How valuable is this anti-endorsement to Cruz? So valuable that, as you’ll see below, he made an ad out of it with no additional commentary whatsoever. It’s the political equivalent of the famous wordless “Sports Illustrated” cover after the “Miracle on Ice” game in 1980: What else needs to be said? Interestingly, Rush Limbaugh played Carter’s soundbite in full on his show today, further evidence that Trump’s populism isn’t as much of a get-out-of-conservatism-free card on talk radio these days as it was before he went to war with Cruz early last month.
The splashiest bit of political news so far this week was Politico’s postmortem of Trump’s ground game in Iowa, with sources claiming that Trump could have gone bigger and better but held off due to the expense. Now Politico claims the same thing’s happening in New Hampshire — Trump’s organization there is weak and he’s refused requests to strengthen it, meaning lord knows what for the outcome on Tuesday night. Maybe his lead is large enough that even a poor GOTV effort can’t deny him a victory. He’d better hope.
But there is tension inside the Trump campaign about the robustness of its field and data operations. One person familiar with the disagreements said Trump’s state directors have been denied funding for their field and data requests…
But while the campaign has shifted resources into the first primary state, that move amounted to a single staffer — Stuart Jolly, a former Americans for Prosperity operative brought onto the campaign to focus on the Southern states that vote on March 1…
Republicans in the state predict those moves will be insufficient for Trump’s campaign to deliver on the expectations of a blowout the candidates has set by constantly touting on the stump public polling figures that show him leading by more than 20 percentage points in the state.
“He does not have a strong organization in New Hampshire,” said Republican operative Ryan Williams, a former aide to Mitt Romney in New Hampshire and a former communications director for the state party. “It’s kind of a ragtag bunch of staffers that didn’t catch on with any of the mainstream campaigns.”
Williams works for a firm that works for Jeb Bush’s campaign, notes Team Trump, so what would he know about winning votes in New Hampshire? Touche!
Trump was asked on the radio today if he thinks he’s going to win New Hampshire. He said he believes he will — but: “We’ll see what happens. I mean, you never know. I mean, do people come out? Do they vote?” He thinks they will, as do I. How could Republicans resist this ringing endorsement?
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