That was my first reaction when I read Dole’s comment blasting Cruz:
That Bob Dole, the avatar of Establishment Republicanism, who basically sleep-walked his way through the 1996 Presidential race, prefers Trump to Cruz is not surprising. The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t, and the Establishment prefers a Democrat win to either Trump or Cruz winning. More mystifying is Sarah Palin’s endorsement of Trump over Cruz. I think it will have little impact because Palin, eight years after her Vice-Presidential run, is in the category of yesterday’s news, but it is odd. Cruz of course is now the only true opposition to Trump that there is, and I think he will ultimately be the nominee. Most Republicans are not as enamored of the status quo as the crony capitalists who control the money strings of the party today, and I think Trump has a ceiling in the party that doesn’t go much above 35%. A tough and canny candidate like Cruz has a clear path to victory, especially when people begin to consider The Donald as a serious candidate rather than a protest vote.
Oh, and as for the prediction of Bob Dole regarding huge losses if Cruz is the nominee? He made the same prediction in 1980. The candidate that he then made the prediction about was named Ronald Reagan.
The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t
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I’m not a fan of Trump, but I have a had time imagining a scenario where one could win but the other couldn’t.
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As for Palin, I think she came down with a bad case of justwinbaby!-itis.
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Probably caught it off of Ann Coulter.
Old RINOs never die they just wax stupider.
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Reminds of my confusion at the end of “The Wizard of Oz.” Why would Dorothy want to go back to Kansas?
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I liked Palin inn 2008. I was wrong.
“I’m not a fan of Trump, but I have a had time imagining a scenario where one could win but the other couldn’t.”
Trump is a candidate made for the Clinton slime machine. He has more skeletons than the Catacombs. He also does not really believe in anything except his ego and his money.
Bob Dole has remarkable grit. He managed to pull himself together after the war and build a life as a productive adult. He’s 92 years old and still working.
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The sad thing is, that’s an artifact of having no interests other than work; he eventually put the devoted and congenial women he had no interest in out on the curb; the daughter he had no interest in has remained a spinster her whole life, denying him grandchildren to ignore. His staff had high turnover, because he fancies people should put in 80 hour weeks to do political scut work for him and put up with his acerbic insults, which few Capitol Hill apparatchiks are willing to do for very long. A Reagan biographer reviewing the dealings he had with RR had this description of him: “major heel”.
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The Republican Party is suffering badly (and has Trump flu) from the pointless machinations of Addison Mitchell McConnell et al, i.e. people of the same type and out of the same stable as R.J. Dole, so Dole’s criticisms of anyone require a measure of obtuseness or chutzpah that most of us can only shoot for in vain.
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The one thing I like about Cruz is that he called McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate, and did so on a matter of principle which exposed just how worthless McConnell’s ‘leadership’ really is.
He has more skeletons than the Catacombs.
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Maybe. I tend to think it’s rather like Ed Koch’s ‘homosexuality’. If it were true, we’d know the names by now.
A pig like Trump might (might) be what it takes to beat the Clinton slime machine. Assuming that the machine doesn’t first succumb to Bernie Sanders of course.
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You can still like Palin and think she’s wrong.
The Establishment knows that Cruz could win and Trump can’t,
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The general election polls published by Real Clear Politics show that all four leading Republican candidates poll about the same when matched with HRC or Sanders.
Old RINOs never die they just wax stupider.
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The RINO discourse is just stupid and needs to go away. That’s the damndest appellation to apply to Dole.
I much prefer Mark Steyn’s DIABLO, but it doesn’t seem to have caught on.
I much prefer Mark Steyn’s DIABLO, but it doesn’t seem to have caught on.
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The American Conservative Union collects data on the voting records of sitting members of Congress. The records of Republican and Democratic members are quite dissimilar and bimodally distributed, so, no, that’s not a proper appellation either. Even a generation ago, Republicans with voting records more like the Democratic caucus than like their own did not number more than 20 or so (and were balanced by a much larger population of Dixiecrats). As we speak, such Republicans number zero. The problem is the concept Republican members have of what it means to be doing their job. That has some congruence with how Democratic members understand what they’re up to (cadging goodies for local industry), but the impulses of the two subpopulations differ quite a bit outside that. How Cruz differs from McConnell is that the latter’s happy to shill for the Chamber of Commerce and the former is not, not that the latter’s a ‘liberal’ and the other is not. Bernie Sanders likely does not think highly of that Donohue fellow either.
I question his allegiance to the party
Sounds like something Stalin would say. Given what the GOP seems to stand for lately, I see that as a plus, not a minus. I would prefer allegiance to principles, not a party.
Wow, [Dole] won the Iowa caucuses…twice! Certainly makes him an expert.
Dole? Dole….Dole? Wasn’t he running against Ike?
T. Shaw, Nothing wrong liking and missing the Palin of 2008. http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/s-e-cupp-sarah-palin-article-1.2502304
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Speaking of endorsements from senior citizens, Phyliss Schlafly’s endorsement was a surprise and disappointing. I can’t disagree with saying seeing Cruz on Supreme Court is a good idea.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/01/10/phyllis-schlafly-makes-the-case-for-president-trump/
The best comments in one bunch I’ve seen in a long time, good job guys!
Again, what’s wrong with Trump? Facts only, please.
Trump has no convictions. Over the years he has massively contributed to liberal Democrats. He is as much a Republican as I am a Communist.
art deco – hurrah!
For Bob Dole, the 1964 blow-out of the Barry Goldwater campaign is a living memory. For the not-born-yet Ted Cruz it’s something in a history book. Just look around you, the Democrats and their media operatives with bylines are already using means fair and foul to pin the “Extremist!” label on Ted Cruz.
