She definitely began going downhill in my mind after her debut at the 2008 convention. She strikes me ever since as being erratic, shoot-from-the-hip, not well grounded, and not a very serious student of history or current affairs.
Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a politician by a flawlessly-delivered speech.
Listened to Cruz on the radio coming home from work. No change in my perceptions of him, I’m afraid. (Not comparing him to Sarah at all — just saying my serious concerns about his being a good and successful general election candidate remain; and the audience — his supporters — were beyond annoying with all the frat-boy style screaming and shouting and booing of Megyn at one point.)
(Allan Bourdius is a co-founder of Vigilant Liberty Radio)
_______________________________
… Of the “not Trumps” still standing, Senator Cruz is closer to what I’d like to see on policy. Senator Marco Rubio is closer to what I’d like to see in terms of politicking and the all-important engendering of a personal relationship with voters, which I’ve already supposed was more important to Ronald Reagan’s success than his conservatism.
It’s time to face facts though, and with his grand tally of zero delegates won on March 8th, realize that Rubio is probably finished. … (But) …
The conservative/conservatarian/liberaservative/libertarian movement needs a politically intact Marco Rubio for the future. He’d likely be irreparably damaged by a Florida loss, and I don’t think today’s electorate is going to repeat the Nixonian equation of getting trounced for a major office (California Governor, 1962) and then coming back for a major win (Presidency, 1968) anytime soon (See: Rick Perry, 2012 and 2016 Presidential campaigns). …
Which brings us back to Ted Cruz. I almost wrote, “leaves us with,” but that’d be inaccurate as it’s hardly a settling position. He’s got Reagan conservatism down pat – and that isn’t the problem. Ted Cruz just isn’t likeable except to people inclined to agree with him in the first place, but I think he can fix it. He might even be able to fix it quickly enough to game-change both Florida, Ohio, and other Super Tuesday II states. Here’s three ways how. ….
Reinvent his stump speech. … I tweeted during last week’s debate Thursday night that for the first time in a long while, Cruz opened his mouth and didn’t make me like him less. He then followed up one of his best debate performances with his address to CPAC on Friday…which was the mostly same Ted Cruz speech we’ve heard every time he gives one. It’s great material for firing up conservatives. Cruz doesn’t need to fire up conservatives. One of the most common complaints I hear of Cruz’s delivery is that he comes across like a Baptist preacher. I’m a little more charitable and say Cruz always thinks he’s delivering a closing argument to a jury, rather than speaking to an electorate. He needs to inspire and attract persuadable Republican voters currently leaning towards or in other candidates’ camps. As important, he needs to start inspiring and attracting voters in whole, looking forward to the general election in November. Pitching fear and reactionary solutions in response has been cornered by Donald Trump. Take a page from Marco Rubio and be visionary first, adversarial a distant second.
Make peace with the “establishment”. This will be the hardest thing for Cruz to do, but he has to if he expects to win the nomination and the Presidency. It can be done without surrendering principles too. …
Wake up to a “big tent” strategy. As mentioned above, Cruz’s campaign was centered on winning southern, evangelical conservatives in a near-exclusionary fashion. It failed. If there’s one lasting lesson to this election cycle, it’s that evangelicals don’t vote as a cohesive bloc; they’ve been going for twice-divorced, irreverent in his delivery Trump more than Cruz. Part of this goes back to the first point on his campaign rhetoric – be less preachy and conservatives-focused – but it also speaks to seizing opportunities when they’re handed to you on a silver platter. …
Super Tuesday II on March 15th will probably cast the die for who the Republican nominee will be, come July’s convention in Cleveland. Ted Cruz, by the results so far, is the only candidate with a mathematical path to beating Trump outright. The opportunity to broaden his appeal is sitting in his hands. It remains to be seen if he grasps it.
