Is Cruz regretting the "New York values" line of attack?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Yeah it's absolutely blew up in his face and anyone who isn't a dumb could see that coming. Even before Trump responded someone on AAD said Trump could just do EXACTLY what he did, and point out that the 9/11 victims and responders also had "New York values". Cruz just looks like a fool now. I mean yeah he was never going to win the New York primary anyway, but regardless it's going to hurt him elsewhere.

[Figueira]

Yes, although wasn't it a previous comment that he made? The moderator was the one who brought it up during the debate.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Seriously the negative ad potential for this is huge.

Imagine if Trump can track down someone who was a NYC firefighter on 9/11 who lives in Iowa now and they agree to appear in an ad. Or if he can find someone killed on 9/11 who was originally from Iowa, and gets to do an ad with some parents talking about how such a wonderful and brave person their firefighter son who died responding to the World Trade Center was.

[Statilius the Epicurean]

What is AAD?

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Trump's William F. Buckley response was also very good, but to be fair most Republican primary voters probably don't even know who William F. Buckley was.

[Vega]

What is AAD?

It is a nickname for politico.

[7,052,770]

Yes. There are New Yorkers and people with connections to NYC all over the country, especially in early primary state / general election swing state Florida.

[Sprouts Farmers Market ✘]

Trump's William F. Buckley response was also very good, but to be fair most Republican primary voters probably don't even know who William F. Buckley was.

Sad because the audience really knew who Strom Thurmond is of course. Strom Thurmond...great man, bring him back! Donald Trump...evil, evil despicable man ruining our party. (Obviously it was SC, but it was the SC establishment.

What is AAD?

A premium invite-only site for high energy posters and the lowest energy ones we like to spar with.

[The Dowager Mod]

the mouth breathers in the deep red states eat that stuff up, and he wasn't going to win NY anyway.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Yeah Trump literally ruined Cruz's night with that response.

[mencken]

Trump's William F. Buckley response was also very good, but to be fair most Republican primary voters probably don't even know who William F. Buckley was.

That was a masterful play by Trump, especially considering that Cruz paraphrasing Trump's own Cuban evangelical line against him was brilliant in itself.

[The Other Castro]

The most important states for Cruz right now are Iowa and South Carolina. Those states are the ones this line was meant for, and I think it will work for the most part in that Trump's response didn't harm him there.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Trump's William F. Buckley response was also very good, but to be fair most Republican primary voters probably don't even know who William F. Buckley was.

Most non-nerds wouldn't, haha.

[Ebsy]

Now thinking about it, bringing up William F. Buckley as a conservative from New York is probably the most Atlas answer imaginable. I'm beginning to suspect someone on TRUMP's campaign must at least read this forum or AAD, since a lot of things we talk about almost inevitably end up coming out of TRUMP's mouth. The Belt of Gold speech in particular incorporated almost all of the points from the Carson's Crazy Chronicles Thread.

[cinyc]

Cruz could have answered the question better by just stating that Trump is the one who said he had New York values, not Iowa values in a Meet the Press interview with Tim Russert to explain why he wasn't against gays serving in the military.  So he really was just pointing out Trump's own words - Trump said he is more liberal than most conservatives because he is from New York.

But I don't think Cruz is going to regret the New York values line because it isn't much of a negative in places outside New York, which he wasn't going to win, anyway.  And being a conservative from New York, I'm not even offended by it because I know it's true that many self-described New York conservatives aren't really that conservative when measured by national standards.

[Torie]

This right winger agrees with BRTD. NYC is still perhaps the most dynamic and influential place on Earth. It gave birth to the most dominant cultural strain in America, becoming more important than the competing strains of the cavalier culture of the South, the moralistic culture of Yankee New England, and the frontier culture of the Scot Irish. That culture emanating from the Dutch Americans of New Amsterdam is a mercantile one, based on tolerance and valuing all those who can contribute, no matter their background, practical, sometimes cynical, sometimes even brutal (thus giving rise to the birth really of the social safety net to try to leaven its sometimes very mean streets), but always dynamic, creative and yes "high energy." Senator Cruz, NYC is America, and more than any other place, shaped America.

