by Dan Perkins
Clash Daily Guest Columnist
The results of the Colorado caucus have been the most contentious so far in this presidential primary season. Emotions have run high in both camps over the outcome and the ramifications of the decision. The critics of Mr. Trump have used the outcome to suggest that he is a, “paper tiger.” Mr. Cruz has been given kudos for the strategy of establishing a ground game that ultimately enabled the Republican State committee to award Mr. Cruz all the delegates. In fact, according to Andrew Galbreath of Inquisit, “Senator Ted Cruz won all 34 Republican National Convention delegates from the State of Colorado without any votes being cast by citizens.”
Mr. Trump was outraged on several different fronts. He said that he believed hundreds of thousands of Colorado voters were disenfranchised. He said that the Republican Machine made the selection and not the people. Last August when all the changes were made, Mr. Trump was the leader and some of his followers are suggesting that the changes were made to empower the elites to make the decision. Some wonder if this was the first subtle manipulative attack, by the party leadership, to try to prevent Mr. Trump from winning the nomination. Should we have national elections like Colorado and just let the elites pick the leaders? Haven’t we just proven in Colorado that we don’t need the people to vote? Doesn’t Mr. Cruz support this with his actions?
Strangely enough, if you go back to the New Hampshire primary, you can find many articles where Mr. Cruz was saying the same thing about the governor of New Hampshire being part of the Washington cartel against him. Several of the candidates on the ballot in Colorado indicated that, given the change in the rules, they didn’t have much hope of winning the delegation, so some of the candidates, including Mr. Trump, decided to bypass Colorado. They decided that the people were not going to decide the outcome it was the cartel that ruled.
On the other hand, Mr. Cruz built a ground game in Colorado, and working with the Republican cartel, was able to gain all the delegates in the state of Colorado. Some pundits have suggested that Mr. Trump got “thumped” by Mr. Cruz and his failure to win any delegates represented his inability to run an adequate campaign for the presidency, should he actually win the nomination. Lets be clear, Mr. Trump and all the other candidates were not going to get any delegates no matter how many visits or ground troops they brought into the state.
Clearly, Mr. Cruz’s work with the cartel leadership in Colorado paid a benefit to him and his objective of defeating Trump. I believe that the Washington leadership, and Mr. Cruz, both want to defeat Mr. Trump, but I also think you have to be careful when you make a deal with the devil. The idea that the mainstream Republican leadership is going to support Ted Cruz because he defeats Donald Trump for the nomination is unrealistic on Mr. Cruz’s part. I believe the leadership of the Republican Party, wants nothing to do with Mr. Cruz, they are simply using him to achieve their objective of eliminating Mr. Trump, and once that objective is achieved, I believe, they will turn on Mr. Cruz.
There is no doubt in my mind that Ted Cruz is a very smart man, but keep in mind he is still a first term Senator. I believe the Republican leadership has other things in mind to get what they want. I was told this week of a meeting, between the head of the Republican Party and significant donors, that a strategy might be introduced at the first rules committee meeting next week. Currently, Governor of Ohio, John Kasich, does not comply with the rule that says you must win eight states in order to be included on the first ballot. The story is that the leadership of the Republican Party is considering a rules change that would allow delegates to pledge their support for a person who had not won eight states prior to the convention.
The story goes that the chairman holds power over five Islands, which will contend are states for the purpose of the convention, one example of this would be Guam. These five islands have a very small number of delegates to the convention and so with three additional states the rules could be changed to nominate somebody on the first ballot who never actually won a primary or, for that matter, never competed in a primary. The Speaker of the House, Mr. Ryan, said that he was not interested in the nomination, would not serve if drafted, and believes that the candidate should come from the people who ran in the primaries.
We will know by the end of next week whether this end run will be successful, and, if it is, expect that John Kasich’s name will be on the first ballot in Cleveland. I wonder if Sen. Cruz thinks he can outsmart the party leadership and win the nomination by cobbling together his supporters, along with Marco Rubio supporters and uncommitted delegates to win the nomination. With a rule change like the one suggested, I have to wonder who else will be on the ballot? When you sell your soul to the devil, he wants payment.
Dan Perkins as a current events commentator for TheHill.com, TheDailySurge.com, and ReaganBaby.com. He is the author of the trilogy on radical Islamic nuclear terrorism against United States called, The Brotherhood of the Red Nile. He can be heard on Tuesday evenings at 8 PM Eastern on W4CYradio.com.
