Some in GOP start seeing Cruz as best alternative to Trump

[webfact]

Some in GOP start seeing Cruz as best alternative to Trump
By JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders on Sunday grappled with the prospect that the best hope for stopping Donald Trump's march to the nomination may be Ted Cruz — the only candidate who causes as much heartburn among party elites as the billionaire businessman, if not more.

The Texas senator split contests with Trump in Saturday's voting, bolstering his argument that only he can defeat the real estate mogul. Trump and Cruz are now significantly outpacing Marco Rubio in the delegate count, further shrinking the Florida senator's already narrow path to the nomination.

If Rubio's slide continues, he would be the latest establishment candidate to fall victim to an angry, frustrated electorate that cares little about endorsements from party leaders or newspaper editorial boards. Rubio has rolled out both at warp speed in recent weeks, but his appeal with voters is not keeping pace.

Rubio did pick up a victory Sunday in Puerto Rico's primary, his second win of the 2016 cycle. Democrats were holding a caucus Sunday in Maine.

The wary interest in Cruz from more mainstream Republicans is the latest unexpected twist in a GOP race where talk of a contested convention or third-party candidate is becoming commonplace.

"If Ted's the alternative to Trump, he's at least a Republican and conservative," South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said. While Graham made sure to note that it's "not like I prefer Ted Cruz," he encouraged Rubio and Ohio Gov. John Kasich to "decide among themselves" whether they can be a realistic alternative to Trump.

Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, said Cruz is indeed "emerging" as the chief anti-Trump candidate.

"I think a lot of people were surprised by how well Ted Cruz did," said Romney, who has thrust himself back into the political discussion with a searing takedown of Trump in a speech last week.

Romney has stepped back into the spotlight at a moment of crisis and chaos for the Republican Party. Leaders in Washington who assumed hard-liners such as Cruz represented a minority view have been left wondering if they're the ones out of step with voters.

For months, GOP elites have lumped Trump and Cruz together, arguing that neither could win in November's general election. Cruz is an uncompromising conservative who has publicly criticized party leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for what he sees as a pattern of giving in too easily to President Barack Obama.

To many in the Senate, Cruz is seen as a colleague focused more on raising his own profile that achieving policy wins that benefit the party. He particularly angered Senate leaders when he helped orchestrate the 2013 government shutdown, which failed in achieving the senator's stated goal of defunding Obama's health care law.

But Cruz has built a loyal following among conservatives and evangelical Christians, and has proved to be a fundraising powerhouse during the 2016 campaign. After winning the leadoff Iowa caucuses, he's also beaten Trump in five more states, more than any other candidate.

Trump still leads the field with at least 378 delegates, while Cruz has at least 295. Rubio and Kasich lag far behind in the race to reach the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination.

Rubio and Kasich desperately need to win in their home states of Florida and Ohio on March 15 to have any credible case for staying in the race.

Trump's lead has sparked a flurry of discussions among Republicans about complicated long-shot options to stop him. Rival campaigns are exploring ways to prevent Trump from getting the delegates he needs to win the nomination outright, then defeat him at the GOP convention in July. A small, but influential, group of Republicans has raised the idea of backing a yet-to-be-determined third-party candidate.

Trump has warned Republicans that they'll lose his voters if they try to take the nomination away from him.

"We have a tremendous number of people coming in and a tremendous number of people showing up to vote," he said Sunday. "The lines in all of the states that I've won have been, you know, record setting."

The tumult in the Republican race is a sharp contrast to the Democratic primary, where Clinton appears to be steadily marching toward the nomination. Sanders has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond the loyal liberals and young voters attracted to his campaign.

Sanders insists he has a path to victory, particularly when voter turnout is high. "When large numbers of people come — working people, young people who have not been involved in the political process — we will do well," Sanders said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Overall, Clinton had at least 1,123 delegates to Sanders' 484, including superdelegates — members of Congress, governors and party officials who can support the candidate of their choice. It takes 2,383 delegates to win the Democratic nomination.

Graham and Romney spoke on NBC's "Meet The Press." Trump appeared on CBS' "Face The Nation."
___

Associated Press writers Ken Thomas, Stephen Ohlemacher and Hope Yen contributed to this report.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-03-07

[keemapoot]

If a religious evangelical-pandering nutjob like Cruz is the best the GOP can field as alternative to Trump, they are in deep trouble. They really need to go to the bench at the convention and somehow convince Romney to take another stab. He at least ticks all the boxes for them and would give Hilary a better run for it than anyone else.