Bob Dole never had a clue why the Republicans gained back Congress in 1994 and it is interesting that he was willing to give up being majority leader in 1996 for a forlorn Presidential run. Being in charge in Congress for Republicans seemed to violate a natural law to Dole. The role of the Republican Party was to be the Avis of the political world and to act as the tax collectors of the welfare state, the chillingly accurate assessment of Dole by Gingrich.
Carthage must be destroyed! – we need to move out of the reach of the establishment Republicans , those who had pre ordained JEB”S rightful ascent [ $110 MM] to the throne of POTUS and we need to try to take back america.
Yea, Trump in a field of saints would be a misfit; when i apply the laws of relativity , he is a supernova ….. sins of the past in politics might be likened to a bad credit rating when you we’re young, cavalier and stupid. You have to play the game the establishment deals….
DRM – saying he has blemishes and skeletons is slightly less than specific ….. did you vote for obama in 08? is he less blemsihed than the divorced Trump, in his past?
Yes, we have no GOP president. We have no GOP president today.
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I don’t care to hear opinions on how to win presidential elections from the professionals that backed the guys that lost their races: Bush Sr., Dole, McCain, Romney. Hey! What do they have in common? They’re the GOP/Dem/Beltway axis/establishment and it didn’t really matter if they won or lost. They didn’t lose their gross livelihoods. And anyhow, they basically gave the liberals just about everything the lying, liar libs wanted.
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They hate Cruz b/c he’s not their man. For them, Cruz as Prez would be worse than Harridan Hillary. Likely, She would play their game, Cruz not so much.
“did you vote for obama in 08?”
Surely you jest? I would sooner have had my right arm sawed off.
As for Trump he gives ignorant, arrogant, self-serving blowhards a very bad name.
Michael Dowd:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2016/01/the-gloves-come-off-but-why-did-it-take-so-long.php
Don is right. Trump is a blowhard man-child who believes only in himself, though deeply. Whether that is a better option than a corrupt b*tch who believes in all the wrong things or a communist with a (very) human face is admittedly hard to know.
Well. Don, it looks like you just had your name taken off the RNC debate moderator list for life….
That disappoints me Don, in that I was hoping to ask Trump just how many times companies he owns have found themselves in bankruptcy. Donald Trump campaign slogan: I will fire the country if it does not live up to my standards!
MIchael Dowd,
Let Trump tell you in his own words. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcUCLwWCihE
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A reminder there was one man who predicted and warned the GOP it would be in this position if no action was taken: http://www.redstate.com/diary/sweetie15/2016/01/24/public-apology/
hey Don “did you vote for obama in 08?” [Reply] Surely you jest? I would sooner have had my right arm sawed off.
As for Trump he gives ignorant, arrogant, self-serving blowhards a very bad name.
surley, i DO jest! yet your response lacks the requested specificity again, as most innuendos’ do. you impugn his character without detail – what is it you so dislike in the man? specifically, arrogance is annoying – american elitism ?? how many foreign cemeteries do we have here on our soil? -ignorant- show me? self serving? where
and Michael – all generalities are false, including this one. What is your issue with the man – that he believes? that he is successful – that he is divorced ? that he once behaved as members of the party of death do behave? be specific!! – is it his frankness and lack of political play with words and dis-ingenuity as democrats have in not answering a plain simple question? When i invoke the theory of relativity, he shines as a nova among all politicians on the national stage- when i consider his statements against the actions of the current muzzi pretender in the office of POTUS and his entourage, i take delight. e.g in his stand on Immigration, funding PP, Abortion, tax code, Education, VA reform,2nd amendment rights etc. – sure he could be lying to me – gee- has that ever happened before? Barry H Soetero, Ted Kennedy, al domato, Jake Javitz, Arlen Specter, Nancy Pelosi, biden, all belong in a special class and the Christ has prepared a special place for them in hell. You two seem to put Trump in that room too and i just don’t get it – he’s a blow hard[ that executes and performs] and gets in your face – yea he does – he has a rapier wit that he is not afraid to use, yes and if you worked in higher level business , that lack of delicacy and to the point frankness is needed- Rome is burning.!!! WYSIWYG No??
I’m independent and don’t vote in GOP primaries.
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Of course, I’ll vote Trump vs. Midget Mike Bloomberg, Harridan Hillary, or Comrade Sanders.
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However, I don’t trust Trump any more than his long-time friends Midget Mike and Harridan Hillary.
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He’s not such a genius. Trump, unlike other NYC real estate heirs, started on third base and did not to lose his inherited wealth. That doesn’t make him a genius. For example, he (no, his limited-liability corporations) spent huge amounts building three garish casinos in Atlantic City, NJ so as to compete in a declining market with each other and with ten other casinos already going bankrupt there.
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The problem with Trump is that he only knows how to develop, high-end NJ/NY/FL real estate(establish limited-liability corporation to go bankrupt if the project fails, bullshit bankers/investors and cheat contractors – pay 80% of contract and tell them to sue) and to throw around junior high school insults at stupid people on reality TV shows and, now, GOP and Dem presidential hopefuls. Beyond those steaming piles of nothing useful, he is either starkly ignorant about everything or a bilious, blowhard liar (see his past associations and positions on issues confronting us).
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We don’t need another unqualified narcissist in the WH.
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The US has suffered under Obama whose only experience was organizing sit-ins (to extort money from corrupt, corporate elites) in Chicago. President Trump will not have the lying, liar media to cover for his failures.