Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., led the bipartisan Senate resolution effort in 2008 declaring Sen. However, Cruz’s responses appear to have become more pointed.
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Democrats remain slightly more certain than Republicans of their choices for their party’s primary.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop in Windham, N.H., on Monday. Real-estate magnate Donald Trump held a 28% to 26% lead over Cruz.
Cruz suggested that Trump’s increasing jabs at him just indicated the mogul was “getting nervous”.
Underlying this dynamic are the national GOP horserace numbers. Ben Carson is next, with 6% support.
Pierce’s profile of Marco Rubio in Esquire’s February issue at Esquire Classic. Carson is also down 4 points. Rand Paul is at 5 percent former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush at 4 percent, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee tied at 3 percent.
“And it’s certainly relevant, does a commander in chief understand who our enemy is, radical Islamic terrorism, understand how to defeat it not just based on what’s said on Sunday shows on TV, but actually understanding the nature of the threat and what is required to defeat it?” he asked, making a veiled reference to a comment Trump had made early on about learning about foreign policy from cable shows. The latter afforded dual citizenship to Senator Cruz in Canada and the United States because his mother was an American. Only 40% of Republican primary voters disagree that Rubio “lacks the experience to be president”, compared to 54% for Cruz. But 24% said it makes them less likely to vote for Cruz. A caucus is open to the hard core of that party’s registered voters who turn up at school halls and churches to sit through long debates before voting for a nominee.
Cruz has problems of his own.
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For the past week, Trump has said that Cruz should go to court and seek a judgment to resolve the matter of his eligibility for the presidency. But Trump’s willingness to break the rules of what a politician – conservative or not – should say or do, continues to be more of a strength than a weakness. “Being friendly to Trump has worked for Cruz in the past, but he may need to use a velvet hammer this time to protect himself”. These voters also mostly agree (63% to 20%) with Trump’s main argument that he will restore America to greatness. That can be a high-risk, high-reward strategy, reinforcing momentum when things are going well, but potentially triggering “Did Cruz peak too soon?” storylines if he has a rough debate or a bad few days in the polls. He is now viewed most favorably of the three Republicans included in this poll, and he topped the entire G.O.P. field in favorability in the most recent YouGov/Economist poll.
