# Trump, Cruz, Rubio: the three hairballs the GOP has coughed up for its Presidential nominee **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 26, 2016, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192 "2016-02-26T14:11:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2016, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/61 "2016-02-28T23:30:09Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > That implies that the base of support for the other anglos has largely gone to Trump, or to them. So the race is splitting into racist (DT) and anti-racist (MR) blocks, with a fanatic (TC) hanging in who is also largely alive as a choice of non-racists rejecting racism? The results in [Nevada](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/primaries/NV)challenge that. Trump got 45% overall. He got 45% among Hispanics. Added together Cruz and Rubio got 45% overall. Together they got 45% of the Hispanic vote. Cruz underperformed giving up the extra Hispanic votes to Rubio. Republican Hispanics just didn’t seem to break along racial lines. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/62 "2016-02-29T05:06:22Z")
I’ve heard this verified, that neither of the black Nevada Republicans are racist. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/63 "2016-02-29T06:51:42Z")
> [@DinoR](#): > > The results in [Nevada](http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/primaries/NV)challenge that. Trump got 45% overall. He got 45% among Hispanics. Added together Cruz and Rubio got 45% overall. Together they got 45% of the Hispanic vote. Cruz underperformed giving up the extra Hispanic votes to Rubio. Republican Hispanics just didn’t seem to break along racial lines. Hard to do when Hispanics reached just 8% of the total vote for all Republicans. > **[Latino vote shows work remains for GOP in Nevada](https://www.reviewjournal.com/uncategorized/latino-vote-shows-work-remains-for-gop-in-nevada/)** > > Tuesday was a good night for Donald Trump. He had a wide margin of victory in the Republican caucus in Nevada, winning with 45.9 percent of the vote and a 22-point lead over Marco Rubio, who placed... > [@](#): > > Of the voters surveyed, 8 percent were Latino. As a result, Trump’s “No. 1” declaration is based on a poll that included 126 Latinos. Out of the 126 Latinos polled, 45 percent supported Trump, or about 57 actual voters. Rubio, a senator from Florida, placed second with 27 percent, while U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas had 18 percent support. Ohio Gov. John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson were in the single digits. > > The poll also shows that a small number of Latinos in Nevada overall participated in the GOP caucus. Applying the poll’s 8 percent figure to the overall number of caucus participants results in an estimated 6,017 Latinos who caucused with Republicans in Nevada, said Joe Lenski, executive vice president of Edison Research, the company that did the polling. Yes, Trump did claim that 45% of Hispanics voted for him… and many in the media fell for it :rolleyes:. In reality less than 3000 of them that is. And I have to say that there are white Hispanics that are not immune to prejudice; so I think that what we have here is how many of that kind of Hispanic are there in Nevada. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/64 "2016-02-29T13:16:53Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Be honest; you’d open essentially this same thread no matter who the potential Republican nominees were, right? > [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > I can’t speak for the OP I responded to **Tom** back in post #10, and he’s been absent from the thread since. But your response hit some of the same points. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/65 "2016-02-29T14:39:39Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Cruz is running an incompetent dirty campaign. Dirty because he accused Rubio of hating the Bible, etc. Incompetent because he got caught at it. > > Cruz is Richard Nixon without the charm. Nixon was hideously amoral, but he was smart as hell and not at all an ideologue. He actually accomplished a lot, and had he not been caught regarding Watergate would today be regarded as a fine President. Ted Cruz couldn’t carry Richard Nixon’s pencils. He’s not in Nixon’s league, isn’t in the league below that, and isn’t in the league below that. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/66 "2016-02-29T15:15:04Z")