___________________________________
“The Left, and their cronies in the media have called his allegations that America is losing jobs
“The Left, and their cronies in the media have called his allegations that America is losing jobs
to foreign competitors to be a false accusation. They are still claiming that America is in great shape under an Obama admin, even though the national debt has doubled, and that unemployment has decreased to a rate below that of what it was when Obama took over. They don’t mention that the rate is so low because Obama simply doesn’t count a large portion of unemployed that the US has always counted, and that is people who have given up working. The real estimated unemployment rate is around 15%.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Ford Motor company has pledged to double its annual car manufacturing in Mexico as they open a new plant in San Luis Potosí, and expand on another plant near Mexico City. This will bring the total production to nearly one million cars, and assuming that Americans aren’t commuting daily to work at a Mexican plant, it will also mean many more jobs will be given to Mexicans that could have been given to Americans.
It would seem like that was the exact same thing that Trump said was going on, and General Motors has done a similar action by doubling the production capacity of their Mexican based plants. The moves happened after the United Auto Workers (UAW) promised an average of $30 per hour to its union members in the coming years.
UAW President Dennis Williams was confused that an increase in labor costs could make outsourcing to another country more appealing.”
A couple of interesting quotes from this issue of World
“I understand the anger with the so called establishment, but Tear it Down is not a plan.” Janie B. Chaney. P. 22
“Lots of Christians recognize the disorder in the culture and want to do something about it. The usual response is to do something political – but politics is always the downstream of culture”. Ken Myers in an interview with Marvin Olasky.
Myers is right, but the enemy chooses the weapon. Prayer, witness and obedience are our weapons. But the must deal with whatever issue we can affect.
(CNN) Ben Carson will endorse Donald Trump on Friday, multiple sources told CNN.
Trump has a press conference scheduled for 9 a.m. ET in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Wednesday, the retired neurosurgeon, who dropped his presidential campaign earlier this month, told CNN’s Erin Burnett he was open to supporting either Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“You have to consider all the information, who is most likely to win, and what kind of shenanigans will drive voters away so they will not participate in the process. We have to be very careful in all those things,” Carson said.
The endorsement was first reported by the Washington Post.
In an article shared on Facebook, I saw a paraphrase of a quote in which Carson pointed to Trump as the most Christian of the candidates. I don’t know how accurate that was, though.
Former Republican Presidential Candidate and Former Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital Dr. Ben Carson called into the John Gibson Show today to talk Trump! When asked if he thought Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is a self-proclaimed “unifier”, Dr. Carson said that there are actually TWO Donald Trumps!
“There’s the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there’s the Donald Trump behind the scenes. They’re not the same person. One’s very much an entertainer, and one is actually a thinking individual.”
________________________________
… Mr. Carson said that Mr. Trump would be “a lot better than Hillary” and that he would not be as bad as many conservatives fear. He said that Mr. Trump was “more reasonable” than people realized and that he could be an asset to Republican efforts to maintain control of Congress because he is harnessing the anger of the American public.
The endorsement despite the fact that during Mr. Carson’s run, Mr. Trump compared him to a child molester, called him “super low energy” and questioned his religion when they were competing against each other for the Republican presidential nomination.
But Mr. Carson had frayed relations with Mr. Carson’s main rival, Senator Ted Cruz. Mr. Carson blamed the Cruz campaign for spreading false information on the day of the Iowa caucuses that he was pulling out of the race, for which Mr. Cruz later apologized.
While endorsements typically don’t sway many voters, Mr. Carson continues to have a devoted base of support, particularly among evangelicals, whom Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz have been courting. …
_____________________________________
The first graph I quoted from the times is certainly a *hope* some of us have weighed in thinking about a Trump vs Clinton choice — but I remain skeptical barring some actual evidence
So Carson is endorsing Trump. There was a report that Kanye West supports Trump. Next we will hear that Obama supports Trump. My son told me that many blacks like Trump because he is rich.
In hindsight, Carson may have stayed in the race to take conservative votes from Cruz and thereby help the lunatic Trump. The longer this thing goes on the more I respect Walker who got out early and urged the others to unite behind one candidate to defeat the moron who was making a farce out of the Republican race.