[Ulysses G.]

Ted will lose a general election by a landslide. I don't really trust Trump, but at least he has SOME possibility of beating Hillary.

[NovaBlue05]

I don't see that they have another option than Cruz or Trump unless they intend to insert another candidate in the middle of the race.

[khwaibah]

Just another turd to be flushed.

[Boon Mee]

Ted Cruz has the best credentials to become POTUS but as another poster mentioned, Trump IMO is the only candidate that can beat Piano Legs.

Perhaps Trump can put Cruz on the Supreme Court where he can do some really good work.

[bassman]

"The tumult in the Republican race is a sharp contrast to the Democratic primary, where Clinton appears to be steadily marching toward the nomination. Sanders has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond the loyal liberals and young voters attracted to his campaign."

The bias of the liberal press is nauseating, painting the Republican party with all it problems. While failing to identify the problems of the Democrats and the high possibility of Clinton being indicted for charges of espionage. Let alone the selling of the Clinton Initiative donations in conjunction with her duties of secretary of state. And unlike Clinton's description of 150 FBI agents doing a security review, those agents are in fact conducting a criminal investigation. FBI does not do security reviews, not one of their jobs.

Both parties are in fact in turmoil, but the liberal press only hounds the Republicans.

[Cats4ever]

Sorry to interfere in foreign politics, but when I saw that machine gun bacon film clip a few months ago, I laughed and said "what is this bloke, 14"?

[Publicus]

"The tumult in the Republican race is a sharp contrast to the Democratic primary, where Clinton appears to be steadily marching toward the nomination. Sanders has struggled to broaden his appeal beyond the loyal liberals and young voters attracted to his campaign."

The bias of the liberal press is nauseating, painting the Republican party with all it problems. While failing to identify the problems of the Democrats and the high possibility of Clinton being indicted for charges of espionage. Let alone the selling of the Clinton Initiative donations in conjunction with her duties of secretary of state. And unlike Clinton's description of 150 FBI agents doing a security review, those agents are in fact conducting a criminal investigation. FBI does not do security reviews, not one of their jobs.

Both parties are in fact in turmoil, but the liberal press only hounds the Republicans.

Cruz is at least the standard run of the mill Republican conservative so that would be even better for HR Clinton and the D party to defeat in a general election than it would be to crush the radical wildman Trump who has no coherent political philosophy or an ideology of any sort.

It is not that Trump is pragmatic or practical either. He's a moon shot that missed its target and continues hurtling out into deep space. If Trump is nominated the November election will smash into him like a wall of meteors.

As to the central comments and the obvious principal thrust of the post....

the high possibility of Clinton being indicted for charges of espionage

The charge of espionage against a citizen applies almost entirely in the instance of Edward Snowden and his ilk. When even Sen Joe McCarthy went after the US Army in his hearings alleging treason and espionage for the Soviet Union he did not try to indict generals or admirals, the secretary of the army or anyone else. McCarthy's sick strategy and tactics were to smear and destroy which is what we see presently in this instance thank you.

the selling of the Clinton Initiative donations in conjunction with her duties of secretary of state.

This line of inquiry would be more realistic, however, don't expect Bill or Hillary to be so stupid about bucks. Bill's foundation has plenty of wealthy supporters in the United States of each party and of no party. It has plenty of supporters in other democracies that know the rules and pitfalls of donations. Anyone who thinks Bill would accept or Hillary would promote funding from Mugabe or Putin or some reverend named Moon would himself be in a remote orbit.

MSM has been precipitous against HRC while the mass of well funded and highly financed rightwing media have been wildly OTT against her.

As one reporter wrote on covering Clinton, “every allegation, no matter how ludicrous, is believable until it can be proven completely and utterly false,” and it is assumed that, “Clinton is acting in bad faith until there’s hard evidence otherwise.”

http://correctrecord...lintons-emails/

Frankly, a Cruz-HRC contest would leave many voters cold but it nonetheless would dutifully get out the Democratic party base and many Independent voters who would decide on the issues. Which would sink Cruz and the Republican party. Decisively.

[Pinot]

Ted Cruz has the best credentials to become POTUS but as another poster mentioned, Trump IMO is the only candidate that can beat Piano Legs.

