QOTD: Nate Silver
by digby
Nate Silver rounds up his fellow data analysts for a chat about the state of the race and other things every few days and it’s always interesting. Highly recommended.
But I loved this exchange today between Silver and Harry Enten:
natesilver: Let’s spare a few moments for our friend Ted Cruz. Lots of powerful Republicans have spent three weeks trying to knock him out of the running in Iowa. But suppose he survives and wins the state by several percentage points. What does Cruz do then? And what does “the party” do, having fired a blank in their attempt to execute Cruz?
harry: Well, I think Iowa is a very Cruz-friendly state, so I don’t know what it means for “the party” on that score. I do think it’s good news for them, however. I continue not to understand why they are going after Cruz and not Trump. It’s one of the many things this cycle that just makes very little sense to me.
natesilver: Maybe they’re just not that bright. It was the same donor class that threw $100 million behind Jeb!, after all.
I’m with Enten — I remain gobsmacked that so many of the allegedly “reasonable” Republicans are so petty that they’ve opted to strengthen Trump the madman simply because Cruz has been a thorn in their sides. And they say Cruz is only interested in himself…
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Cruz may be a threat to GOP electeds but Trump is a threat to the the entire party as an institution. They don’t care.
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