Re-Defining Ted Cruz

Jeb's campaign has long since crashed and burned but there was a time when he seemed as inevitable as Hillary (was). All the pundits expected a Clinton-Bush redux. Back at the end of 2014, a poll from CNN showed Jeb with a gigantic lead-- 23%, with Christie, Carson, Huckabee, Paul, Rubio, Ryan and Cruz trailing-- with the kind of numbers Jeb has today. Even as late as the very end of last June, CNN's polling was still showing Jeb significantly ahead of the pack:

• Jeb- 19%
• Herr Trumpf- 12%
• Huckabee- 8%
• Dr. Ben- 7%
• Randy Paul- 7%
• Rubio- 6%
• Walker- 6%
• Perry- 4%
• Christie- 3%
• Cruz- 3%

You can see why Herr Trumpf took immediate aim at Jeb. He used standard marketing and propaganda techniques to define Jeb as "low energy," effeminate, weak, laughable, pathetic-- never anything about policy, always personal-- and since July, Herr has never fallen out of first place. The most recent national GOP polling, released this morning by Quinnipiac, shows Herr way ahead... and Jeb a virtual dead duck.

• Herr Trumpf- 39%
• Rubio- 19%
• Cruz- 18%
• Kasich- 6%
• Dr. Ben- 4%
• Jeb- 4%

Trumpf still takes enough shots at Jeb's twitching corpse to keep in at the bottom of the list but his new target is Cruz and he's been testing various lines of attack, although he appears to think that branding him a liar, in fact the worst liar the world has ever seen, is his ticket to ride. And sweaty little Rubio, who's still too frightened to take Trumpf on-- but is working himself up to it-- is piling on, following Trumpf's lead in the Cruz branding process. I-- and God knows how many other random email accounts the campaign bought-- got this from Alex Conant, Rubio's communications director, yesterday:

Howie,

What I’m about to tell you is completely TRUE. It may seem to be far fetched, but it’s totally true. So please read this email and afterwards show your support for Marco-- he needs it.

Everyone talks about how when campaigns reach South Carolina, it gets ugly, and Howie, it’s gotten ugly.

We’ve always known that Ted Cruz and his super PACs would do anything and say anything for a vote. And now their slimy smear tactics are catching up with him.

This weekend, TV stations in South Carolina pulled down ads from a Ted Cruz Super PAC after legal review because their accusations about Marco were so false.

First it was lying about Marco on fundamental issues like life and marriage; now Cruz and his supporters attempts to slander and distort Marco’s record have reached a new low.

Howie, you and I know who Marco is and what he stands for. But now your support to Marco has NEVER been as important as it is right now. Marco is committed to running a positive campaign and he needs our help to keep that going.

Will you follow this link to make an urgently needed campaign contribution of $25 or more?

Even though Cruz's allies are being forced to take down these ads (the TV stations are refusing to air them), make no mistake: They are going to fight back even harder. They reportedly have a goal of spending a combined $3.7 MILLION on advertising in South Carolina this week-- that’s over half a million dollars a day! In order to fight back and not be outspent by these liars we need your help.

There has never been a more critical time to donate to Marco Rubio.

Really, Howie, everything you and I have worked for comes down to this week. Marco needs our immediate support to have a strong showing in South Carolina and fight back against the lies being thrown his way.

Your donation is critical to Marco’s success in South Carolina. Once your instant online contribution goes through it will hit our system and allow us to afford our final get-out-the-vote efforts before the South Carolina primary on Saturday.

So, Howie, every second that goes by without your donation, the Cruz campaign wins.

We need your help. Can we count on you?

The final countdown to South Carolina is here. Are you ready?

P.S. Over the weekend Donald Trump said, “I have never ever seen someone who lies as much as Ted Cruz,” and I have to say, Howie, Mr. Trump may be right on that. Ted Cruz and his campaign are hoping that they will win by distorting their opponents’ records and avoiding anyone looking at Ted’s. We are going to fight around the clock to expose Ted’s fraudulent efforts and promote Marco’s positive and forward-thinking conservative campaign. This isn’t going to be easy.

The Cruz campaign has access to millions-- and fighting back is going to require all hands on deck. Will you join us and fight with us?

Watch Ted Cruz in South Carolina yesterday defending himself from accusations of serial and deliberate truthlessness-- and not just from Herr Trumpf... but going off on a long tirade against poor sweaty little Rubio. His slippery techniques and well-honed debate style may be paying off. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released a couple of hours ago, which looks like an outlier, has him beating out Herr Trumpf among Republicanos nationwide. The numbers are Cruz 28% (up 8 points from January), Herr Trumpf 26% (down 7 points), Rubio 17% (up 4 points), Kasich 11% (up 8 points), Dr. Ben 10% (down 2 points) and the poor, pathetic Jebster 4% (down 1 point). These big upticks from Cruz, Kasich and Rubio aren't just because voters are abandoning Herr; they also reflect the 12 points that were split between the candidates who packed it in after Iowa and New Hampshire, Huckabee, Paul, Fiorina and Christie. (Santorum doesn't count because he had less than 1% national support in January before he finally gave up and promised the American people he wouldn't run for office again.



Wow! Five money links and 4 uses of the word "Howie." Rubio wants very much to be the last man standing against Trumpf. The Kochs have promised they'd loosen the purse strings for him when that happens. But what the Republican Party establishment really wants, is for Rubio, Cruz, Kasich, the poor Jebster and anyone else-- even favorite son canddiates-- to command enough delegates to keep Herr Trumpf away from 51% and a first ballot victory. They wouldn't mind if sweaty little Rubio is their nominee-- he's very obedient-- but they don't care if he's the nominee or not, as long as Herr Trumpf isn't.