What Trump Saw and Cruz Did Not

Weekly Standard ^ | 4/26/16 | Rich Danker by way of Bill Kristol

[jalisco555]

From: Rich Danker, Lone Star Committee founder

Date: April 24, 2016

Re: The 2016 Republican race

For those of you who have supported the Lone Star Committee's independent expenditures and operations, I want to give you an overview of what we did, how it contrasted with other organizations' efforts, and most importantly, how and why I believe the race has run its course with Donald Trump besting Ted Cruz as the presumptive GOP nominee. This includes an analysis of Cruz and Trump's respective strategies, especially in the critical early voting states where we played a role.

[central_va]

You are, in a word, an idiot.

[zot]

Thanks for the ping. Yes, this is an excellent analysis of both campaigns.

[boomstick]

Your pithy argument has swayed me.

[central_va]

Your stupidity didn’t sway me either.

[Rockpile]

Zowwee there’s a newsflash. Too bad for him he doesn’t have that charming charisma of a Bernie Sanders.

I have seen Cruz in person when he gave a canned speech locally three years ago. He does not have the delivery or personal appeal to win the big job and should not have run for it.

But you go ahead and join the Lyin Ted/ Devious Don chorus. That will really help beat the Rats.

[webheart]

A way to go down in the history books

Like Barack Hussein Obama, the first black president, the first Muslim president, the first anti-American president...

Trump wants to be in the history books for making America strong. If that is his motivation, and he accomplishes it, I am perfectly fine with him going down in the damn history books.

[RobbyS]

To see Trump as a now old man seeking what he has sought his whole life, fame? I hope that it goes beyond that, that he wants above all to exercise power, but then I have no idea what he really wants to do. Do I take him at his word? I cannot.Do I take him on his principles? What are they?

[RobbyS]

HOW does he propose to make America strong? The foreign policy speech he gave today is totally banal.

[Rashputin]

"But you go ahead and join the Lyin Ted/ Devious Don chorus.""

OMG, everyone on FR should shut the Hell up because saying anything might help out the democrat scum.

Run you mout, da figgers it out, blood !

Throw out your cellphone, rip out your Internet connection, throw your computer in the trash, and sit quietly in the corner until the week before Christmas.

[sargon]

To see Trump as a now old man seeking what he has sought his whole life, fame? I hope that it goes beyond that, that he wants above all to exercise power, but then I have no idea what he really wants to do. Do I take him at his word? I cannot. Do I take him on his principles? What are they?

You've been listening to the demonization of Trump too much.

Donald Trump has lived the American Dream. He's thankful for that and he wants to give back. He loves his country. He's passionate and energetic, and he's universally known in the business world for being a man of his word.

Donald Trump has also said several times in his rallies that this campaign isn't even about him: it's about the American People. Trump talks about how "We're going to bring back jobs", "We're going to help our vets", etc. Donald Trump simply wants to be the voice, the muscle, and the conscience of the American People in Washington DC, and to fight the corrupt, entrenched Uniparty there.

And Donald Trump wants to shake the DC cartel of both parties to their very core. Nothing good can happen in Washington until that happens. And only Donald Trump has the potential to make it a reality.

Please keep your heart and mind open, and keep watching and listening and thinking. Eventually, you'll understand that this Revolution is worth taking a shot at.

God works in mysterious ways, and I believe he may use Donald Trump, an imperfect but sincere and passionate vessel, to accomplish great things for this country.

Look at the vicious hatred and slanted coverage Donald Trump has had to endure. One must be delusional to not see that the entire corrupt Establishment is trying to take this one man down. Why? Because the Uniparty system is corrupt to its core.

Every member of the Uniparty, whether in the majority or the opposition, gets a spot at the feeding trough. The elites continue to benefit while the People get screwed. If Donald Trump gets elected, that ends. At least he's willing to try to end it.

Ted Cruz couldn't possibly do so (if he ever really was interested) because he would be too indebted to his rich and influential and crooked GOPe benefactors.

It's Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, or the Revolution fails.

It's Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, or it's business as usual in Washington DC.

It's Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, or America might miss its last chance to be made great again.

It's Donald Trump as the GOP nominee, or the party splinters, overwhelming voter enthusiasm is destroyed, countless Trump voters stay home, and Hillary Clinton wins in a November landslide.