[Trump blames faulty earpiece for KKK comments.](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/28/donald-trump-david-duke-ku-klux-klan-cnn-state-of-the-union/81073572/) “I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you’re asking me a question that I’m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/67 "2016-02-29T15:17:38Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Well, if George Pataki had stayed in, I think he might be acceptable (or at least plausible) to Democrat-leaning Americans. Blue-state New York thought so, three times. > > 2015-6 is the Republican culmination of crazy, though. Don’t be so sure that this is the high water mark. We thought that the 2012 election was as crazy as it was going to get until Trump started running in 2016. The trend does not seem to be showing signs of slowing down. ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/68 "2016-02-29T15:18:33Z")
> [@The\_King\_of\_Soup](#): > > Poor Republicans. They have to revere Reagan… Are you kidding, forget that he was once a Union Boss, he also passed the Mulford Act: > [@Wiki](#): > > Republicans in California supported increased gun control. California Governor Ronald Reagan was present when the protesters arrived and later commented that he saw “no reason why on the street today a citizen should be carrying loaded weapons.” and that guns were a “ridiculous way to solve problems that have to be solved among people of good will.” In a later press conference, Reagan added that the Mulford Act “would work no hardship on the honest citizen.” He might still be held esteem by a few old school conservatives with more nostalgia than memory but the man is unelectable in the current GOP, he wouldn’t have cracked the top 10 in the primary. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/69 "2016-02-29T17:20:17Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > In fact, I saw an essay just yesterday published in _The Federalist_ in which a conservative writer argues that, should the race end up being Trump vs Hillary, then Hillary will be the best choice for conservatives. > > His point wasn’t, of course, that Clinton will be a less-bad prez than Trump (from a conservative PoV), but rather, that Trump will be terribly damaging to the the conservative cause and bring it into great disrepute – whereas Clinton will be a terribly damaging prez but at least will not bring the conservative cause into disrepute. > > (Richard Nixon made a similar argument in one of his books, suggesting that we needed to have Democrats in power for a few administrations just to prove to everyone how bad that would be and how much better a Republican government would be.) > > ETA: Oops, forgot a link. Here: > [I’ll Take Hillary Clinton Over Donald Trump](http://thefederalist.com/2016/02/24/ill-take-hillary-clinton-over-donald-trump/), Tom Nichols, Feb. 24, 2016. That’s quite an article. Well, there’s one guy doing it I guess, though his arguments need work. And the fact that he nearly hyperventilates about how bad Clinton would be is laughable if not for the relentless decades of personal attacks lobbied her way by people like him. I’d love to see what a comment section on that article would say but it looks like there isn’t one ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/70 "2016-02-29T18:06:48Z")
New soundbite from Trump (paraphrasing): “All politicians are liars!” ---
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/71 "2016-02-29T18:19:49Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > The GOP show Thursday night was a national embarrassment. Agree completely. It’s moved me toward Kasich, who I’m not really a fan of. And surprisingly, it makes me want to come to Trump’s defense due to the childishness of Cruz’s and (especially) Rubio’s attacks. And I had pretty much decided that he was (reluctantly) going to be my guy. Not happy at all. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/72 "2016-02-29T18:36:57Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Nixon was hideously amoral, but he was smart as hell and not at all an ideologue. He actually accomplished a lot, and had he not been caught regarding Watergate would today be regarded as a fine President. > > Ted Cruz couldn’t carry Richard Nixon’s pencils. He’s not in Nixon’s league, isn’t in the league below that, and isn’t in the league below that. Indeed. Based on what I read in Rick Perlstein’s [_Nixonland,_](http://www.amazon.com/Nixonland-Rise-President-Fracturing-America/dp/074324303X) that petty, cynical, mean-minded bigot was also a tragic hero in the classical sense, an avatar of fatally flawed greatness. He was not entirely amoral, he always had a certain integrity, a sincere commitment to the public good as he understood it – but his integrity never included honesty. (Back when Nixon was only a Congresscritter, Harry Truman said of him that if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he would follow up with a lie to make up for it.) He never accepted even in principle the notions that politicians have any duty to tell the truth; his attitude was that those in-the-know should be free to make the decisions and “the public will be told what the public needs to be told.” That, combined with his lifelong persecution mania, and his infection of his whole WH staff with both, conspired to finish him. No honest writer will ever have anything even that admiring to say for Ted Cruz. