{"id":4024,"date":"2016-03-03T19:47:17","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T19:47:17","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-06-20T10:33:08","modified_gmt":"2017-06-20T14:33:08","slug":"what_cruz_should_do_now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2016\/03\/03\/what_cruz_should_do_now\/","title":{"rendered":"What Cruz Should Do Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Listen<\/a><\/p>\n

RUSH: Jeff in Warner Robins, Georgia. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Hello, Rush. How are you today?<\/p>\n

RUSH: Just fine. Thank you, sir.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Great to talk to you. Hey, I\u2019m a Cruz supporter, and I\u2019m just wondering — I think that Romney\u2019s speech is actually helpful to Trump because it\u2019s just more evidence that the establishment doesn\u2019t like him. And I wonder if you have any ideas about how Senator Cruz might be able to combat that. I have one that I\u2019ll run by you maybe and see what you think.<\/p>\n


\nRUSH: Well, first thing, you\u2019re right. Every call we\u2019ve had today has been of the opinion, every caller has been of the opinion that Romney did not do anything but help Trump here by either making people madder at Romney and madder at the administration. Or more defensive or supportive of Trump, or insult them or what have you. But we haven\u2019t taken one call from one person who thought, “It\u2019s about time somebody said what Romney said, it\u2019s about time!” None of that.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been checking my e-mail. I can\u2019t check near all of it \u2019cause it is too voluminous, but everywhere I\u2019m looking for reaction, Drive-By Media and various TV networks and websites, everybody thinks what you think, that this is gonna get Trump an additional four points in the polls. Snerdley, have you seen anybody out there that thinks Romney hit a home run today? I haven\u2019t, either. I haven\u2019t found one person. Now, you tell me how you think this might help Cruz.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Oh, I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll help Cruz. I just wonder what can Cruz say, how can he react to it in order to spin it as opposed to, for lack of a better term, limit the damage.<\/p>\n

RUSH: The one thing that people need to know about Cruz that they don\u2019t know — look, I could be all wet here. I think Ted Cruz was an outsider before Trump. I think Ted Cruz came along and took on the establishment before Trump did. But the problem that Cruz has, he\u2019s an elected senator. That right there says the opposite of being an outsider. It doesn\u2019t matter that he\u2019s taken \u2019em on face-to-face, floor of the Senate, Cruz versus McConnell and so forth. That happened in the daytime. I don\u2019t know how many people actually saw that later on that day or later on that week on the news.<\/p>\n

But when you get right down to it, perceptions are what they are, and Cruz is the in the Senate. He is an elected Republican in the Senate, and Trump\u2019s not. Trump\u2019s got nothing to do with politics. He is genuinely physically an outsider. Cruz is an outsider and he\u2019s been fighting these people longer than Trump has, but he\u2019s been doing it from inside, from within. So I think what he needs to do tonight is just hype the fact that he is an outsider as well because that\u2019s the magic here, and he\u2019s got to let it be known that even though he\u2019s in the Senate and even though he\u2019s elected and ran for office, that he has chosen to take them on face-to-face.<\/p>\n

But I think, speaking about this, he\u2019s got to branch out and use language that is not specifically tailored to movement conservatives. See, I know what Cruz\u2019s election strategy is, or was, before Trump got in. And it\u2019s all rooted around the four to five million people, Republicans, who did not vote in 2012. ‘Cause I\u2019ve talked to Senator Cruz about it, and he is of the belief that if those four to five million could be inspired to turn out and vote, and everything else stays the same, the Republicans could win.<\/p>\n

So he set out to get those four to five million. And he\u2019s of the opinion that they are very conservative, movement conservative, even some of them evangelicals. That\u2019s why he speaks the way he does, he\u2019s speaking that language. When he talks about Obamacare, when he talks about the Supreme Court, when he talks about any of these issues, he uses language that you would see any movement conservative on a conservative website use or a conservative magazine. He needs to branch out and use language that says the same thing but doesn\u2019t sound like it is movement conservative ideological.<\/p>\n


