Has Ted Cruz figured out how to handle Donald Trump?
Has Ted Cruz figured out how to handle the volatile political entity that is Donald Trump?
It looks as if that鈥檚 possible. The key: deflecting personal attacks with a combination of humor and a hug. The result may make Mr. Trump look like he鈥檚 jabbing at a (metaphorical) pile of pillows, or maybe the.
Let鈥檚 back up a bit and start from the beginning. Senator Cruz and Trump have gotten along well since the latter jumped into the GOP race last summer.
The Texas senator has generally declined to criticize Trump鈥檚 controversial rhetoric and proposals. If anything he seems to have positioned himself to try and inherit Trump voters if the billionaire frontrunner鈥檚 campaign begins to sputter.
But in recent days it鈥檚 been clear that Trump has been loading Cruz鈥檚 coordinates into his insult-delivery artillery. The Texan鈥檚 polls numbers are rising, particularly in the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, which are now only weeks away. And Cruz reportedly told a group of donors earlier this week that he doubts Trump has the 鈥渏udgment鈥� to be commander-in-chief.
Firing commenced Friday, with Trump tweeting that Cruz should not 鈥渕ake statements behind closed doors to his bosses.鈥� Over the weekend, the Donald continued the Twitter-borne insults by saying 鈥淚 was disappointed that Ted Cruz would speak behind my back, get caught, and then deny it.鈥�
And in a Trump dropped a trademark personal dig, saying that Cruz is 鈥渁 little bit of a maniac鈥� in how he operates in the Senate.
Trump鈥檚 insults have clearly irked other rivals. His labeling of Jeb Bush as 鈥渓ow-energy鈥� comes to mind.
But what Cruz did was pretty smart 鈥� he pretended it was all in good fun, ha-ha, look what my pal gets up to! He brushed Trump鈥檚 words aside, or tried to.
First he said that Trump is 鈥渢errific鈥� and that a Trump-Cruz 鈥渇eud鈥� was a fabrication, that the GOP establishment鈥檚 only hope is the two of them in a cage match.
Then late Sunday he tweeted out a music video of the pop song 鈥淢aniac鈥� from the movie 鈥淔lashdance鈥�. (Which was about a welder who becomes an artistic dancer, but that is another story.)
鈥淚n honor of my friend @realDonaldTrump and good-hearted #Maniacs everywhere,鈥� Cruz tweeted.
And there鈥檚 evidence this strategy is working. Cruz himself is now arguably the Iowa frontrunner 鈥� he鈥檚 got a 10 percentage point lead over Trump in a just-released Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register poll.
He鈥檚 made inroads into Trump鈥檚 core voter demographic, blue-collar workers without a college degree. And the Bloomberg/Register survey shows that
Trump voters view Cruz favorably 鈥� they overwhelming pick the Texan as their second presidential choice. Cruz鈥檚 current voters are less likely to have a positive view of Trump, however, and their second choice is Ben Carson, then Trump.
Cruz is solid with Iowa鈥檚 crucial evangelic vote, while Trump is not. There鈥檚 still time for lots of minds to change, but right now it鈥檚 Cruz who seems to have pulled off the best Iowa deal.
鈥淐ruz鈥檚 strategy of embracing, rather than attacking, Trump 鈥� even after Trump makes controversial or offensive statements 鈥� appears to have served him well, at least so far,鈥� writes .
