donald Trump’s record with his current rhetoric without drawing insults. Still, your advice is worth keeping in mind as the race heats up...and it has a long way to go before reaching maximum temperature!
This is a death match between Trump and Rubio!
If either spend their time going after Cruz, (using the "victim" hammer) they waste their one opportunity to strike a knock one another out, they will lose!!!
TC had that - and I'm hoping he has more than expected in NH. At this point TC is the most interesting of them all.
A man who places principles over interest and that makes him unique.
I put zero faith in Iowa and New Hampshire. They are too quirky.
From my perspective I am OK with Trump or Cruz. And by the time my state has a closed primary, my vote will matter little. The race for the nomination will have been decided long before then.
So I’m just hoping that either one or both of them can manage to hold of the GOPe side.
I understand how you feel, why you feel that way and why it is difficult to make your point without coming across in a way that some people will find offensive. It really is up to the candidates to set the tone. This race is going to run its course and we will have a much better idea how it is going to end up within the next month or so.
It is an interesting debate so far tonight... I think that Cruz is making a very good showing.
Iowa will be Cruz’s only win except for maybe Texas (assuming he has not dropped out by then).
The CNN anchors were talking about Carson dropping out after another CNN reporter sent out a tweet saying Carson had clarified and was not dropping out. Response is not instantaneous, but so what?
A caucus is a public event; every candidate should have had a representative to speak on his behalf, so whatever Cruz’s representative said about Carson could have been instantly refuted by Carson’s representative, which is exactly what happened with Carson’s wife. The idea that this is a Big Evil Plan perpetrated by Cruz’s people is just silly.
.. The idea that this is a Big Evil Plan perpetrated by Cruz’s people is just silly....
Who said it was an evil plan? It was spontaneous gross incompetence.
It was an indication of lack of control of campaign workers that possibly irreparably damaged the Carson campaign. That cannot be denied. The communications with the precinct captains happened after Carson denied he was dropping out. Indefensible by any standard.
You seem to think that Cruz’s people could do whatever they wanted, while Carson’s people were totally helpless to do anything about it. This simply was not the case. All Carson’s people had to do was say, “No, he hasn’t dropped out, that’s ridiculous.” Why would people who had intended to vote for Carson believe a Cruz supporter knows more about Carson’s campaign than the person who was there to speak for Carson?
If you want to argue that Carson’s representatives were so incompetent they would take the word of someone else that Carson had dropped out, so be it, but in that case any damage done was entirely due to Carson’s incompetent representatives, because they had so little faith in their own guy that they’d take someone else’s word on something like that.
And while I am glad to hear you don’t agree, lots of people have said it was an evil (sinister, etc.) plan. I don’t think it was at all planned on Cruz’s side myself, but I do think there was “spontaneous gross incompetence” on Carson’s. As one of the reporters said on CNN that night, no one who is serious about the presidential campaign would have announced they were heading home just then.
Good observation. I would add that nothing takes the place of hard work and Cruz pours his heart into it.
.. Carson’s people had to do was say, “No, he hasn’t dropped out, that’s ridiculous.†Why would people who had intended to vote for Carson believe a Cruz...
You must have missed it in tha debate tonight when Carson said they did exactly that, that he had not dropped out. And the 1500 precinct captains got notified after that.
Why would anyone at a Caucus not believe that a Cruz Precinct captain was wrong when they a announced that a candidate dropped out as the voting was taking place?
Doesn’t Cruz promote his campaign as being truthful? Why would they think a United States Senators Presidential campaign would be saying anything serious like this at a Caucus during voting would be anything but the truth?
Yes, Cruz works hard and works smart.
But the only way Cruz wins the primary, and even more so the general, is if Team Cruz grows with activists who get their friends and neighbors to vote.
Those friends and neighbors are neither liberal nor conservative. They are watching American Idol and the ball game. They are busy with work, church, family. Team Cruz must get them to vote for Cruz...or Cruz loses.
That is also true of all Republican candidates, of course. the difference is that Cruz is the only one with a serious ground game...allegedly.
BUT
I’m in Ga of the SEC primary, the big one. I’ve been trying to find the Cruz campaign in GA and cannot find it. You’d think the Cruz website would give you a Georgia and South Carolina and Alabama contact. But no. The website is devoid of content.
The website asks you to fill in your name, email, zip code. But that is only used to send pleas for email. I’m averaging 7 a day now from Cruz (3 per day from Carson and 3 from Rubio, nothing from the others).
So where is this great Cruz ground game?
Yes, Cruz works hard and works smart.
But the only way Cruz wins the primary, and even more so the general, is if Team Cruz grows with activists who get their friends and neighbors to vote.
Those friends and neighbors are neither liberal nor conservative. They are watching American Idol and the ball game. They are busy with work, church, family. Team Cruz must get them to vote for Cruz...or Cruz loses.
That is also true of all Republican candidates, of course. the difference is that Cruz is the only one with a serious ground game...allegedly.
BUT
I’m in Ga of the SEC primary, the big one. I’ve been trying to find the Cruz campaign in GA and cannot find it. You’d think the Cruz website would give you a Georgia and South Carolina and Alabama contact. But no. The website is devoid of content.
The website asks you to fill in your name, email, zip code. But that is only used to send pleas for email. I’m averaging 7 a day now from Cruz (3 per day from Carson and 3 from Rubio, nothing from the others).
So where is this great Cruz ground game?
Why would anyone at a Caucus not believe that a Cruz Precinct captain was wrong when they a announced that a candidate dropped out as the voting was taking place?
If a candidate drops out, then his own people are the ones who would know about it first, so why should I take the word of someone else? Flip it around -- suppose Carson's people had stood up and said Cruz had dropped out. How many Cruz voters would find that statement credible? None of them, that's how many. Nor would Cruz's representatives let that statement stand.
Carson's own people found this rumor credible enough they didn't seriously challenge it until Carson's wife showed up. That's the truly damning evidence of the night -- that Carson's own people weren't sure.
Did Cruz's people jump to conclusions? Yes, they did. But those conclusions were perfectly credible, because Carson's own people believed them. Cruz's people may have heard what they wanted to hear, but not the same thing as deliberately trying to trick people when you know better.
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