Ted Cruz's money machine has planned out how to market Ted Cruz to the masses. Their strategy? Point out that on a whole range of issues, he's willing to be
a bigger jackass than anyone else.
The $38 million super PAC supporting Ted Cruz plans to highlight polarizing issues as part of a full-throttle plan to turn out the white evangelical voters that can power him to victory, a new document reveals.
Keep the Promise, whose strategy is detailed in a 51-slide PowerPoint presentation titled "Can He Win?" recently posted to the organization's website, mercilessly attacks 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney as unable to elevate "wedge issues," or divisive issues that polarize voters, to the forefront of the Republican debate. Calling Romney a "terrible candidate with a terrible campaign," the slides pillory him as a Republican who managed to squander winnable states just like every other "loser" moderate candidate.
So the idea is to run a midterm-style campaign during a presidential year, relying on the overwhelming force of a worked-into-a-froth base to subdue more moderate voters both in the primaries and in the general election. This is, to be sure, a dangerous strategy, but it's also the most Cruzian possible strategy. He has always been the hero of those that consider ideological compromise to be something akin to treason; he's forever convinced that if he and his fellow Republicans had only tacked
even harder right on an issue, they would have won the day.
In other words his superPAC is even more delusional than he is, though to be fair that is all but a requirement for being a Ted Cruz supporter.
Cruz allies also see him as having "the most complete portfolio of 'Assets'" compared to Bush, Paul, Rubio, Walker and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. Only Cruz has the five ingredients for a win: "Small dollar donors," "large super PAC,' "social media followers," "grass roots support," and "sophisticated data analysis."
The long and short of this is that Cruz's people are planning a nasty, divisive campaign. Which is, after all, the Ted Cruz way.