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/73 "2016-02-29T18:37:26Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Nixon was hideously amoral, but he was smart as hell and not at all an ideologue. He actually accomplished a lot, and had he not been caught regarding Watergate would today be regarded as a fine President. > > Ted Cruz couldn’t carry Richard Nixon’s pencils. He’s not in Nixon’s league, isn’t in the league below that, and isn’t in the league below that. So, “A” ball? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/74 "2016-02-29T18:41:10Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I would like to know just what in the hell the conservative cause is? Transferring the contents of the public treasury into their personal bank accounts, I assumed. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/75 "2016-02-29T18:43:57Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Nixon was hideously amoral, but he was smart as hell and not at all an ideologue. He actually accomplished a lot, and had he not been caught regarding Watergate would today be regarded as a fine President. > > Ted Cruz couldn’t carry Richard Nixon’s pencils. He’s not in Nixon’s league, isn’t in the league below that, and isn’t in the league below that. I was thinking of the dirty tricks. That is quite Nixonian. (And Rovian also.) But I agree - Nixon was a raving Commie compared to these guys. Besides China, the EPA started on his watch. And we went off gold. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/76 "2016-02-29T18:53:58Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > So, “A” ball? I’m thinking more “T” ball. [QUOTE=Voyager] But I agree - Nixon was a raving Commie compared to these guys. Besides China, the EPA started on his watch. And we went off gold. [/QUOTE] Nixon also made real headway on bilateral strategic weapons talks. Say what you will about his honesty, but the man saw that there was some sort of value in peace and cooperation, and he took politically risky steps to make them happen. Perhaps it is because he served in war and knew people who died in war, I’m not sure. Maybe that makes you a different person even if in many other ways you are a bastard. I don’t think Ted Cruz is the sort of man who sees the world as being a place where people should cooperate and live in peace. I see nothing at all in him (or Trump) that suggests that he values love or forgiveness or the brotherhood of humankind. I cannot imagine Ted Cruz going out of his way to do something that could help people who aren’t his voter base. He’s a new brand of American politician who sees everything as conflict and adversarialism, if I might coin a word. You couldn’t even say that about George W. Bush. As deservedly maligned as he is, Bush, for instance, put a great deal of effort into aid to Africa to stop the wars there, increase development, and control the spread of AIDS. It was an area where he seemed to actually care about helping people and exerted political capital to make it happen. I can’t see Cruz doing that. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/77 "2016-02-29T20:20:55Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > So, “A” ball? He may have visited an “A” ball stadium, bought a beer and watched a game; he may have even bought a souvenir. So, “A” hat? 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/78 "2016-02-29T22:02:15Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > [Trump blames faulty earpiece for KKK comments.](http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2016/02/28/donald-trump-david-duke-ku-klux-klan-cnn-state-of-the-union/81073572/) > > “I know nothing about David Duke. I know nothing about white supremacists. And so you’re asking me a question that I’m supposed to be talking about people that I know nothing about.” :dubious: ‘And if you do not believe me ask my wife… Morgan Fairchild!’. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/79 "2016-02-29T22:03:28Z")
[John Oliver:](http://www.salon.com/2016/02/29/it_is_no_longer_wise_to_ignore_it_john_oliver_gives_donald_trump_exactly_what_he_deserves_and_it_was_worth_the_wait/) “At this point, Trump is America’s back mole. It may have seemed harmless a year ago, but now that it’s gotten frighteningly bigger, it is no longer wise to ignore it.” ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [February 29, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192/80 "2016-02-29T23:02:31Z")
Trump’s strong KKK repudiation will be forthcoming after tomorrow’s SEC primary. To make up for it, he’ll say something nice about the confederate flag or guns. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-cruz-rubio-the-three-hairballs-the-gop-has-coughed-up-for-its-presidential-nominee/747192.md?page=5)