Thursday, January 14, 2016

Considering Cruz' New York Values Charge

As the first contents in the 2016 Republican Presidential Primaries are less than a month away, the campaign has become hard hitting.  Brash billionaire New York real estate mogul and reality television celebrity Donald J. Trump has been questioning Iowa front-runner Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) as to whether he is a "natural born citizen".

Trump passive aggressively alleged that Democrats and other legal scholars will dispute if Cruz is legally qualified to become President, as Cruz was born in Calgary Alberta Canada to an American mother.  Trump trolls that the definition of "a natural born citizen" is still not settled law, as the Supreme Court has not ruled on it.  Hence, Trump claims that Cruz' status will be in legal limbo which may dissuade voters and draw attention away from the issues.

Senator Cruz had strived to follow Reagan's 11th Commandment of not criticizing other Republicans. In fact, Cruz refused to jump on the bandwagon of disparaging Trump during earlier outrages over illegal immigration and other controversies.  This may be attributed to the hope of eventually gaining the support of Trump supporters.  However,  Trump's attacks have diminished the lead Cruz held for the Iowa Caucus but putting doubt into undecided Hawkeye Republicans' minds.

With this in mind, Senator Cruz tried a new tact by charging that Donald Trump embodied New York values.



When asked to elaborate, Cruz played coy, yet he played up the cozy relationship that Trump had with the Clintons in the liberal high tax land of Wall Street.


This seemed like a prudent,calculated risk as there would be little hope of carrying the Empire State in the general election and it would likely swing to Donald Trump in the Republican primaries, The downside would be offending New York nebbishes like Peter King.


King's verjuice venom towards Cruz is unsurprising, as King denounced the  flying flip budgetary shut down strategy in 2013 as well as King's tendency to lash out against non-establishment Republican.


The kink in this strategy is the fact that Cruz partially financed his 2012 Senate campaign by liquidating the assets from an account accrued through his wife Heidi's employment through Goldman Sachs.  Cruz had burned his conservative credentials by running against Wall Street ad their New York values. While there may be no merit to the association, the name Goldman Sachs will muddy the waters (much like Trump's natural born citizen slime).

The Fox Business debate in North Charleston, South Carolina will be pair Trump and Cruz at center stage.  While the bromance will be over, it will be interesting if the top two candidates will have tete-a-tete attacks over New York values and natural born citizens or if the fireworks from the debate will come from other candidates trying to change the momentum in the race.




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