Ted Cruz Can’t Beat Donald Trump Because He’s Scared Sh*tless Of Him
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On the heels of one poll that shows Ted Cruz leading in Iowa, out of a sea of other polls showing Donald Trump beating everyone’s drawers off, the media is once again trying to concoct a threat to Trump’s supremacy. Chuck Todd even went so far as to call Cruz the “invisible frontrunner,” and to theorize that Cruz’ supporters are more likely to show up and caucus for him than Donald Trump’s.
It’s true that Cruz is surging in all the polls, but he’s still being crushed by Trump nationally, and is losing by 13 points in Iowa according to the latest CNN/ORC poll. The media is so desperate not to admit that Trump’s brand of racism and barbarism is genuinely popular with Republicans that they have leapt onto Cruz’s ascendancy with both feet, and are trying to will him into slaying the beast.
There are several problems with this, not the least of which is that Cruz’s gains have largely been at Ben Carson‘s expense, not Trump’s. Still, the theory goes that Cruz now has momentum, while Trump continues to hold, or at best edge up from, his support in the high 20s.
It is Cruz’s momentum, many have observed, that likely spurred Trump to announce his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States, and it is that move which exposes the fatal flaws in the media’s Cruz narrative. The first flaw is that Trump’s move worked, even if he didn’t mean for it to.
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It’s early yet, but indications are that while every political and media figure lines up to denounce the no Muslims policy, it is insanely popular with those pesky Republican voters. A Bloomberg poll released Wednesday showed that a full 65% of likely Republican primary voters approve of Trump’s plan. The poll was conducted online, but using recognized scientific polling methodology. Other polls taken this week have shown a jump in Trump’s support following the announcement of that plan. Those preliminary results may end up cooling in the final analysis, but I wouldn’t bet on it. People are scared, and in that Bloomberg poll, even 18% of Democrats favored Trump’s plan.
The second, more serious flaw in the media’s plan to kill Trump with Ted Cruz is that Cruz has badly failed the test that Trump’s announcement was designed to put him to. The best thing Cruz could have done, as far as Republican voters are concerned, would have been to agree with Trump, but Cruz’s second-best response was to disagree while praising Trump:
“In the media, there is no shortage of criticism for Donald Trump. I do not believe the world needs my voice added to the chorus of critics, and listen, I commend Donald Trump for standing up and focusing America’s attention on the need to secure our borders. Border security is national security, and I would note that no one can purport to be protecting the national security of this country if they are not prepared to secure the borders.”
This opening bid was a clever attempt to pit himself and Trump against the media, but the implicit message was…READ MORE
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