Discussion for article #247070
Republicans have a long history of deciding that whoever finished second the last (competitive) time around should get the nomination next time: Reagan (second in '76, first in '80), Bush Sr. (second in '80, first in '88), Dole (second in '88, first in '96), McCain (second in '00, first in '08), Romney (second in '08, first in '12). Finishing as the runner-up to Trump sets Cruz up nicely for 2024 (when heāll only be 53 on election day) or even 2020 (if Trump loses or has a disastrous first term, as seems likely). It sets him up nicely enough that I imagine heād prefer that sort of coronation in the next cycle to having the Republican nominee (if not him) win this time around and make him wait longer.
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this all seems emblematic of the Republican Party over the last 8 yearsā¦ whatās best for the party, instead of the Country, firstā¦
then whatās best for the individual instead of the partyā¦ inculcated with a complete lack of ideas or coherent policy ideasā¦
itās really very sad to see the disintegration of the Republican Party and the partyās complete failure to recognize the macro vision of the well being of the Country by being so focused on the micro vision of illusory āpowerāā¦
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C-section Born Cruz should campaign vigorously in Southern Florida and Miami. He should take his father who was a henchman and enforcer for the Castros with him to appeal to the Miami Little Havana community.
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Two Senators (and crappy candidates in the bargain) who personify the GOPās obstructionism in DC over the past several years are losing badly to Donald Trump. What a surprise.
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Looking at it from my librul bias, you donāt really have much of a choice.
Either you go with the loudmouth bully who isnāt as smart as he thinks he is, or the aw shucks evil snake of a bully who isnāt as dumb as he pretends to be.
Or Rubio, who is almost literally a puppet.
If I were a Republican, Iād go with the puppet. You know what youāre in for, at least.
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Typical Ferengi actions. Motivated by pure greed. Their feeling is: its not enough that I win, everyone else must fail.
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All great points. Although I foresee one potential problem. Cruz is an ultra hard right destroyer of all things; a selfish little divider universally reviled in the beltway. With the anti-establishment ethos ascendant this election cycle, if he wants the presidency, his time is now. Thereās no predicting what it will be like in 4-8 years, especially if another anti-establishment candidate like Trump gets in, destroys the country, and the public decides it wants nothing further to do with right wing demagogues.
The common thread I see in all the second-in-line candidates you mentioned is that they were all moderates waiting their turn, all had the blessing of the establishment. Cruz does not. Heās well positioned right now to earn the establishment nod as the candidate-not-Trump. Heāll need to capitalize on that once in a lifetime alignment. Because to maintain his tea party cred as a senator for at least another 4 years where heās up for re-election in '18, heāll have to sustain his strategy of alienation and isolation in congress. If the GOP even survives this whole Trump saga intact, hardly guaranteed, the next time around you can be sure theyād make provisions to circumvent someone like Trump or Cruz before they could get off the ground. In other words, Cruz not only canāt count on their blessing next time, but nor can he count on them for anything but doing everything in their power to undermine him. He probably recognizes this is his moment and heās got to go for broke.
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Spot-on, I think.
Drumpfās divide-and-conquer strategy of goading the other candidates into staying in the race via insulting them to get out is working wondersā¦
Heās going to get nominated yet quite possibly never win a majority in any state primary or caucus.
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Letās face it, if Carnival Cruz were a humble team player, he wouldnāt be running at all.
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Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see the Republicans dissolve like an Alka Seltzer tablet. Iām loving the plop plopping and fizz fizzing!
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In addition to agreeing with every word here, let me add that the same calculus applies to any attempt to make Cruz participate in a contested convention. I think his brains have been oversold a bit, but heās damn sure smart enough not to walk into a convention thinking the Establishment would do him any favors.
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Cruz is running to be the leader of a rump GOP or a new extreme right/evangelical splinter party. And thereās always the chance that lightning will strike and Trump will somehow crater (or just fall ill and be unable to complete his run). Cruz has no love for the GOP establishment, never has, and is angling to be the leader of whatever succeeds them as champions of the right leaning down-and-outers.
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Iām no Cruz supporter, but it is perfectly his right to try to best his competitors any way he can during this primary. He is aware that no one in the party is eager to nominate him, yet he has been popular with voters in many states. Why should he try to solve the RNCās problems before his own?
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All of this belies one very important thing about the GOP battle royal in a cage fight for the nomination; Trump is completely and totally unpresidential. This is something many of us believe to be true (including people from all sides of the political spectrum). With that acknowledged ā¦ Cruz and Rubio are every bit as unpresidential as Trump. This ā¦ is something most staunch conservative GOPers donāt get at all. Theyāre running around like mad fools right now thinking one of these two is going to be some sort of āreasonable alternativeā to Trump. That is some scary s***!!
And finally, thereās Gov. Kasich ā¦ by comparison he looks the like the most reasonable choice for GOPers who are on the fence but first, Kasich isnāt getting any traction at all and even if he was ā¦ his record both in Congress and as Governor of Ohio paint a very stark picture of a politician who is anything but moderate.
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Exactly. Trumpās no more extreme than any of the others*. In fact, he appears to base his positions on his day-to-day whims, which makes him slightly less extreme than everyone else because thereās at least a one-in-a-million chance that heāll take a policy position that differs from that of hardline conservatism.
*fascist undertones and unabashed racism notwithstanding.
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Rubbish. The GOP needs no push to the extreme. Joe McCarthy set the table for Reagan and the Bush crime family long ago.
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All of these people have gotten to their current positions by acting against the longtem interests of their party and their country. Why stop now?
Two Senators (and crappy candidates in the bargain) who personify the GOPās obstructionism in DC over the past several years are losing badly to Donald Trump. What a surprise.
And they continue to obstruct during the primary, stamping their feet and yelling to get their way. Thatās the same obstructionism.
From what I see, no matter who wins, it will ā or should ā change the Republican party significantly. Their worst took the spots: a senator none of the other Republicans like, a senator who doesnāt show for work/votes, a governor who destroyed the economy of Louisiana, a neurosurgeon who seems to have lost touch on reality, a multi-failed CEOā¦
And now the last loser is allegedly planning to get involved: Karl Rove plotting to make Mitt Romney president? * WorldNetDaily * by Jerome R. Corsi ANother unviable candidate who at least looks sane.
Kasich, as much as I dislike him, is at least a viable candidate for their beliefs, as Huntsman was last round. But that no longer matters. Theyāve trained their rank-and-file voters to reposnd to people like Limbaugh who seem to actually say things, no matter how odious or nonsensical those things are.
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