Inside the Secret Meeting Where Conservative Leaders Pledged Allegiance to Ted Cruz
Cruz this week surged to the top of several polls in conservative-friendly Iowa, and a string of soon-to-come endorsements should only help to cement that standing. A decision was made before the vote that members would roll out their endorsements individually rather than issuing a collective statement. This approach, they decided, would help create a perception that the conservative movement was uniting behind a candidate organically while dispelling images of political horse-trading occurring inside smoke-filled rooms.
.. Cruz blew the audience away
.. And Rubio, whom many had discounted entirely because of his immigration-reform advocacy, was surprisingly effective, leading some in the room to reconsider their dismissiveness of his candidacy.
.. Dobson, in particular, had been warning the group since summer that Rubio’s participation in the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” bill revealed him to be a weak-minded puppet of the political establishment.