Ripping 69-year-old real estate mogul and GOP front-runner Donald Trump for his “New York” values in Fox News Channel’s Jan. 14 debate, 45-year-old first-term Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) showed his age-and-naivety. Trump quickly quipped that the father of modern American conservatives, William F. Buckley Jr., hailed from New York, together with every other Wall Street conservative. What the naïve Cruz defines as conservative are today’s trendy pet peeves like abortion and gay marriage. Cruz forgets that New York represents America’s economic powerhouse, not today’s popular distinctions between conservatives and liberals. Hoping to score points in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Cruz has little chance of breaking Trump’s momentum heading into the Feb. 1 Iowa Caucuses. If Cruz isn’t careful, he’ll burn his bridges for consideration as Trump’s running mate.
Antagonizing the nation’s third most populous state, New York, Cruz tries desperately to score points before the Iowa Caucuses. Losing to Trump in Iowa, where he has his best chance with evangelicals, would be catastrophic to Cruz’s campaign. “I would note that Donald’s record does not match what he says as a candidate,” Cruz told voters in Fort Mill, S.C. Cruz hopes to fool voters into thinking he’s the only one who really opposes abortion and gay marriage. When compared to Trump, Cruz looks young-and-inexperienced, attacking Trump for a 1999 interview on NBC’s “Meet The Press” with the late Tim Russert. Ripping Trump for “New York” values shows how low Cruz stoops to get votes. Trump’s “views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa,” Cruz told Iowa voters. Trump told Fox Business News Maria Bartiromo he’s willing to his real estate empire aside to serve his country.
Cruz has many helpers in the liberal and conservative press ripping Trump. Speaking on Fox News Bill O’Reilly yesterday, conservative firebrand radio and TV talk show host Glenn Beck accused Trump of voting for President Barack Obama in 2008. “He voted for Obama in ’08, come on Bill,” Beck told O’Reilly. “He says that I voted for Barack Obama. And I’m on John McCain’s committee, raised a tremendous amount of money for John McCain, had dinner with John McCain and his wife right before the election, and I’ve got to listen to listen to his idiot named Glenn Beck,” said Trump. Beck represents mainstream conservatives who despise Trump, seeking a more traditional candidate, like Cruz, to represent the GOP. Arguing with O’Reilly about Trump’s merits, Beck is more concerned about getting the right conservative than winning the White House.
Only two weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, a Jan. 14 WSJ/NBC News national poll shows Trump with a 13-point lead against Cruz, with Trump closing to only 2% in Iowa. Raising the “birther” issue about Cruz’s Dec. 22, 1970 birth in Calgary, Canada, Trump seems to have raised doubts in Iowa voters. When Harvard Law School Constitutional scholar Prof. Lawrence Tribe raised doubts about Cruz being a natural born citizen Jan. 10, Cruz began to lose ground in Iowa. If there’s anything to the so-called reverse “Bradley Effect,” where voters under-represent backing of controversial candidates, Trump should beat Cruz handily in Iowa. When Cruz tries to split hairs and bolster his conservative credentials, he hurts his chances of getting named as Trump’s eventual running mate. GOP party officials haven’t yet conceded that Trump’s the overwhelming favorite to win the nomination.
Responding to Trump’s attacks that he didn’t know he was a Canadian citizen or he didn’t report a million dollar loan from his wife’s employer Goldman Sachs, Cruz sounded defiant. “I will apologize,” said Cruz, regarding his remarks about New Yorkers. “I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who have been abandoned for years by liberal politicians,” Cruz said sarcastically, sidestepping issues about his citizenship or unreported loan. “Ted Cruz said he ‘didn’t know’ that he was a Canadian Citizen. He also FORGOT to file his Goldman Sachs Million $ loan papers. Not believable,” Trump tweeted. Iowa voters are forced to process new facts about Cruz before the Feb. 1 Caucuses. Cruz made the mistake of listening to advisors insisting he attack Trump before the voting begins. Trump’s wide lead in national polls should have told Cruz to take a different tact.
Cruz, like other traditional GOP conservatives, hasn’t yet accepted that Trump’s on his way to steamrolling his way to the nomination. Fighting to the end, Cruz’s New York comments backfired, revealing he’s less mature and slick than advertised. “Given the fact that for much of his life, Donald was financially supporting those politicians, writing checks to Hillary Clinton, writing checks to Andrew Cuomo, it’s a fair inference that he supports their policies,” Cruz told the South Carolina crowd. What Cruz didn’t say was that Trump strongly backed McCain in 2008 and Romney in 2012, and other GOP politicians. Questions whether he’s a natural born citizen or about unreported campaign loans now dog the Cruz campaign. Unless he’s able to put these issues to rest before Feb. 1, it’s going to be difficult for Iowa voters to trust that Cruz actually has the integrity and eligibility to be president
