Following a meeting of Wall Street donors and DC political strategists, the Cruz campaign has shifted strategy and announces a “Stop Trump” focus on North Carolina, Missouri and Illinois.

CNN shares some of in insider details as provided by Kellyanne Conway a CNN contributor, pundit and current head of the pro-Cruz Super-PAC Keep the Promise.

(Via CNN) […]  Keep the Promise, the main cluster of independent groups backing Cruz, is preparing to spend $4.1 million in a quartet of states that vote on March 15: Missouri, Illinois, Ohio and North Carolina. It is passing entirely on Florida, Rubio’s home state, where he trails national frontrunner Donald Trump badly in polls.

“We’re no longer doing anti-Rubio ads in Florida, because it appears he can lose Florida all by himself,” said Kellyanne Conway, the group’s president. “He doesn’t need our help.”

(more…)

Interesting.  Jeb was always the GOPe candidate.  The 2014 road map was constructed exclusively for Jeb.  At least 12, perhaps more, of the original candidates were part of Team Jeb.  Jeb Bush carries 4 delegates.  Jeb continues to be on every ballot. Jeb Bush will be in leadership role at GOP convention.  Jeb Bush always said he’d win the nomination by losing the primary.  Is Jeb Bush the convention candidate?

He met with Rubio first today.

(Via ABC) Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may be out of the presidential race but he’s not out of the game. In advance of the CNN debate at the University of Miami Thursday, Bush is meeting with all the remaining GOP candidates except his former foe, Donald Trump.

Bush will meet with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio today, then Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Thursday, according to a Bush spokesperson. (more…)

Trying to explain the significance of the last few days, in relationship to the Ted Cruz candidacy, requires the intellectually honest observer to recognize and/or accept the increasingly likely probability: we have been facing a manufactured “false dilemma” longer than most may be willing to accept.

“False Dilemma” – the fallacy of false choice, or the fallacy of the false alternative, is a type of informal fallacy involving a situation in which only limited alternatives are considered, when in fact there is at least one additional option.

In essence, presidential candidate Ted Cruz has been presented, by those who gain leverage in the presentation, as an option – to the previous “establishment candidates“.

Under this assumption, the intent of the option (Cruz) is to block the observer (electorate / us) from considering any additional alternative which remains outside the control of the presenting entity (the DC power brokers, GOPe, Wall Street donor class).

In order to recognize the fallacy of false choice, the audience must engage the new  information while reevaluating their prior assumption, positions and options.

That said, Team Cruz has shown new evidence of being much further aligned with the GOPe than most political observers, and high-information voters, might be willing to accept.

Here’s why: (more…)

After spending so much time following the internecine machinations of the professional DC scheme throughout 2014, it is a prudent and necessary duty to leave a footnote for the exit of Jeb Bush.

In the aggregate, we’ve probably spent more time defending the various Bush’s than framing their flaws, faults and self-interests.  Indeed, I’ve personally defended Dubya more than most from a re-writing of specific historical events.  However, there is a certain issue which deserves to be folded neatly into the recently closing chapter.

Any favorable opinion of the Bush Clan which -justified or not- was previously held, is now a long and distant memory.   The 2013 decision to run Jeb Bush for president of the United States in the election of 2016 has proven the historic detractors were entirely correct.

There has never been a more selfish or self-serving decision made by a top-tier political group of insiders, than for the Bush Clan to promote Jeb Bush knowing full well the electorate wanted nothing to do with another Bush candidacy.   (more…)

Be of good cheer and enjoy the removal of one-half of the globalists 2016 objectives; indeed a difficult Rubicon has been successfully traversed.  However, do not be naïve in thinking one significant battle means the war has been won.

The bloodiest battle still lays ahead.

♦ Jeb Bush has been forced out of the race.  It cannot be overstated how significant this victory is in the grand scheme of things.  The foundational block, upon which the entire road-map was built, has been removed.  However, the GOPe engineers will now shift attention to a scorched earth campaign to benefit their retention of power.