Perhaps Trump can put Cruz on the Supreme Court where he can do some really good work.

The best credentials? I can't wait to hear what's in his credentials that make you think he's the best candidate. He's accomplished nothing. None of them have.

The next Republican President hasn't been born yet.

That's how bad the Republican trainwreck is. Ted Cruz is the best alternative to Donald Trump.

Yeah Ted Cruz, good choice. Or a 3rd party candidacy, split the wingnut vote. It's all good.

Little Marco just won Puerto Rico.He's now the front runner according to him.

A bunch of unbelievably bad, unelectable candidates.

[cameraman888]

Republicans have no good candidate. A tea party political who is a religious fanatic and a egotistical spoiled brat billionaire who had no idea of what its like actually earn a living like most people, would make a very bad president!

[dunroaming]

Best to look at the bigger picture here. Whoever gets the nomination is not going to beat Clinton. I know you have to go through the motions and a positive attitude is essential but surely you now have to look towards finding an electable candidate for the next round in four years time. There is no point in just banging the same old outdated drum, a radical re-invention is needed.

[Publicus]

Talk about a political party in regression....

Joseph McCarthy, Ted Cruz (Credit: AP/Bill Allen/Reuters/Joe Mitchell)

Just seven weeks after being sworn in, Cruz made a name for himself by accusing fellow Republican Chuck Hagel of taking money from communist North Korea during his confirmation hearings for Secretary of Defense. This accusation startled virtually everyone and earned Cruz a rebuke from committee chairman John McCain. Senator Barbara Boxer drew an apt analogy when she said she was reminded of “a different time and place, when you said, ‘I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such-and-such a date,’ and of course there was nothing in the pocket.” She was alluding, of course to the notorious Senator Joseph McCarthy.

As Jane Mayer reported in the New Yorker at the time, this was not hyperbole. She had personally heard Cruz claim that the Harvard School of Law had harbored a dozen communists on the faculty when he was a student there.

http://www.alternet.org/election-2016/how-ted-cruz-wins-why-formerly-unthinkable-could-actually-happen

There are lots of rightwhingenuts who openly and shamelessly agree with this, especially when it comes to university faculty in the country. The Cruz statement against Chuck Hegel is but one among many since right up to the present when even Donald Trump and Ben Carson have pointed out what a sleaze Raphael Edward "Ted" Cruz is, to include in his campaigning for the office of Potus.

[boomerangutang]

Both Cruz and Trump would scrap the Dept. of Education. Cruz would do it for his hard-right Bible-thumping convictions, whereas Trump would do it because he's a follower of Republican dogma (he doesn't really know why, but he thinks it will garner added votes). I assume Rubio would do the same, as he's also anti-science.

Cruz claims it would be better for US states (rather than Federal gov't) to decide on their educational curriculum on individual basis. There are three main reasons why that's an awful idea:

A. it would create a checkerboard of elitist and depraved school systems. Mississippi is an example of a poor state, and it's education facilities and staff would reflect that. Places like Palm Springs FL or Beverly Hills California would naturally be able to afford much better facilities.

B. No standardized tests. The US is already far behind the rest of the developed world on K-12 education. Cruz's initiative would hamstring it back further.

C. Just as problematic, and the underlying reason Cruz wants state control is to further his Bible-thumping agenda. It's 'divide and conquer' similar to another controversial Texas law (Cruz is Texan) which effectively bans abortion procedures by micromanaging facilities. Just one of many unnecessary requirements: abortion clinics in Texas are now required to have a minimum width for all corridors (5 ft wide?), which would effectively close clinics unless they build new buildings and invest millions of dollars.

Cruz wants to spread an anti-science curriculum to all US schools, and knows it would be easier done state by state, and district by district. His hard-right Christian fundamentalist curriculum is base on 'Intelligent Design' which is a nice-sounding term for literal interpretation of the Bible. In other words: the Earth was created around 5,000 years ago, Early Man existed with dinosaurs, a virgin can have a baby, Noah's Ark was real as described in the Bible, fossils can't be older than 5,000 years, evolution is a myth, and so on.

Ted will lose a general election by a landslide. I don't really trust Trump, but at least he has SOME possibility of beating Hillary.

I think either of the top 3 Rep candidates will lose to HRC or Sanders.

[uptheos]

They're putting more fight into outdoing each other, whilst Clinton hardly gets a mention!!