Cruz & Kasich Team Up Against Trump: What It Means

Source: The Resurgent | April 25, 2016 | Steve Berman

Late Sunday night, the Cruz and Kasich campaigns issued coordinated new releases announcing a deal to keep Donald Trump from taking the nomination.

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What does this mean for the campaigns? Let’s unpack it bullet by bullet.

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Taking back the news cycle

The press was ready to coronate Trump after his virtual sweep of New York. This Tuesday was going to add lots of fuel to that “Trump the presumptive nominee” fire. A shakeup of this magnitude (only recently we were yelling about how Kasich had to be in the Trump camp) cements the #NeverTrump movement where it needs to be, and removes all doubt that Kasich opposes Trump.

Let’s not mince words: Kasich badly needed some relevance here. This move gives it to him. Cruz needed a firewall against the dump truck of free media Trump enjoys. Both Cruz and Kasich needed to take the media cycle back, and the only way to do it was to make the equivalent of a political earthquake in the news.

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Signaling Indiana voters that Cruz is the choice

Essentially, this acts as an endorsement of Cruz by Kasich. In not-so-many-words, Kasich pulling out of Indiana, his last best hope of cementing a midwest bloc, is acquiescing that a Cruz nomination isn’t so bad.

Indiana is Cruz’s battle royale. Either it’s his Little Big Horn, or it’s Trump’s Waterloo. Making Indiana into a Trump/Cruz mano a mano is a smart move (and Cruz is a smart man). Showing voters that (1) Trump is not a foregone conclusion, and (2) Kasich is comfortable with Cruz is extremely important because it breaks Trump’s divide and conquer strategy.

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The path to the Cruz/Kasich ticket

This is by no means assured or even assumed to be the price of Kasich’s support for Cruz. What we do know is that Kasich is off Trump’s “short list” for VP picks. (Yay!)

Kasich would make a good VP pick for Cruz–not a conservative’s dream, mind you–because he has a certain soft-sell approach and resonates with voters in the important rust belt states. Everyone keeps saying that nobody can win the presidency without Ohio. There you go.

The stated price of Cruz’s Indiana Purchase is Oregon and New Mexico. But that’s far from clear. Oregon votes on May 17, and New Mexico along with California on Gold Rush Tuesday, June 7. By then, Indiana, which votes on May 3, will be in the history books. Should it become apparent that Trump will not win the required 1,237 delegates, Cruz could very well roll up the “Kasich” states.

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  • Discussion
  • Consistent April 25, 2016 at 10:15 am #5162

    • This topic was modified 7 years, 12 months ago by Consistent.
    CA Surveyor April 25, 2016 at 10:49 am #5166

    It means that finally Kasich is using some logic, and Ted is willing to show his soft side.

    Victoria April 25, 2016 at 3:02 pm #5180

    I am old enough to remember Kasich very well when he was in the House of Representatives and balanced our national budget – the last time it was balanced. He was excellent and I was sad when he left. He is a fine man and took Ohio out of the red into the black. He would be such a help as Vice President for Cruz. He has said he is not interested in VP, but I hope he will consider the country needs him by Cruz’s side. I have thought before he would be a fine man to have as VP, and figured maybe Trump would be smart enough to get him, but going with Cruz would be super. Kasich is a Christian and says it, his faith is his guide. President Cruz and Vice President Kasich – the country would be saved and Trump could go hide out in Trump Tower, never to be seen again.

    Consistent April 25, 2016 at 3:13 pm #5182

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