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Cruz: If a Liberal Republican Runs, Conservative Voters Will Stay Home
Posted By Daniel Greenfield On January 24, 2015 @ 11:23 pm In The Point | 7 Comments
An important point from an Observer report of Ted Cruz winning over Jewish pro-Israel Dems. Interestingly enough he was able to get the attention of some people who wouldn’t normally turn up for a Texas Republican reputed to be to the right of everyone.
Another surprise is that Mort Zuckerman, the developer and owner of the New York Daily News who usually backs moderate Democrats, hosted Mr. Cruz for a lunch yesterday before the ZOA dinner.
And then a final surprise show of interest in a candidate who would perhaps have appeared outside the usual centrist spectrum of Jewish political giving. Michael Steinhardt—the investing legend and megaphilanthropist who chaired the same Democratic Leadership Council that catapulted Bill Clinton to the White House—hosted Mr. Cruz at his investment firm’s office.
…
Jerry Levin, past president of the UJA, revealed that he is not only a “born Texan” but a “born conservative.” He came right to the point: “How can you win? Can we help you? Is there a plan?”
“In this last election [the Democrats] chose between two traditional children of the Democratic party. They chose between California environmentalist billionaires and the jobs of union members. We just had a vote on the Keystone pipeline, where Harry Reid threw Mary Landrieu under the bus, and said, ‘I’m happy to have you lose your seat ’cause I ain’t willing to give up the $100 million Tom Steyer is giving to Senate Democrats.’ You want to talk about millions of blue-collar workers who are getting screwed? Republicans should be the party fighting for the dignity of work. There’s incredible potential there.”
Lots of nodding, some note-taking, and then Mr. Cruz got specific.
“In my view, Hillary will be the Democratic nominee. And I think Hillary is every bit as radical as Obama is. I don’t think Bill is, I think Bill is genuinely more moderate. But I think Hillary is. So how does a Republican win in 2016? Einstein famously said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. If you look at the field in 2016, it’s going to be crowded field, there could be a dozen, there could be fifteen. There’s one bucket that, for lack of a better word, I’ll call the ‘moderate establishment’ bucket. It’ll be some combination of Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney. My guess is two of the three will run. And my view is whoever’s in that bucket will raise tons of money. A lot of donors will rush to write them checks. And yet if the nominee comes from that bucket, the same voters who stayed home in 2008 and 2012 will stay home again and Hillary’s the winner.”
It’s an important point because the debate over 2012 is still ongoing. Republican turnout was good in some ways, but it lacked the passion that we’ve seen in midterm elections. If Hillary doesn’t become a ‘passion’ candidate then the electable liberal Republican might beat her, though that’s not what the polls are showing now. But if Hillary pulls an Obama and becomes a passion candidate, the most electable candidate who stirs no passions and offers no game-changing ideas will be spitting into the wind.
Cruz is polishing his message for the national stage. His comments about the Democrats are important and powerful. It will be interesting to see how well his messaging works when he has a national platform again.
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