Ted Cruz Skipping New Hampshire, Focusing on South Carolina Instead

[Frodo]

Cruz looks past New Hampshire to South Carolina

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/ted-cruz-new-hampshire-south-carolina-218661#ixzz3z79LWmBc

[The Free North]

Kind of dumb, even if he is a distant second. At least pay lip service to NH rather than doing with Bush/Christie/Kasich did in IA.

[Mr. Morden]

The story doesn't say he's skipping New Hampshire, just that his campaign is prioritizing South Carolina.  As noted in the story, he's aiming for a top 3 finish in NH and a win in SC.  He'll spend the majority of this next week campaigning in NH along with everyone else.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

New Hampshire isn't a good fit for him anyways, but he shouldn't completely skip it.

[Mehmentum]

My thinking is that the best Cruz can realistically hope for in NH is a strong 2nd place.  The problem is that nobody's going to care if Cruz gets 2nd.  The story after New Hampshire is very likely to be either 'Trump is the comeback kid!' or 'Rubio topples Trump!', or some other mixture of 'Trump v. Rubio!'.

Furthermore, if Cruz does get in 2nd, the third place candidate is going to be in an even worse position than they would have otherwise been in if they had gotten 2nd (its all about optics!).  Cruz might not be quite willing to deal a knockout blow to one of his opponents when his other opponent would gain most of the momentum from it.

Cruz needs to be ready to do battle with Trump and/or Rubio in South Carolina and Nevada, not wasting his time on a state in which he's unlikely to do well in and even if he does do well he would be indirectly helping one of his opponents.

[Badger]

I knew The one thing Trump should've included in his concession speech was a mnao a mano challenge to Cruz to "see me in NH for round 2" or something equally Trumpish.