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Ted Cruz Isn't Triumphing with Conservatism Because Presidential Elections...
The Rush Limbaugh Show ^ | 4/27/2016 | Rush Limbaugh

Posted on 04/27/2016 4:29:43 PM PDT by poconopundit

Rush had a conversation with a Cruz supporter today.  [Check the full transcript linked to above on Rush's site.]

The piece is an attempt by Rush to explain why the Cruz campaign has failed. 

I've condensed the points Rush made below.  In his remarks today, Rush also heavily sourced and commented on the ideas of a Rich Danker, a former guy in the Cruz campaign whose article appeared on the April 24th Weekly Standard. 

So here are the Rush/Danekr points followed by my commentary:

  • Presidential elections are situational and not ideological -- This theory helps you understand why the Clintons won twice and why Obama wins.  Obama's not even thought of as a liberal by people who voted for him.

    Sure, Obama's liberal to the hardcore leftists.  But the low-information crowd that elected him didn't think of him that way.  Obama was responding to certain circumstances at the moment like the Iraq war, and he was able to position himself in a situational way and not even have to run as an ideologue.

  • Ideological conservatives are stratching their heads in this election -- For many people [Rush included], ideology is a single focus.  They write about, study it, and try to persuade people to believe it.

    And this year, many of them thought the closest thing to the dream conservative candidate was Ted Cruz.  But his appeal to conservatives has not been as good as you would predict.

  • Cruz has followed the traditional conservative consultant's playbook -- You basically have one stump speech, you give it over and over again.  And the stump speech is regionalized based on focus groups and polling.

    Problem is: instead of the candidate being who he is, a consultant creates a candidate based on the consultants' polling.  And while all this is going on, the candidate never has a chance to develop as a human being, because consultants turn them into robots.

    And you end up slicing and dicing voters so that virtually everything the candidate says is geared toward an interest group rather than the electorate at large.  You're focus-grouping interest groups, you're focus-grouping women here, men over here, immigrants here, Hispanics there, you tailor your message.  Soon or later, this pandering turns people off, it becomes predictable, and worst of all, it isn't believable.

  • Trump's approach is to not get caught up in ideology -- Trump says I'm going to win every state and win over every voter.  I'm gonna do as many public appearances I can.  Every appearance I do is gonna be a bit different, but I'm not going to overly regionalize my positions other than to connect to the local crowd.

    Trump understands that presidential elections are situational, not ideological.  The candidate is the one who best applies their ideological outlook to the issues of the day.

    And rather than announcing at every speech, "And I'm going to make sure that conservative values triumph in this country," you simply stake out your position on an issue that is conservative.  You don't call it conservative.

And here's my own commentary on Rush's points:

  • Don't lead with ideology -- OK, I get the Rush/Danker point about not overly emphasizing ideology.  That makes sense, and Trump has certainly not played up the fact that we should bracket him narrowly as a conservative.  Trump's been more intent on explaining his positions on specific areas and not labeling them as part of any ideology.

  • But what else can Cruz talk about?-- On the other hand, Cruz has zero experience as an executive.  He never served as a governor.  He's been a senator for only a couple years.  And he's had a few years of experience as a lawyer and Soliciter for the state of Texas.  Great.  But boil it own, Cruz has really very little to talk about except his ideology or his position on various issues.

  • Voters are not keyed in on ideology alone, but also the man himself -- The other thing that Rush/Danker seem to miss is the experience and proven capabilities of the candidate.  These guys are only trying to understand Cruz's defeat through the prism of how the message is deliver.  There must be some error in strategy that caused Cruz's message to fail.  Cruz got bad advice: that's why he was rejected.

    However another explanation is that Cruz was not the consistent conservative he claimed to be.  A label like "Lyin' Ted" doesn't stick unless there's some truth to it.

    Plus, when you think of a guy like Reagan or Trump, there's a man of steel behind the words.  Sure, he may modify his position a bit, but he's got a long history of making decisions and maintaining a general philosophy.  For Reagan, it was being Governor or California.  For Trump, it's owning and running a successful $10 billion private enterprise.

    If you take away Trump's experience in the world and his track record as a successful executive and public figure, you're only left with 50% of the value IMO.  Trump's proven ability to execute is key to his appeal.

    And if Cruz sounds "robotic", perhaps it's because voters sense there's not enough of a man behind the candidate.

