The Iowa caucuses are a week from tonight. Ted Cruz has led in the polling for a decent while now but a new poll came out today showing Trump with an 11 point lead. Cruz has been under a constant barrage of late from Trump and his surrogates. However, I really like the manner in which Cruz is fighting Trump back. It may be too little too late! It was yours truly here just about a week ago who opined that he thought Trump had done Cruz but, with true respect for Russ Douhat's suggestions, I think with this constituency, these attacks by Cruz are more likely to be effective. From ABC (News, not "Anybody But Cruz," lol.):
Cruz has revamped his pitch to Iowan voters, giving them what he is calling "seven battles” or “seven times for choosing,” to distinguish himself from his opponents, including Trump. Ticking through the issues of right to life, marriage, gun rights, the bank bailout, immigration, healthcare and the Iran Deal, Cruz offered both subtle and not so subtle jabs at Trump.
There is something biblical there, no? "Seven": seven battles, seven times for choosing, why seven? Isn't the "seventh seal" some biblical thing? You're laughing at me, I probably botched that completely but Cruz has adopted the sevens deliberately, he has run an intelligent campaign so far and there is something he is appealing to with this constituency with repetitive use of the number seven.
"If you have a candidate for 60 years of his life has supported partial birth abortion, we should not be surprised if as president, that candidate would not defend that right to life,” said Cruz. Trump, who made comments about partial birth abortion in 1999, has since said that his views have evolved and that he is now pro-life.
"Mr. Trump’s position today is that he supports Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine. He believes the federal government should take over all healthcare, that Obamacare didn’t go far enough and that instead the federal government should be in charge of your relationships with your doctor,” said Cruz.
And from the Washington Post, which portrays Cruz as playing a desperate rope-a-dope against the onslaught, I even like these Cruz tacks:
"Mr. Trump, has had a lot to say about me lately. Each morning is interesting. I learn a lot about myself from Donald every day."
"Donald:" Again, I like that, I like Cruz calling him "Donald." When you call someone by his first name in a contest among adults, you diminish him, we call children and very young people by their first names, not serious adults. In this context, "Donald" is not a sign of affection or familiarity, it is subtly dismissive, attacks by "Donald" aren't to be taken seriously, and you avoid the aura of Trump's great last name, you tarnish a bit that old gold in his logos. He's Donald, like Donald Duck, always quacking, not TRUMP. Very good move by Cruz there.
“We are in the season where we are discussing the differences in policy," he added. "I’m happy to have a conversation about how Donald’s and my record’s differ."
On the other hand:
A man dressed in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform trailed Cruz over the weekend.
The GOP constituency is bothered by Cruz' Canadian birth, they are nativists, and it hurts Cruz. But that Trump stunt I don't like, in the sense that I think it could backfire. It's New York sleazy, too shrill, too in-your face, that is one New York value Trump has that I don't think plays well with the modest people of Iowa.
Joseph Brown, a pastor from Washington, Iowa, said he and other Cruz supporters are worried. “If Trump does win and Cruz comes in second — or even a close tie — it’s going to embolden the Trump phenomenon to the point where it’s going to really damage, I think, the momentum of Senator Cruz,” Brown said. He went on to call Trump “an incredibly wicked man.”
And I think that matters. Iowa, especially the northwest, is deeply religious. To have a pastor call Trump "incredibly wicked," which Trump is, is an attack I think will resonate.
Cruz has revamped his pitch to Iowan voters, giving them what he is calling "seven battles” or “seven times for choosing,” to distinguish himself from his opponents, including Trump. Ticking through the issues of right to life, marriage, gun rights, the bank bailout, immigration, healthcare and the Iran Deal, Cruz offered both subtle and not so subtle jabs at Trump.
There is something biblical there, no? "Seven": seven battles, seven times for choosing, why seven? Isn't the "seventh seal" some biblical thing? You're laughing at me, I probably botched that completely but Cruz has adopted the sevens deliberately, he has run an intelligent campaign so far and there is something he is appealing to with this constituency with repetitive use of the number seven.
"If you have a candidate for 60 years of his life has supported partial birth abortion, we should not be surprised if as president, that candidate would not defend that right to life,” said Cruz. Trump, who made comments about partial birth abortion in 1999, has since said that his views have evolved and that he is now pro-life.
"Mr. Trump’s position today is that he supports Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine. He believes the federal government should take over all healthcare, that Obamacare didn’t go far enough and that instead the federal government should be in charge of your relationships with your doctor,” said Cruz.
And from the Washington Post, which portrays Cruz as playing a desperate rope-a-dope against the onslaught, I even like these Cruz tacks:
"Mr. Trump, has had a lot to say about me lately. Each morning is interesting. I learn a lot about myself from Donald every day."
"Donald:" Again, I like that, I like Cruz calling him "Donald." When you call someone by his first name in a contest among adults, you diminish him, we call children and very young people by their first names, not serious adults. In this context, "Donald" is not a sign of affection or familiarity, it is subtly dismissive, attacks by "Donald" aren't to be taken seriously, and you avoid the aura of Trump's great last name, you tarnish a bit that old gold in his logos. He's Donald, like Donald Duck, always quacking, not TRUMP. Very good move by Cruz there.
“We are in the season where we are discussing the differences in policy," he added. "I’m happy to have a conversation about how Donald’s and my record’s differ."
On the other hand:
A man dressed in a Royal Canadian Mounted Police uniform trailed Cruz over the weekend.
The GOP constituency is bothered by Cruz' Canadian birth, they are nativists, and it hurts Cruz. But that Trump stunt I don't like, in the sense that I think it could backfire. It's New York sleazy, too shrill, too in-your face, that is one New York value Trump has that I don't think plays well with the modest people of Iowa.
Joseph Brown, a pastor from Washington, Iowa, said he and other Cruz supporters are worried. “If Trump does win and Cruz comes in second — or even a close tie — it’s going to embolden the Trump phenomenon to the point where it’s going to really damage, I think, the momentum of Senator Cruz,” Brown said. He went on to call Trump “an incredibly wicked man.”
And I think that matters. Iowa, especially the northwest, is deeply religious. To have a pastor call Trump "incredibly wicked," which Trump is, is an attack I think will resonate.
