Free Republic

... "In my experience the Cruz organizational effort here in Iowa is unrivaled,"...

Donald Trump has defended Vladimir Putin after a British public inquiry found the Russian president "probably" sanctioned the assassination of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in London. Mr Trump waded into the case saying he had seen "no evidence" of Mr Putin's involvement, adding: "They say a lot of things about me that are untrue too." The front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination has previously said he felt a "great honour" when Mr Putin praised him as an "absolute leader". .. But Mr Trump told Fox Business: "Have they found him (Mr Putin) guilty? I don't think they've found him guilty....

... And that brings us back to the key question of whether America wants to be great again, trusted by its allies, feared by its enemies, and safe at home. Because if so, voters need to ask not who channels their rage the best, but who has the courage and the competence to roll back Obama's policies. How can Rubio, who supported some of Obama's most devastating policies, or Trump who has no coherent policies, be expected to do what needs to be done? Through Ted Cruz's willingness to match his words with his deeds, and do what he believes...

As an influential evangelical Iowan, Bob Vander Plaats experienced what it was like to be friends with Donald Trump. The New York billionaire invited Vander Plaats and his family to visit New York several times, refusing to allow them to pay to stay at one of his hotels and lavishing kindness. Then Vander Plaats - president of the Family Leader, which is opposed to abortion and gay marriage - decided to endorse Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) for president instead of Trump. On Tuesday, Trump skewered Vander Plaats on Twitter, calling him "phony" and "a bad guy." The attacks came as...

INDEPENDENCE, Iowa - Entering the Iowa homestretch under attack and still overshadowed by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz hit back Monday by painting the billionaire as a phony conservative and evangelical. And he projected confidence that he’ll finish strong in the first test of the 2016 contest next Monday night. He asserted that Trump supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and 'Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine.' And he launched a coordinated effort to portray Trump as a 'New York liberal.'...

... Here's where the candidates are, and this reflects the size of their operations on the ground in Iowa. Note that all the candidates will be in Des Moines on the 28th for the Fox News GOP debate. TRUMP ... Trump can pull together a rally in practically any size arena and fill it, and bring staffers to the event with very little notice. All he needs is an airport. Notably, his GOTV online caucus-finder is smooth, easy to use, and very competently done. None of the other candidates have this feature (they should). It's yet to be seen how...

QuinnipiacA new survey of likely Republican Caucus participants shows presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are in a dead heat in Iowa...

... And before Cruz's campaign event -- he addressed the media and KWWL's Shirley Descorbeth asked him about this. "Senator...last week Governor Terry Branstad said Iowans shouldn't vote for you...you're against mandates. What's your response to this?" Cruz said, "I'll tell you what I'm hearing from the women and men of Iowa. It's not that we need a deal maker to surrender more on our principles...its rather we want and deserve a consistent conservative." While addressing supporters -- he was more direct. "So , I think there should be no subsidies, no mandates...no nothing. It should be a fair and...

WATCH: The end of the Cruz/Trump bromance is a good thing (video)...

Don then questioned if Ted Cruz was going to be around longterm and that's when I showed him this interview from Oct 17th which someone still has under 1000 views on youtube. There are two things worth noting concerning this interview it to understand them you need to see the RCP polling from that day...

... I cite these precedents as reasons why I'm giving the analysis I'm giving, and sticking with it despite the latest public opinion polls. That analysis is this -- the same people who typically vote in the caucuses will likely decide the outcome of this one. And in that case the best organization wins -- and the best organization belongs to Ted Cruz...

... The spot also features a clip of Trump knocking Iowa voters during a campaign rally when he said, "How stupid are the people of Iowa?"...

Monday is the beginning of National School Choice Week, featuring over 16,000 organized events across the country, an attempt to take on the anti-choice progressive left in America, the Democrat Party that prefers a government monopoly in the nation's school system in order to continue brainwashing children with their godless and anti-American Marxist ideology. Constitutional conservative presidential candidate Ted Cruz, a long proponent of school choice in America, came out with a video both celebrating and supporting school choice on Monday - calling it the "civil rights issue of the 21st century."...

As one of the 22 co-founders of the national tea party movement, I am concerned over the fact that our nation has moved away from the principles of liberty we were founded on. I have been an activist fighting for conservative principles since 1976, so I reject individuals and publications that try to tell me what conservatism is. I have watched over the years as we have allowed deep pocketed special interests to set the agenda in Washington D.C. instead of we the people. These special interests gain support for their agenda, by even principled conservatives, using their millions of...

GOP front-runner Donald Trump says establishment Republicans are warming up to his presidential bid because they're terrified of Ted Cruz being the party's nominee...

"How many times can you have a baseball bat taken to your rib cage by a gang that have "GB" on their jerseys before you stand up for yourself?" ~ Andrew Breitbart, 2011

Maquoketa, Iowa (CNN)The tail end of Ted Cruz's stump speech Monday was half preacher's pulpit, half standup comedy hour. Ending his stump speech here at the Jackson County Fairgrounds, Cruz, as always, encouraged Iowans to pray and cited his dose of Scripture -- 2 Corinthians 7:14. "We are standing on the promises of Second Corinthians, 7:14," he said in the eastern Iowa town, before an untimely interruption. "Two Corinthians!" a man shouted from the third row...

Cruz slams 'partisan' media: 'Go over the head of the media...straight to the American people'...

he results of a political poll are deep and complex. We tend to boil them down very simply though, because most of the time we’re polling two-way, winner-take-all elections. Those races are generally zero-sum games between the candidates. The Iowa Caucuses however are as far from a two-way winner-take-all election as you can get. They’re a multi-way contest with proportional results. So the usual heuristics for reading polls are wrong. Contrary to rumor. Ted Cruz is not on the decline in Iowa, and has held steady for almost two months...

... Of course, you have probably figured out by now that this story isn't about Ted Cruz at all. It's about Donald Trump. I just changed the name in the passage from Trump to Cruz - to make a point...