    And it's this crucial ability to execute that seems totally missing in the Rush/Danker analysis of Cruz's failure.

    I made an attempt to quantitatively factor in the importance of executive experience in an FR vanity: Excel Scoresheet: Who Should Republicans Nominate for President?



TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: donaldtrump; rush; tedcruz
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To: surroundedbyblue

I agree with you and the longer Cruz stays in the more obvious who he really is becomes. I suspect this will cost him when/if he runs for reelection in 2018. It will be much harder for Cruz to pull off his outsider schtick when people see how he comported himself in this election.


21 posted on 04/27/2016 4:56:52 PM PDT by jospehm20
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To: JediJones

Even those of us who saw Cruz as a second choice saw the truth when he took on Neil Bush and the Bush cabal. I was willing to overlook TPA and Coker, but going establishment with the Bush I was not going to overlook.

Blaming Trump and his supporters by siding with BLM and Moveon.org were too much. Since then it has been like reliving the Obama blame Bush game with Cruz. He never speaks but that it is some nasty half truth or lie about Trump.

He is NO conservative. He is a self serving jerk.


22 posted on 04/27/2016 4:58:33 PM PDT by nclaurel
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To: poconopundit

23 posted on 04/27/2016 4:59:31 PM PDT by vikingrinn
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To: poconopundit

Well, the humidity is a killer.....but, hey, we don’t age as fast. :)


24 posted on 04/27/2016 5:05:11 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (<<<<<<< he no longer IS my 'teddy bear'.)
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To: nclaurel
I totally agree.  Early in the campaign, I appreciated Cruz, but now I can no longer stand to listen to him very long because of his Benedict Arnold side.

Self-serving indeed...

25 posted on 04/27/2016 5:05:32 PM PDT by poconopundit (When the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government. Franklin, Const. Conv.)
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To: nclaurel

These rants and exaggerations are tiresome. You could put Trump’s name in there and change some words and it would be as true. What candidate isn’t self-serving by definition of running? What campaign hasn’t bashed the other candidates? A campaign is associated with hundreds of people. You could easily find someone who endorsed or associated with any candidate who is unlikable for some reason.

One thing is unequivocally true, Cruz IS a conservative. Like Rush said, he’s a straight, down-the-line, Reaganesque, ideological conservative.


26 posted on 04/27/2016 5:09:32 PM PDT by JediJones (Looks like those clowns in Congress did it again. What a bunch of clowns.)
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To: A CA Guy

Cruz is dry toast without butter. He’s not likable at all.


Cruz has all the electability of Goldwater, all the likability of Nixon and all the experience of Rubio.


27 posted on 04/27/2016 5:09:45 PM PDT by samtheman (Trump For America.)
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To: JediJones
One thing is unequivocally true, Cruz IS a conservative. Like Rush said, he’s a straight, down-the-line, Reaganesque, ideological conservative.

Well, at least you and Rush have stopped saying Cruz follows the 'original intent' of the Constitution... And neither you or Rush will ever make Cruz a 'natural born' US citizen... Only Cruz's parents could make him a 'natural born' US citizen... but they were citizens of Canada and made Cruz a natural born Canadian.

28 posted on 04/27/2016 5:13:51 PM PDT by Just mythoughts (Jesus said Luke 17:32 Remember Lot's wife.)
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To: smoothsailing
Yeah, should I change my FR name?  Think I'll let that idea simmer for a while.  I've been pretty busy in my 9 to 5 job recently.  Good to see Trump is doing very well on his own, thank you :- )

Can't wait for the battle with Cankles.  I was mighty impressed with Trump's foreign policy speech today.  It was not only "presidential", Trump is acting as if he's President.  He's already filling a leadership vacuum in DC.

29 posted on 04/27/2016 5:14:35 PM PDT by poconopundit (When the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government. Franklin, Const. Conv.)
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To: JediJones
One thing is unequivocally true, Cruz IS a conservative. Like Rush said, he’s a straight, down-the-line, Reaganesque, ideological conservative.

...whom only a few desperate holdouts still like.

30 posted on 04/27/2016 5:16:15 PM PDT by COBOL2Java (Donald Trump, warts and all, is not a public enemy. The Golems in the GOP are stasis and apathy)
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To: Lurkinanloomin
Great.  Lived in the Poconos for 13 years.  People move to the Poconos to get close to nature.  There are plenty of white tailed deer roaming the woods.  Then there's the other form of wild life, Yankee fans!