\nAnd that\u2019s what I think the challenge is. His message isn\u2019t wrong. It\u2019s just he\u2019s limiting his appeal because he actually is trying to appeal to a small group of people. He\u2019s assuming that the people that voted for Romney in \u201912 are gonna show up and vote Republican again, so they\u2019re there. The four to five million that didn\u2019t vote, that\u2019s his target. Plus I think I heard him say once that whatever the total number of evangelicals in the country, 24, 25 million, so he\u2019s trying to talk in language that\u2019ll get to them, too. But he\u2019s got to branch out because that language is limiting, and it is language that inside conservative movement people use. So I think he\u2019s gotta harp on that. He can\u2019t let Trump own this outsider status.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Yeah. Do you think he could come back and paint Trump as an…? My view on Trump is just \u2019cause he hasn\u2019t been elected to office doesn\u2019t make him an outsider. He\u2019s been rubbing elbows with the powerful people in Washington politics for 20 or 30 years.<\/p>\n

RUSH: Eh, that\u2019s not… No. He ought to not even try to take Trump voters away. It\u2019s a losing proposition. Romney proved that today. He\u2019s gotta go out and get people that were gonna vote for Jeb. He\u2019s gotta get people that were gonna vote for Rubio. He\u2019s gotta get people were gonna vote for Kasich, Carson. He\u2019s gotta focus on all those Republican voters that did not vote for Trump. He isn\u2019t gonna take one vote from Trump because that isn\u2019t gonna happen. I don\u2019t think going after Trump… Especially after this today, going after Trump today is gonna be seen with piling on with Romney. And that\u2019s not gonna do him any good. Nobody wants Romney to be joined in this.<\/p>\n

CALLER: Okay, let me ask you this one. Does this tactic…? What you think if this may or may not work? Could you say that comparing Trump and Romney, other than the vast personality differences, they\u2019re both Northeastern liberals who, for most of their life were pro-choice and pro-gun control, and the —<\/p>\n

RUSH: No.<\/p>\n

CALLER: (garbled)<\/p>\n

RUSH: No. I\u2019m gonna tell you again. I\u2019m gonna tell you: You\u2019re going to lose if Trump is your target. Leave Trump alone! And not because you don\u2019t want Trump hitting you. There are many people voting in these primaries that are not voting for Trump, that are not voting for Cruz. He\u2019s got to go get them. And I don\u2019t think trying to link Romney and Trump is going to work after Trump gets through dissecting Romney today, number one. But, number two, you\u2019re not gonna talk Trump voters out of voting for Trump. It isn\u2019t gonna happen.<\/p>\n

Now, it sounds to me like you\u2019re more interested in Trump being discredited than you are in Cruz winning, and (sigh) you might want to join the crowd that\u2019s tried that, but there hasn\u2019t been anybody succeed at it yet. I just think there are a lot of primary votes yet to be had from people who oppose Trump. He\u2019s not winning a majority of Republican votes. He\u2019s getting a majority of the media coverage, he\u2019s getting a majority of the fascination. But when you look at raw vote totals, Cruz is only 79 delegates behind him right now.<\/p>\n

So… And I\u2019m not… (interruption) No, I\u2019m not trying to protect Trump! I\u2019m telling you the truth. There\u2019s no way that anybody is gonna talk Trump voters out of supporting him, and there\u2019s no… You\u2019re not gonna convince a Trump voter that there\u2019s no difference in Trump and Romney. You\u2019re not gonna convince a Trump voter that there\u2019s even similarity! It\u2019s a losing proposition. Even if it\u2019s true, you\u2019re not gonna succeed. Trump\u2019s supporters are glued, because it\u2019s about more than Trump. So the focus has to be elsewhere. That\u2019s as clearly and plainly as I can say it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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