Cruz On Trump

Cruz - Windham, NH 2-2-16Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz had some critical comments for Donald Trump Tuesday.  Speaking at his first New Hampshire appearance following his Iowa caucuses victory, Cruz criticized Trump for supporting “amnesty” during the 2013 immigration reform debate and for a more general mean-spiritedness.

In his first of two Trump critiques Cruz was harshly criticizing fellow senator Marco Rubio on the 2013 failed immigration bill  when he pivoted to criticizing Trump for supporting “amnesty” and largely remaining silent then.  Cruz’s second critique came in response to a question concerning Trump’s mocking of a New York Times reporter’s physical disability while attacking his writing.

Here’s what Cruz had to say:

Cruz Q

Ted Cruz responded to a single press question as he departed from a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire this afternoon. Cruz gave a non-responsive answer when asked how voters in New Hampshire differ from voters in Iowa.

Here’s what he had to say:

Christie On Iowa (Updated)

Chris Christie made very brief comments Monday night on the Iowa caucuses results.  Expecting to fare poorly in Iowa, Christie held a town hall in New Hampshire Monday night as the caucuses were being conducted.  As he greeted attendees afterwards Christie was briefly asked by reporters about his own performance and about Ted Cruz’s victory.

Here’s what he had to say:

Update – Photo Gallery:

Our photo gallery from Christie’s town hall is here.

Super PAC Slime (Updated)

“Man up.”  That was Jeb Bush’s response Monday night to complaints that ads attacking his rivals and produced by a super PAC supporting him are “slime.”   Earlier Monday fellow candidate John Kasich had condemned an ad from a super PAC supporting Kasich and called on Bush and Chris Christie to “take their negative nonsense off television.”  While giving nominal support to condemning “slime” Bush said that he had not seen any ads constituting “slime” and urged his fellow candidates to “toughen up and stop complaining.”  Saying “this is not bean bag here,” Bush appeared completely comfortable with such attacks.

As he spoke with a supporter after the town hall Bush gave a brief mocking response, saying in a baby voice “it’s hurting my feelings.”

Here’s Bush’s response during the town hall:

Here’s Bush’s later response:

Update – Photo Gallery:

Our photo gallery of Bush’s town hall is here.

Super Kasich (Updated)

Kasich - Greenland, NH 2-1-16Republican presidential candidate John Kasich weighed in this afternoon on super PACs, both one supporting him and those supporting key rivals Jeb Bush and Chris Christie.  As he finished a town hall in Greenland, New Hampshire Kasich launched into a condemnation of negative ads, including a negative ad aired by the super PAC supporting him.  He described himself as “outraged” by that negative ad aired by his super PAC, which he first saw this morning and “thrilled” that they have instead aired a “positive” ad.  He then called for his “good friend Chris Christie and Jeb Bush” to “take their negative nonsense off television.”

As Kasich then tried to end his town hall a man showed him a pile of negative mail attacking Kasich.  As he rifled through them Kasich facetiously growled “I sided with Ooobammaa! Aahgghh!”

Kasich did not stop to talk with reporters afterwards, only calling out “I’ve said it all, all I need to say” when asked about his comments as he briskly strode onto his campaign bus.

Here’s how it went:

Update – Photo Gallery:

Our photo gallery from Kasich’s Greenland town hall is here.

Band of Brothers

Kasich - Franklin, NH 1-22-16Republican presidential candidate  and Ohio Governor John Kasich rolled through New Hampshire with an ad hoc band of brothers last Friday, continuing his New Hampshire-focused campaign.  Kasich was joined by former U.S. Senator Gordon Humphrey, former Air Force pilot and P.O.W. Tom Moe who was held in the “Hanoi Hilton” alongside John McCain and who later served as the Ohio Director of Veterans Services under Kasich, and Tim Penny, a former Democratic member of the House of Representatives from Minnesota.  Tom Rath, a former New Hampshire Attorney General and Republican power broker, also accompanied Kasich but did not address the audience.

Kasich - Franklin, NH 1-22-16

Kasich - Franklin, NH 1-22-16Speaking to a modest-sized audience of about 40 people in Franklin,  the four travelers appeared to greatly enjoy each other’s company.  Their presentations were heartfelt, quickly moving into deeply personal territory.  Moe’s experience as a prisoner of war for five years, with beatings and other torture, is riveting and inspiring even 40 years later.  While discussing Moe’s time working in the Kasich administration as state director of veterans services and their meetings with families of soldiers lost in war, Kasich discussed the loss of his own parents, killed together in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.  His introduction of Tim Penny, a former Democratic congressman who served alongside Kasich, included the fact that Penny’s wife died about ten years ago.  Although hardly light and breezy, it all seemed to fit together and gave a window into Kasich and his compatriots. Continue reading Band of Brothers

Name That Shoe

Big shoes to fill?  Perhaps figuratively, but the next president will literally bring their own shoes to the White House.   With that in mind we have a test of your knowledge of the New Hampshire Republican presidential primary candidates – can you identify them by their shoes?