Six months of winter is rather long.  And that's why my wife was so eager to go south.

31 posted on 04/27/2016 5:19:42 PM PDT by poconopundit (When the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic government. Franklin, Const. Conv.)
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To: poconopundit

Trump is and has been getting a larger percent of evangelical vote
than Cruz.

It is my belief that Trump is getting the “normal” Christians.

Cruz is getting the “snake handlers”.


32 posted on 04/27/2016 5:20:08 PM PDT by tennmountainman ("Prophet Mountainman" Predicter Of All Things RINO...for a small pittance)
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To: poconopundit

This election is a fairytale of sorts in which Trumpelstiltskin has pushed his way to the forefront in this epic fable. Dream or nightmare? Good question.


33 posted on 04/27/2016 5:20:51 PM PDT by luvmysuv
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To: poconopundit
Presidential elections are situational and not ideological -- This theory helps you understand why the Clintons won twice and why Obama wins. Obama's not even thought of as a liberal by people who voted for him.

Sure, Obama's liberal to the hardcore leftists. But the low-information crowd that elected him didn't think of him that way. Obama was responding to certain circumstances at the moment like the Iraq war, and he was able to position himself in a situational way and not even have to run as an ideologue.

Good point and well said.

Cruz has followed the traditional conservative consultant's playbook -- You basically have one stump speech, you give it over and over again. And the stump speech is regionalized based on focus groups and polling.

Problem is: instead of the candidate being who he is, a consultant creates a candidate based on the consultants' polling. And while all this is going on, the candidate never has a chance to develop as a human being, because consultants turn them into robots.

And you end up slicing and dicing voters so that virtually everything the candidate says is geared toward an interest group rather than the electorate at large. You're focus-grouping interest groups, you're focus-grouping women here, men over here, immigrants here, Hispanics there, you tailor your message.

No. Ted Cruz is who he is and there doesn't appear to be much regional or demographic tinkering in his message at all. That may be his problem. Because elections are situational rather than ideological, Ted's constant ideological emphasis doesn't win uncommitted voters over to his side. And no, nobody turned Cruz into robot. That's what happened to Rubio. Any faults Ted has can't be blamed on consultants, except in so far as they couldn't change who he was..

34 posted on 04/27/2016 5:20:52 PM PDT by x
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To: poconopundit

At this time in our history, populism Trumps ideological conservatism.


35 posted on 04/27/2016 5:21:28 PM PDT by Signalman
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To: poconopundit
The most cogent paragraph in the whole piece.

However another explanation [for Cru'z failure] is that Cruz was not the consistent conservative he claimed to be. A label like "Lyin' Ted" doesn't stick unless there's some truth to it.

Vote Trump

36 posted on 04/27/2016 5:25:43 PM PDT by sargon (Cruz should've focused on EARNING people's votes instead of STEALING delegates that represent them.)
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To: sargon

Yep.

Ted Cruz failed, because Ted Cruz is a fraud.


37 posted on 04/27/2016 5:30:15 PM PDT by chris37 (heartless)
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To: poconopundit

Average Americans could care about ideology.

That interests only a certain kind of purist for whom dogma is everything.

Most Americans look for someone who can help them solve their problems - and who understands them.

That person will be our next President - not the one who has satisfied a checklist for the true conservative.

Americans are not big on ideology, for good reason.


38 posted on 04/27/2016 5:33:34 PM PDT by goldstategop ((In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives In My Heart Forever))
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To: poconopundit

I moved from the Pocono area almost 4 years ago...so glad your in warm, nice area...I thought of moving to the South before I decided to move to Utah to be nearer to my family, has worked out fine...

While living in the East for 17 years, I did pick up the ‘say it like it is’ and have used it here a few times...people in Utah aren’t used to the Eastern way of life, I loved it, but love being with my family...

Will get back to you soon...


39 posted on 04/27/2016 5:34:55 PM PDT by HarleyLady27 ('THE FORCE AWAKENS!!!' Trump; Trump; Trump; Trump; 100%)
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To: goldstategop

Like putting pennies in a fuse box.


40 posted on 04/27/2016 5:34:55 PM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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