We would all be wise to remember in 2014 Chris McDaniels actually defeated Thad Cochran in the first GOP Mississippi primary.  It was only after their initial defeat the GOPe decided to destroy anything that stood in their way – again, the retention of power was the ultimate motivator.

We can now expect those same DC influences, including the entire camp that supported Jeb Bush, the old guard, to work diligently (albeit under darkened cover) to assist Hillary Clinton, and destroy anything that would interrupt their grip on power.

Yes, the GOPe would rather lose to Hillary and retain their place at the trough than to see entry into their cloistered club by the Vulgarian Donald Trump. (more…)

Polls Close in South Carolina at 7:00pm.  Sometime around 5:00pm most media will begin reporting “preliminary exit poll” information.   However, it is important for South Carolinians to IGNORE ALL EXIT POLLING INFORMATION. The media are notorious for using “exit polls” to influence the last few hours of voting.

POLLS CLOSED !

Donald Trump Declared WINNER

See the moment the Trump HQ heard the Donald projected to win SC primary pic.twitter.com/UDg9A9NWxa

— John Santucci (@Santucci) February 21, 2016

Meet At The Old Mill, We Ride West At Midnight !!

(more…)

At 8:00pm Tonight CNN is hosting a three candidate Town Hall with Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, and businessman Donald Trump.

The event is carried live on CNN broadcasting – and available via Live Stream HERE

Alternate (Non-PayGo) Live Stream HERE

(more…)

Unless something rather drastic comes out that needs to be deconstructed or analyzed, this will be the last presentation of a poll in South Carolina.  Why?  Well, quite simply, all of these latest polls are being too manipulated to be of any real value – Including this one.

The latest Fox News Poll (full pdf below) is data driven by Anderson Robbins Research (Democrat firm) and Shaw & Company Research (Republican firm), and not by Fox Media itself.  The sub-contracts have vested financial interests/stakes in the race – hence the under and over samples evident to present an outcome that cannot be assured as objective:

The results, while following a similar path to prior polls, are too fraught with assumptions and specific weighted demos, leading to high margins of error for certain demographics.

Here’s the snapshot showing the demos, including some of the higher MOE categories as noted. (more…)

“Reports of Donald Trump’s imminent demise as a candidate are clearly and greatly exaggerated. Like a freight train barreling through signals with his horn on full blast, Trump heads down the track towards a possible nomination,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

The insufferable agenda poll pushed by NBC/WSJ (constructed by a political PR firm) is rightly dispatched into the land of outlier irrelevance by a much larger sample (four times larger) Quinnipiac poll (full pdf below) released last night – showing a much different result.  The Quinnipiac poll is in alignment with all other recent national polling.

The top-line figures provide further evidence of a continuing trend.  As the field is reducing, Trump and Rubio are gaining support while Ted Cruz continues slipping backward.

These results are in line with other national and South Carolina polling and ground reports which reflect the top three race as #1 Trump, #2 Rubio, and #3 Cruz.  As a direct result the exasperation of Team Cruz will increase exponentially. (more…)

Virginia is one of those sneakily important states that doesn’t get enough attention unless something dramatic is going on (example: Cantor’s rebuke).  One of the reasons it holds additional merit, is because most of the DC insiders live there.

Virginia is truly unique, because it’s one of those places where the national anxiety between the GOP grassroots and the pontitificting establishment class can be witnessed in the local supermarket.  Seeing a key Mitch McConnell staffer in the same vicinity as an easily accessed dozen eggs, is the stuff vulgarian dreams are made of.  I digress…

The latest poll from Virginia (full pdf below) reflects an increasingly obvious reality – The more Senator Ted Cruz has to rely on bible-thumping, the behinder he gets.

The fight between the professional political class and the ordinary common sense patriots has been happening in Virginia for more than six years now.  Some victories and some defeats on both sides as the political war rages on.

Donald Trump has increased his lead in Virginia to 33%.  Marco Rubio comes in second with 19%, and John Kasich arrives third with 14%. (more…)