We have 11 pictures of 10 Republican candidates’ shoes (adding one double entry to complicate your guessing) for you to identify.  I shot all of the photos in New Hampshire as the candidates appeared at campaign events.  (The answer key is here.)

Jeb Hits Hampton

Bush - Hampton, NH 1-21-16Jeb Bush held a town hall in Hampton, New Hampshire Thursday evening, engaging his audience and finding support yet tangled in his many challenges.  Bush spoke to about 150-200 people for an hour and 20 minutes, with another 25 minutes spent saying hello, shaking hands, taking pictures and at times hugging everyone who wanted to do so.

Bush has many strengths; he’s skilled at retail politics and the back and forth of a town hall, with substantial experience as a two-term governor and knowledge of many issues and topics.  He continues to be hampered by his weak points, however.  Foremost among those weak points is a decidedly different personality from what voters have, so far anyway, indicated that they are looking for in a 2016 Republican candidate.  He’s not low-energy but he is largely low emotion, seemingly interested in ideas, data, how to change things and not structured around visceral anger.  In a campaign season dominated by Donald Trump’s disgust at the state of America and Ted Cruz’s attacks on government tyranny the analytical Bush is a man adrift.

Bush - Hampton, NH 1-21-16

Continue reading Jeb Hits Hampton

Sidenote: Cruz Campaign Bus Homogeneity

Ted Cruz’s campaign bus features photo montages on both sides and the rear.  From a brief viewing Thursday at a Cruz Meet & Greet in Manchester, New Hampshire it appeared that everyone in the photos is white.

Cruz In Manchester

Cruz - Manchester, NH 1-21-16Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz wrapped up a four day New Hampshire bus tour Thursday afternoon in Manchester.  Speaking to 150-200 people, Cruz painted a dark portrait of America as a “country[] in crisis” and “at the edge of a cliff”, with saving the country as beyond both Democrats and other Republicans.

Cruz’s basic theme was a combination of the destruction caused by President Obama, saying that “constitutional rights are under assault each and every day”, and the role of faith, prayer and Judeo-Christian values in restoring America to its rightful greatness, declaring that “there is an awakening that is sweeping this country.”

A bumper sticker outside a Ted Cruz meet & greet in Manchester, New Hampshire. 1/21/16
A bumper sticker outside a Ted Cruz meet & greet in Manchester, New Hampshire. 1/21/16

 

Cruz fully embraced his reputation as a man intensely disliked by many, including his Republican Senate colleagues.  Although his disdain is first and foremost directed at President Obama, Hillary Clinton and Democrats generally, he enthusiastically attacked the “bipartisan corruption of career politicians in both parties.”  His audience seemed to share that view, primarily rejecting Democrats but also showing disdain for Republicans.  Later, as the crowd dispersed, two 40-ish men were discussing their Cruz enthusiasm.  Their bonding intensified as each revealed that they were first drawn to Cruz “when he called Mitch McConnell a liar on the floor of the Senate.”

Cruz - Manchester, NH 1-21-16

Continue reading Cruz In Manchester

Kasich, Music Critic

Avowed Linkin Park fan, and Republican presidential candidate, John Kasich had a discussion of music this morning as he entered the New Hampshire GOP candidate town hall.  Kasich encountered Rod Webber, a New Hampshirite who tries to advance the cause of peace by presenting each candidate with a symbolic peace flower.   Kasich declined the flower, but lingered momentarily to talk tunes:

Kasich Press Q&A: The Franklin Edition

Kasich - Franklin NH 1-22-16Republican presidential candidate John Kasich spoke briefly with the press following a town hall in Franklin, New Hampshire this afternoon.

Asked who he views as his main competition in the New Hampshire primary, Kasich declined to answer directly and instead describing his “biggest challenge” as getting in front of enough voters.  He recounted advice he said he gives to his daughters; “in a race … if you look around you lose time.”  Kasich sidestepped a question on an attack ad targeting Jeb Bush that Kasich’s campaign just released.  Saying that “the campaign is gonna do what it has to do” Kasich added that “I let my campaign do what they want as long as it’s not personal.”

Kasich soundly rejected any engagement with a Republican group focused on “anybody but Trump or Cruz.”  When asked if he plans to visit Israel he said yes.  The timing of such a trip was unclear, with his only specificity being that it would not be before the February 9th New Hampshire primary.

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