Breitbart and the Trump campaign are locked in a war of words after Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, reportedly (physically) attacked Breitbart’s Michelle Fields Tuesday night rather than let her ask Trump a question regarding affirmative action. Breitbart is calling for an apology, but the Trump campaign has not only flatly denied Fields’s allegations, it has counterattacked Fields personally, spewing forth a series of rather obvious lies and distortions. …
For those keeping score, the Trump campaign has responded to a credible, corroborated story that its campaign manager attacked a female reporter by (a) lying, (b) implying she made up a story that is supported by photographic and video evidence, and (c) accusing her of attention-seeking when she emphatically refused on the record comment about an alleged lurid and disturbing incident of sexual harassment.
Withholding judgement. I am certain there are at least two sides to Trump. Waiting to see what reasoning goes behind that endorsement. Just glad that did not come out before I voted.
Breitbart has adjusted a report which originally suggested video evidence showed that Washington Post reporter Ben Terris misidentified the man who grabbed at Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields following a Tuesday night press conference with Donald Trump.
The new version of the report includes new video that appears to show Lewandowski reaching for Fields.
Both Fields and Terris have said Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski aggressively yanked Fields out of the way on Tuesday night after Fields tried to ask a question.
Wandering Views 
I really liked Sarah Palin before she got rich.
LikeLiked by 1 person
She definitely began going downhill in my mind after her debut at the 2008 convention. She strikes me ever since as being erratic, shoot-from-the-hip, not well grounded, and not a very serious student of history or current affairs.
Just goes to show you that you can’t judge a politician by a flawlessly-delivered speech.
Listened to Cruz on the radio coming home from work. No change in my perceptions of him, I’m afraid. (Not comparing him to Sarah at all — just saying my serious concerns about his being a good and successful general election candidate remain; and the audience — his supporters — were beyond annoying with all the frat-boy style screaming and shouting and booing of Megyn at one point.)
I suspect Cruz appeals to men more than women?
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Ducking.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I voted for Cruz twice.
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I’ve heard that, Chas. Well, that’s North Carolina for you.
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http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/10/how-cruz-can-win/
(Allan Bourdius is a co-founder of Vigilant Liberty Radio)
_______________________________
… Of the “not Trumps” still standing, Senator Cruz is closer to what I’d like to see on policy. Senator Marco Rubio is closer to what I’d like to see in terms of politicking and the all-important engendering of a personal relationship with voters, which I’ve already supposed was more important to Ronald Reagan’s success than his conservatism.
It’s time to face facts though, and with his grand tally of zero delegates won on March 8th, realize that Rubio is probably finished. … (But) …
The conservative/conservatarian/liberaservative/libertarian movement needs a politically intact Marco Rubio for the future. He’d likely be irreparably damaged by a Florida loss, and I don’t think today’s electorate is going to repeat the Nixonian equation of getting trounced for a major office (California Governor, 1962) and then coming back for a major win (Presidency, 1968) anytime soon (See: Rick Perry, 2012 and 2016 Presidential campaigns). …
Which brings us back to Ted Cruz. I almost wrote, “leaves us with,” but that’d be inaccurate as it’s hardly a settling position. He’s got Reagan conservatism down pat – and that isn’t the problem. Ted Cruz just isn’t likeable except to people inclined to agree with him in the first place, but I think he can fix it. He might even be able to fix it quickly enough to game-change both Florida, Ohio, and other Super Tuesday II states. Here’s three ways how. ….
Reinvent his stump speech. … I tweeted during last week’s debate Thursday night that for the first time in a long while, Cruz opened his mouth and didn’t make me like him less. He then followed up one of his best debate performances with his address to CPAC on Friday…which was the mostly same Ted Cruz speech we’ve heard every time he gives one. It’s great material for firing up conservatives. Cruz doesn’t need to fire up conservatives. One of the most common complaints I hear of Cruz’s delivery is that he comes across like a Baptist preacher. I’m a little more charitable and say Cruz always thinks he’s delivering a closing argument to a jury, rather than speaking to an electorate. He needs to inspire and attract persuadable Republican voters currently leaning towards or in other candidates’ camps. As important, he needs to start inspiring and attracting voters in whole, looking forward to the general election in November. Pitching fear and reactionary solutions in response has been cornered by Donald Trump. Take a page from Marco Rubio and be visionary first, adversarial a distant second.
