Frank Gaffney is an impressive pick: a man who makes Grover Norquist seem like a sympathetic victim.
What made the Trump, Cruz, or Carson game interesting is that they're all completely unacceptable in their own way.
You forgot Rubio, Kasich, Bush, Christie, Fiorina, Paul, Huckabee, Santorum, Jindal, Walker and Perry, of whom this is equally--equally--true.
I admit that I'm surprised that Cruz did that. Rumor has it that he's a smart man. I'd have imagined that gaining the support of more mainstream Republicans would have been smart; but Gaffney, going against Norquist, doesn't seem wise.
Cruz has never really been about gaining the support of mainstream Republicans.
That's not what's in his heart, no, but it's what he would need to do in order to gain the nomination and possibly the presidency.
If the latter is not what he's really about, I suppose he's about ... what? Shifting the overton window or some such?
I tend to think that Cruz just got lucky in this election cycle, both that the other hyper-conservative candidates dropped out before he himself ran out of money, and that Trump descended on the scene. Failing those things, he'd have been dead in the water.
1: Oh Jesus, Gaffney, Ledeen, and Abrams. Could not have appalled me more. And they're fucking old, aren't there any young lunatics around?
If the latter is not what he's really about, I suppose he's about ... what? Shifting the overton window or some such?
Boosting his own personal reputation among the hard right, I think. That's certainly what his behavior in the Senate has seemed to indicate. Mainstream Republicans all hate him with a passion anyway, so even if he tried to woo them through gestures toward moderation it wouldn't work.
I tend to think that Cruz just got lucky in this election cycle, both that the other hyper-conservative candidates dropped out before he himself ran out of money, and that Trump descended on the scene. Failing those things, he'd have been dead in the water.
Yeah, I think this is right. When he first announced a lot of pundits said that he obviously didn't have a chance.
I think Cruz intended to garner the supporters that Trump pulled in, and was surprised by the Trump end-run. I know a lot of Cruz supporters who loathe Trump, and with everyone, they totally agree with Trump on the anti-gay, anti-Muslim, bigoted stuff. They just loathe him because he is coarse and too narcissistic to trust to hold onto those bigoted ideals. And they think his temperament means he can't win in the general. They like Cruz because they can trust him to stay bigoted because he's more committed, more intelligent and more controlled.
I don't think 5.last and 7.last are right at all. Cruz has had a mega ground game since day one. I think his trajectory has been less affected by Trump than anything else this season - he never had a shot at the nomination but he's had enough money and evangelicals to do just about what he's done.
Maybe, but I still think he was lucky no one else was able to capture the Evangelical vote before he could. But I could be wrong.
Out of morbid curiosity, I thought I'd look and see who Pam Geller was supporting, and she's a hardcore Cruz backer. Apparently Trump attacked her as "dumb" when she ran that make fun of Muhammed cartoon contest and she never forgave him, and has been a hardcore Cruz backer ever since. So the professional Muslim haters, as opposed to the amateurs, are on team Cruz.
In discussing the Republican coalition it's important to distinguish among the many different types of racists it includes.
"Oh, that detestable Trump. Not our kind of racist at all. He simply won't do."
[monocle drop]
Christ the neocons are hideous. When the cold war ended they were desperately thrashing about trying to find an enemy. It looked like China might be the new enemy until 9/11. Now its muslims and they are complete again. A neocon without an enemy is like a baby without its binky. Fortunately a baby without a binky tends not to get hundreds of thousands of people killed. Fuck everything about those assholes.