Posted on 05/04/2016 4:56:00 AM PDT by Magnatron
“Nor was Cruz’s stump piece the equal of Trump’s. Cruz delivered a stream of applause lines. Trump ad-libs about the news of the day. He is interesting and lively and gets far more media coverage as a result. “Trump talks about things that matter to people,” a Republican consultant says. Cruz stressed ideology.” - Fred Barnes
I suspect the status quo pundits are half-relieved, because Cruz was not popular with them either. I would expect them to be critical of Cruz, and might hope that people temper their distrust of the status quo, as it criticizes Cruz, and that change of heart (on the part of the readers) can be taken advantage of as the status quo now aims its guns at Trump.
Long way of saying I am not surprised at criticism of Cruz. NRO will likely criticize him too.
Cruz put together what could have been a successful rope-a-dope campaign against Jeb! and the rest of the GOPe, which would have been the most logical campaign to prepare for.
OTOH, Trump is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon that no one could have prepared for. it may well be that the most surprised person about his success in this campaign happens to be The Donald himself, though he would never admit it—only people like Schumer publicly crow when they do better than they thought they would.
What went wrong with Cruz is exposure.
People got to know him a bit better. He really is just not a very nice man, and listening to him makes you cringe. I think the whole nasty business he pulled with Dr. Carson was key.
First OFF................
.......Ya start by being a NATURAL BORN CITIZEN.
That would have helped a lot.
And it worked...imagine that.
"It may well be that the most surprised person about his success in this campaign happens to be The Donald himself..."
I really believe this, too. I'm certain that Trump entered this thing almost on a lark, with no intention of getting too far. It would explain his lack of preparedness on many of the issues. But then it took off, and I'm sure he was surprised and said: "Well, looky what happened here!"
He was supposed to be 9 years a citizen in order to be a senator...and he wasn’t. He’s only been a citizen for a year and a half.
And he isn’t ‘natural born’ to qualify as president.
I’m glad he’s out of the race.
I hope he has a good life...outside of American politics.
Yes, I agree, I think there are a lot of us that just could not accept Cruz as a candidate, especially after the Obama disaster; Article II,I,5 matters!
"Landslide". "Stunning." "Shocking". Overused, inflated online words losing meaning these days.
In all fairness, CNN is partial to blame for the Carson escapade, and Ted did apologize to Ben in public, on stage during the second or third debate.
Trump’s ad libs about the news of the day are no more substantive than a bunch of old ladies gossiping about their neighbors.
I don't think so. He's done this before, so sort of knew the ropes, and knew he screwed up by working through a minor political party. He's been asked about running for decades. If this was a lark, why use the GOP/RNC machine?
He has also consistently talked about the incompetence and corruption in politics.
He was in it to win it, this time.
I think he's surprised by many things on the way, including the sudden drop out of Cruz, who had appeared to be determined to stay in until the convention.
Barnes is writing in big politcal brush strokes. In a 24/7 blogosphere world, it’s the moment after moment video, reporting that makes the big difference.
When Cruz declared as a candidate, he was awesome. On paper. Then as he started to campaign there were things that bothered me. The “we lost our health insurance due to Obamacare” (ooops...we are good...wife has coverage thru her work at Goldman Sachs. WHAT?
Then I learned more. Wife, Heidi Cruz, was promoted AFTER he was elected Senator. And along the way they took a million (totally forgettable “loan” from GS—around the time she was on the Committee for Foreign Relations and they were modeling a North American Union)...the soccer balls and teddy bears at the boarder w/Beck...but I still wanted to believe. Until...
TPP, The Corker Bill, the H1B Visa bills, on and on and on...and I really started under standing Trump. In plain language and what he wants to do. That Trump want a politician, he didn’t need to take the risk, spend his money and time, but there he was saying what needed to be said.
My last straw and absolute turn against Cruz (I don’t think I could ever vote for him in the future either) was the night of the mini riot in Chicago. PAID anarchists and stupid college “kids”’shut down the 1st Amendment. Cruz was giving a campaign speech at a Lincoln Day Dinner, the media caught him in the lobby for an impromptu press conference.
Cruz, who memorized the Comstitution in his teens, said about 8 words defending 1A...then, unscripted and “real” went into about a five minute “preacher mode” smack down of Trump and how HE caused the riots with his violent rhetoric. His demeanor before the cameras was giddy (I posted that word here on FR over and over that night). Giddy, jolly, thrilled that Trump had been shut down. Stopped. What 1A? Who cares “I’m THE candidate now!”
And I was done with Cruz. It’s whats done when NOT planned, scripted or rehearsed. There no handlers there to say “tone it down Ted” so the REAL man appeared.
No thanks.
Either Cruz has been a naturalized citizen since birth, when his mother registered his birth with American consul in Canada, or since his father became a naturalized citizen — or else he is not a citizen at all. He didn’t just automatically become a US citizen by giving up his Canadian citizenship. There is a process that all foreigners have to go through to become US citizens, including Canadians.
Since Cruz has a US passport, he is a US citizen. You cannot get a passport without proving your citizenship, which means since his birth certificate showed a Canadian birth, he had to submit proof that he had been naturalized at some point.
Cruz is most definitely a US Citizen, but he is naturalized, not natural born, and not even native born. His candidacy, like Obama’s, was founded on a lie.
It is a good article. Leaves out what I think is Ted’s worst problem (his personality). Perhaps Inside the Beltway types can’t see his problem since it may be common there, but he reminds me of sick friends and relatives I have.
Trump is a Truman Democrat. By today's standards, that's closer to conservative than anything the GOPe or the Democrats present. Trump's election will be a step in the right direction, in both senses of "right," but Trumanism isn't conservatism by any ideological definition.
As one who supported Cruz precisely because of his ideological stance, I can see that Trump presents to his audiences what they are looking for, someone who is the political equivalent of The Cable Guy: "Make America Great Again" is the national political equivalent of "Git 'R Dun."
He has my support and my vote. It is not like 1933 Germany where the only choices are Hitler and Thalmann, the Nazi and the Marxist: we know the other side will put up a Marxist, and we know the other side will paint Trump as the Nazi, but he is no Nazi. It is just that Trump is no ideological conservative either; that would be Cruz, and the voters did not choose Cruz. Vox populi vox Dei.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.