Make peace with the “establishment”. This will be the hardest thing for Cruz to do, but he has to if he expects to win the nomination and the Presidency. It can be done without surrendering principles too. …
Wake up to a “big tent” strategy. As mentioned above, Cruz’s campaign was centered on winning southern, evangelical conservatives in a near-exclusionary fashion. It failed. If there’s one lasting lesson to this election cycle, it’s that evangelicals don’t vote as a cohesive bloc; they’ve been going for twice-divorced, irreverent in his delivery Trump more than Cruz. Part of this goes back to the first point on his campaign rhetoric – be less preachy and conservatives-focused – but it also speaks to seizing opportunities when they’re handed to you on a silver platter. …
Super Tuesday II on March 15th will probably cast the die for who the Republican nominee will be, come July’s convention in Cleveland. Ted Cruz, by the results so far, is the only candidate with a mathematical path to beating Trump outright. The opportunity to broaden his appeal is sitting in his hands. It remains to be seen if he grasps it.
___________________________________
LikeLiked by 1 person
“The Left, and their cronies in the media have called his allegations that America is losing jobs
“The Left, and their cronies in the media have called his allegations that America is losing jobs
to foreign competitors to be a false accusation. They are still claiming that America is in great shape under an Obama admin, even though the national debt has doubled, and that unemployment has decreased to a rate below that of what it was when Obama took over. They don’t mention that the rate is so low because Obama simply doesn’t count a large portion of unemployed that the US has always counted, and that is people who have given up working. The real estimated unemployment rate is around 15%.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Ford Motor company has pledged to double its annual car manufacturing in Mexico as they open a new plant in San Luis Potosí, and expand on another plant near Mexico City. This will bring the total production to nearly one million cars, and assuming that Americans aren’t commuting daily to work at a Mexican plant, it will also mean many more jobs will be given to Mexicans that could have been given to Americans.
It would seem like that was the exact same thing that Trump said was going on, and General Motors has done a similar action by doubling the production capacity of their Mexican based plants. The moves happened after the United Auto Workers (UAW) promised an average of $30 per hour to its union members in the coming years.
UAW President Dennis Williams was confused that an increase in labor costs could make outsourcing to another country more appealing.”
http://www.uschronicle.com/ford-makes-huge-announcement-looks-like-trump-right/
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A couple of interesting quotes from this issue of World
“I understand the anger with the so called establishment, but Tear it Down is not a plan.” Janie B. Chaney. P. 22
“Lots of Christians recognize the disorder in the culture and want to do something about it. The usual response is to do something political – but politics is always the downstream of culture”. Ken Myers in an interview with Marvin Olasky.
Myers is right, but the enemy chooses the weapon. Prayer, witness and obedience are our weapons. But the must deal with whatever issue we can affect.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wow. This was a surprise:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/10/politics/ben-carson-to-endorse-donald-trump/index.html
_________________________________________________
(CNN) Ben Carson will endorse Donald Trump on Friday, multiple sources told CNN.
Trump has a press conference scheduled for 9 a.m. ET in Palm Beach, Florida.
On Wednesday, the retired neurosurgeon, who dropped his presidential campaign earlier this month, told CNN’s Erin Burnett he was open to supporting either Trump or Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
“You have to consider all the information, who is most likely to win, and what kind of shenanigans will drive voters away so they will not participate in the process. We have to be very careful in all those things,” Carson said.
The endorsement was first reported by the Washington Post.
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Very disappointing. 😦
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This has got to be the weirdest political year in modern history.
LikeLiked by 2 people
In an article shared on Facebook, I saw a paraphrase of a quote in which Carson pointed to Trump as the most Christian of the candidates. I don’t know how accurate that was, though.