Vote Trump

[RobbyS]

And you are taking Trump at his word. I have listened to what he said. It is Reaganism without the conservatism. I instinctively mistrust any political figure from the East Coast. The accumulation of wealth there, challenged only by that in the Silicon Valley, makes them think themselves the natural rulers of the United States. Lyndon Johnson was not just paranoid when he raged against the arrogance of the easterners. IMHO, Trump presents the reverse of Genesis: The voice is the voice of Esau, but the hands are the hands of Jacob. The nationalists in the South who supported Trump should look at the irony of recent developments. Cruz has been bumped out of the race by the voters of five blue states where the Republican party in all but one can no more win than the Democrat can win in Texas. Typical is the voice of Peter King, who has never spoken well of any Southern leader, and made no secret of his unhappiness back in 1994 when the Republicans took over Congress. To this I add the voice of Sean Hannity, who despite his sojourn in the South, has never ceased to be a New Yorker.

[sargon]

Cruz has been bumped out of the race by the voters of five blue states where the Republican party in all but one can no more win than the Democrat can win in Texas.

That's the thing though. You see, Ted Cruz was actually bumped out of the race long ago, when he lost almost the entire South except for Texas. These Northeastern states just happened to have occurred at the end of the process. The South happened a while back.

What is the purpose of Ted Cruz choosing a running mate when his campaign is collapsing and it's time to unify the party behind the real nominee?

Vote Trump

[Luircin]

HOW does he propose to make America strong? The foreign policy speech he gave today is totally banal.

***

You mean the policy speech in which he says things that we conservatives have been screaming about for DECADES and have not been addressed until now?

I smell a sleeper troll or a cultist. Exhibit B is your ‘no details’ talking point from the campaigns.

[RobbyS]

Lots of bread in that hamburger but not much beef. Hope and changey stuff.

[Luircin]

*Snort*

Yep, Cruz cultist talking points all right.

[RobbyS]

I don’t even like Cruz. I have no trust in Trump’s abilities or intentions. The last true outsider to win the Republican nomination, before Reagan, was Wendell Wilkie in 1940. look him up.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Maybe he’s going to be appointed ambassador of Fantasia in the next exciting round of Fantasy Cruzball.

[Luircin]

If you don’t like any of the candidates, why are you even here?

Oh right. To troll.

[RobbyS]

I don’t like Cruz. I like Ben Carson. But I support Cruz. I do not dislike Trump, but I do not trust him. He seems to me at bottom a flamboyant New York millionaire who is making promises completely out of line with what he has said in the past and which he may or may not intent to pursue.

[Ancesthntr]

I think, with respect, that you should also look at the political facts. The simplest fact out there is that however much you or I might like Cruz’ stance on the issues (and, I might point out, I donated to his campaign when he declared last March, so I DO like those stances, among others), that’s not going to translate into votes to any great extent outside of the conservative branch of the Republican Party. He is, as much as I like his positions, an ideologue - and those generally don’t get elected (Obama being the biggest exception to that rule).

Trump is bringing in indies and even some Dems, people who used to be called Reagan Democrats. He’s doing that because he is a nationalist, he wants to protect this country first, economically, culturally and militarily. If he does those things, then the social issues will come along for the ride eventually. The change in this nation from a generally moral country to what we are now (on average) took several decades, and NO ONE is going to fix that in a couple of terms in office. It will require a massive turn-around in the economy and our place in the world for people to understand that the traditional values that made us a great nation, a superpower, STILL WORK, and should be strengthened instead of made fun of (like the libs do).

We’re essentially on the same page, but we clearly differ on the best means to get to our common goals IN THE SHORT RUN. IMHO, Cruz can’t make it in November, not with the current climate. But let Trump be a table-setter for a real conservative, and then we’ll be cooking with gas. That, plus Cruz will have another 8 years in which to gain experience, accomplishments, favors owed to him and some gravitas (it goes with gray hair, of which he hasn’t got any yet).

Trump is, again IMHO, a necessary 2nd best - with emphasis on “necessary.” We’re in the midst of a breakdown of society, led by a bunch of academic/government theoreticians who’ve probably never nailed two pieces of wood together. They hate this country, and the results prove it. Right now we need the opposite...but people won’t swallow the diametrically opposite - they’ll take a man of real world experience who unabashedly loves his nation, and see what he’s capable of. If that works out, the public will, IMHO, be much more ready to accept the social end of the conservative policy repertoire.

YMMV, but again, I believe that we’re on the same side and only disagree as to short term means.