Thank you.

[tpfkaw]

The more I think about it, the more I have to say that the whole New York argument was truly bizarre coming from "master debater" Ted Cruz. It's like he thought he was still running for Senate in Texas. Even if he'd managed to make it stick he'd still have looked bad to any general-election swing voters (or New Hampshirites) watching the debate with his dig at "pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage" people (who are more than half the country, Ted, not a great idea to insult them).

Plus Trump had already shown his hand that he was going to use the 9/11 retort in multiple pre-debate interviews. Which should've been enough information that it would not be a good idea to double and triple down. It's not like Cruz hadn't prepared for the debate; he had clearly prepared a very clever response to the whole birther controversy (making up the allegedly-existing "more extreme birthers" was a stroke of genius).

If you already know that Trump was going to bring up 9/11 (and it was a good bet that he would've even if he hadn't previewed it beforehand), then it should've been easy to come up with a good way to walk it back. For example:

"I used a poor choice of words to describe his choice of wives. And for that I apologize to all the wonderful, hard-working men and women in New York. Everyone in Texas was so moved by the grace and courage with which y'all responded to the tragedy of 9/11."

1. Puts Trump on the defensive.
2. Takes away the 9/11 angle.
3. By apologizing, takes away the "offended on behalf of New Yorkers" angle.
4. Folksiness subconsciously reinforces the original attack.

[Vosem]

Yup, he walked right into a buzzsaw. If he had avoided it, he would've been the undisputed winner of the debate last night, and possibly now leading nationally. As such, the result was probably status quo ante.

[wolfsblood07]

I like Ted Cruz, but he probably should have omitted that statement.  It's not a huge mistake.  We all know what he means, and I hope it does not hurt him.

[Orthogonian Society Treasurer]

Yes, and last night's debate will be remembered as the beginning of the end of Cruz's campaign. Trump's impassioned response lent him the air of a mature and reasonable statesman; Ted looked like P.T. Barnum in comparison.

[wolfsblood07]

Yes, and last night's debate will be remembered as the beginning of the end of Cruz's campaign. Trump's impassioned response lent him the air of a mature and reasonable statesman; Ted looked like P.T. Barnum in comparison.

If you are correct that this hurts Cruz, then there is a conservative candidate who might have an opening: Rick Santorum.
But still, Cruz can smooth this over.  He is a master communicator.

[Classic Conservative]

No after watching the press conference and reading Facebook comments from upstate NYorkers I think he doesn't. But I am going to see him on Monday so I may ask him

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Trump's William F. Buckley response was also very good, but to be fair most Republican primary voters probably don't even know who William F. Buckley was.

I thought it was awesome, but I had to explain to my wife who William F. Buckley was.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Yeah Trump literally ruined Cruz's night with that response.

That's for sure.  Cruz will recover from this somewhat.  What hurts Cruz is that his comment was a gaffe, and one of his specific selling points was that he was not gaffe-prone. For a guy whose campaign has been extremely disciplined to date, Cruz made a remarkable error.  Attacking one region of the country, even the other party's region, is never good politics; it opens you up to attacks of being a divider. 

Oddly enough, if Cruz had used the phrase "Manhattan Values", he'd be receiving less flak.  "New York" is both a city and a state, and this can be used against the entire GOP if he's the nominee when it comes to Congressional races and downballot races in upstate New York, and even Long Island, which lean Republican, at least.

Manhattan and small-town/rural Texas may be poles apart in outlook and values, but one of the talking points the GOP has pushed (and rightly so, IMO) is the point that the Democrats talk to Americans as members of regional, racial, ethnic, and/or special interest groups, while Republicans talk to members of regional, racial, ethnic, and special interest groups as Americans.  Cruz violated this principle, and, in doing so, gave the GOP that much less credibility in that regard. 

[Brittain33]

Cruz is not capable of regret.