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It’s neat that so many people are referring to my upcoming 30th wedding anniversary as Super Tuesday. 🙂
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https://radio.foxnews.com/2016/03/10/dr-ben-carson-there-are-two-donald-trumps/
________________________________
Former Republican Presidential Candidate and Former Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital Dr. Ben Carson called into the John Gibson Show today to talk Trump! When asked if he thought Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump is a self-proclaimed “unifier”, Dr. Carson said that there are actually TWO Donald Trumps!
“There’s the Donald Trump that you see on television and who gets out in front of big audiences, and there’s the Donald Trump behind the scenes. They’re not the same person. One’s very much an entertainer, and one is actually a thinking individual.”
________________________________
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From the NY Times:
_____________________________________
… Mr. Carson said that Mr. Trump would be “a lot better than Hillary” and that he would not be as bad as many conservatives fear. He said that Mr. Trump was “more reasonable” than people realized and that he could be an asset to Republican efforts to maintain control of Congress because he is harnessing the anger of the American public.
The endorsement despite the fact that during Mr. Carson’s run, Mr. Trump compared him to a child molester, called him “super low energy” and questioned his religion when they were competing against each other for the Republican presidential nomination.
But Mr. Carson had frayed relations with Mr. Carson’s main rival, Senator Ted Cruz. Mr. Carson blamed the Cruz campaign for spreading false information on the day of the Iowa caucuses that he was pulling out of the race, for which Mr. Cruz later apologized.
While endorsements typically don’t sway many voters, Mr. Carson continues to have a devoted base of support, particularly among evangelicals, whom Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz have been courting. …
_____________________________________
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Donna – I read something similar about Trump (but I don’t remember where). I really hope that his schtick is just that – a schtick.
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The first graph I quoted from the times is certainly a *hope* some of us have weighed in thinking about a Trump vs Clinton choice — but I remain skeptical barring some actual evidence
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A friend said this year’s political unraveling makes him just want to sing the Gloom & Doom song from HeeHaw. 🙂
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So Carson is endorsing Trump. There was a report that Kanye West supports Trump. Next we will hear that Obama supports Trump. My son told me that many blacks like Trump because he is rich.
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In hindsight, Carson may have stayed in the race to take conservative votes from Cruz and thereby help the lunatic Trump. The longer this thing goes on the more I respect Walker who got out early and urged the others to unite behind one candidate to defeat the moron who was making a farce out of the Republican race.
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Never a dull moment.
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/432634/after-alleged-assault-trump-campaign-launches-vicious-deceptive-attack-michelle-fields
______________________________
Breitbart and the Trump campaign are locked in a war of words after Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, reportedly (physically) attacked Breitbart’s Michelle Fields Tuesday night rather than let her ask Trump a question regarding affirmative action. Breitbart is calling for an apology, but the Trump campaign has not only flatly denied Fields’s allegations, it has counterattacked Fields personally, spewing forth a series of rather obvious lies and distortions. …
For those keeping score, the Trump campaign has responded to a credible, corroborated story that its campaign manager attacked a female reporter by (a) lying, (b) implying she made up a story that is supported by photographic and video evidence, and (c) accusing her of attention-seeking when she emphatically refused on the record comment about an alleged lurid and disturbing incident of sexual harassment.
______________________________
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Trump and his people are the scum of the earth. Anyone who endorses him is either an idiot or his fellow scum.
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Withholding judgement. I am certain there are at least two sides to Trump. Waiting to see what reasoning goes behind that endorsement. Just glad that did not come out before I voted.
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Ricky, I don’t endorse him and am in fact appalled by him. But those words are strong, and not befitting a Christian.
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But accurate.
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Here’s a clarification/correction on that Breitbart incident
http://www.politico.com/blogs/on-media/2016/03/breitbart-michelle-fields-video-220631
______________________________________
Breitbart has adjusted a report which originally suggested video evidence showed that Washington Post reporter Ben Terris misidentified the man who grabbed at Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields following a Tuesday night press conference with Donald Trump.
The new version of the report includes new video that appears to show Lewandowski reaching for Fields.
Both Fields and Terris have said Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski aggressively yanked Fields out of the way on Tuesday night after Fields tried to ask a question.
______________________________________
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