reported - hilary supporter 
He knows Marco Rubio is a half-wit. He also knows you cannot beat Trump by attacking him. If Cruz can siphon a few votes from Rubio it will play into his strategy of winning in Iowa. Rubio stands no chance of gaining the nomination at this point. He won’t win in Iowa. He won’t win in NH. He won’t win in SC. Where will he win? A win in Florida won’t mean much.
Do not post solicitations for candidates on the SDMB.
Nate Silver’s comment is that the South will do the winnowing, but the rest of the country will do the choosing: after mid-March, there are a lot of blue-state primaries where the Establishment choice, presumably Rubio, will have the advantage.
The question is whether Rubio’s campaign will last until then. I think that’s a real problem: if Rubio can’t win any of the first four, then his money’s going to dry up, and Cruz will have a lot more money for the post-SEC primaries. He’ll be able to dump lots of ads onto the airwaves in primary states, while Rubio’s presence will be minimal.
It’s hard to see Rubio winning SC if he doesn’t win NH, and NV is very much the least of the four early states, so NH may be do-or-die for Rubio. Trump’s lead there isn’t exactly overwhelming, and there’s still time for the picture to change considerably, so there’s no reason to think he can’t win NH. But he’s still basically tied with Cruz for third place there, so he’s got to really impress NH voters over the next ten weeks.
There may well be a money stampede if Rubio is pretty much all that’s left. Cruz has the money now, but some rich folks are sane. (I’m guessing, don’t actually know any…)
Or, they may just simply shrug and think, well, Hillary is pretty much a Broderite Centrist, not so much a threat. Shift their support and lobbying to relatively conservative Dems, wait for the Pubbies to pull their shit back together.
An article from the future brings rather obvious tidings:
Silent Majority this, Retake America that, we have chatterbots saying the same thing in less honeyed tones right here on the SDMB now. He’s distancing himself from Trump’s tone but needs Trump’s angry conservative voters if he’s going to win the primary, which means he’s going to lose the general election if he’s nominated.
Of course, his supporters like him because he’s good at playing the role of a loud partisan idiot who has no idea how to govern and refuses to compromise long enough to learn. They’re the type who sees government shutdowns as definitionally good and moral and working with anyone to the left of Jeb as definitionally immoral. To them, ending the Federal government, or at least most parts of it, isn’t a tantrum, it’s a goal in and of itself, and disagreeing with it means you’re in league with dark forces.
This quote just underscores the faith-based nature of this campaign:
IN HOC PULLUS PERDET
I like their summary:
Which reminds me: The quote usually attributed to Goldwater is “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.” but that’s apparently wrong. He actually said “I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the nuts.” according to John Dean, who claims to have been there and heard it first-hand.
I’d say this story nicely reinforces Cruz’ narrative of how the Establishment is afraid of him.
The second half of 2015 has been the story of Trump, Carson, and Cruz - the first two exposing the dark underbelly of the Republican base, and the third in all likelihood harnessing what the first two started.
I think they’re right, Cruz is this year’s Goldwater. But as a Dem, I’d much rather run against Cruz than Rubio. A Rubio Presidency would be almost-but-not-quite as awful as a Cruz Presidency, but as I’ve said before, the MSM is already painting a portrait of Rubio as a reasonable sort of conservative, kinda like they did with Bush in 2000, and they could fool enough people to elect Rubio. I don’t think the MSM can pretend even to themselves that Cruz is anything less than the barbarian at the gate. So I am rooting for Cruz all the way through the primary season.
But you guys keep telling me that Obama had to be brilliant because he was editor of the Harvard Law Review.
So was Cruz. Ergo…
I’m the same age as Obama and don’t have a stressful job, but I’ve gotten noticeably greyer since 2008. We’re both at an age when men normally start greying and getting wrinkles.
The same is true of most Presidents. They’re typically in their fifties or sixties, precisely when MOST men start looking old.
Yeah it’s silly to call him an idiot. Ted Cruz is not a true believer, he knows EXACTLY what he is doing. Riding the idiot wave is not going to get him the presidency and he knows it, but it is going to get him a lot further a lot faster than being a generic senator would have.
Yeah, I’d believe that about someone like Bachmann. Cruz showing no signs of knowing everything he says is bullshit just makes him a very good liar, not delusional. He knows how to play the people that article talks about, he’s not one of them.
Has anyone seen any photos of him with this head shaved? That might be reassuring, what with all those rumors about his Mom being really a bitch.
Can you expound? This seems to be someone, perhaps a Roman, shouting “The foal will lose in this!” Or perhaps “Into this, a young chicken will destroy.” Or even “Into this thing my darling will squander.” Difficult without further context.
OK, my Latin stinks, but I thought the context would carry me through.
It’s supposed to mean “In this chicken you will lose” as in In hoc signo vinces, which means [del]Vincent had to hock his sign[/del] “In this sign you will conquer”, which I thought would be a common enough Latin tag for people to recognize what I was going for.
(Grumble grumble I even tried to get the verb tense correct grumble grumble… )
So, what Constantine saw at that bridge was the vision of a divine chicken? A very *young *divine chicken? Not Jesus, but just one of his peeps?
Indictment pending.
Thank you! In hōc pullō perdēs, I think, but if Cruz is your chicken, I think you have to change to the ablative of agent, Ab hōc pullō perdēs. Someone with (a) better Latin (Marco Rubio?) will be along to correct.
To you guys speaking Latin, I say, “Romanes eunt domus!”
(I’m sure Brother Rothermich would be sad that this is the closest I can now come to Latin.)
As Pliny the Elder once remarked, “Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.”