Google can and will swing millions of votes by the way it modifies its searches and prompts releases to Google customers.

The home run statement of Dr. Epstein, who admitted he was a Democrat, is that the rock bottom lowest effect of Google in a US election is 2.5 million votes if it uses its available tools to influence users in voter choices, with the upper effect in a range of more than 10 million votes.

Then it got very interesting as Senator Cruz questioned a Google rep on the company’s assertion that it is fair and impartial and would not attempt to influence political activities. Of course, that is a joke; everybody knows it is a joke and that Google execs are hair-on-fire leftists who would never consider voting for a Republican, and that’s just the beginning.

When confronted with Project Veritas tapes of Google exec commitment to the Democrat party success and willingness to organize an effort to make sure Trump was not re-elected, the Google representative was just short of speechless, claiming the position she took in the beginning of the examination, that she represented a company that was not in the business of influencing and manipulating the public.

I wanted Ted Cruz to be President, but Donald Trump is working

But I no longer think so.  

I'm incredibly pleased with Trump, including his tweeting.  

And I don't know of another professional politician who would have withstood the attacks from the Establishment the way Trump has.

Because they would have called any other Republican Hitler too.

Roger Kimball:

I was not always a fan. For most of the 2016 campaign, I supported Ted Cruz, a choice that many thought only marginally less bad than Mr Trump. But politics is the art of the possible and it turned out that the only two possibilities were Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. For me, that meant that the only possibility was Donald Trump....

TED CRUZ BLAMES TRUMP FOR RIOT AT CHICAGO RALLY - SO DOES MEGYN KELLY

This is not going to help Ted Cruz. Riot supporters are: racist Blacks, Liberal Whites and the press.

“Two rallies on behalf of Republican front-runner Donald Trump were derailed on Friday evening, after violence broke out in St. Louis, Missouri, and protesters took over a would-be rally in Chicago, Illinois. Ted Cruz hit The Donald on such violence, saying his campaign bears some responsibility for encouraging it.”

And here'e Megyn Kelly blaming Trump for rioters at a Trump rally.

Ted Cruz Ad - Anti Hillary

Jonah Goldberg admits defeat

Obviously, I have my agreements and disagreements with everybody on the stage, but as a political matter I’m not sure any trend lines will change appreciably because of tonight. A lot depends on which clips and exchanges become the basis of TV chatter over the next few days. But one thing is clear, any hopes of destroying Trump on a debate stage are now dead.

You don't get to where The Donald is in the polls by being a bad debater.

Trump More Than Doubles National Lead in NBC/WSJ Poll

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Donald Trump has more than doubled his national lead in the Republican presidential race ahead of Thursday night's GOP debate here, according to the results from a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

Trump is the first choice of 33 percent of national Republican primary voters - his highest percentage in the poll. He's followed by Ted Cruz at 20 percent, Marco Rubio at 13 percent and Ben Carson at 12 percent. Chris Christie and Jeb Bush are tied at five percent. No other Republican presidential candidate gets more than 3 percent.

Trump's 13-point lead over Cruz is an increase from last month, when he held a five-point advantage over the Texas senator, 27 percent to 22 percent.

Nikki Haley and the Republican Civil War

By this time Nikki Haley's State of the Union "rebuttal" is all over the news.  You can read the whole thing or watch the video below.  A rousing call to arms it is not.  It does not inspire one to go out and vote Republican.  In fact it's theme was not to talk about Obama and the Democrats but about "good" Republicans and "bad" Republicans.  

It points out the fact that there is a not-so-civil war going on for the Republican Party and her comments were shots fired in that war. She chose her side, which is a shame because this election is not going to be a slam dunk for Republicans. This was an opportunity to draw a sharp distinction between Republicans and Democrats even as the country turns against Obama. Instead, she chose, unwisely in my opinion, to fight the populist wing of her own party. That shows poor judgement. It also highlights the disdain that the Republican establishment has for the "country class" and the fear it has of losing control of the narrative.

This election marks a critical tipping point in the history of our country. We are either going to try to recover our former respect for individual freedom and self-reliance, or we are going toward the kind of soft socialism characteristic of Europe. The kind of culture that leaves them helpless in the face of invasion from the third world. Cultural suicide is fairly painless for a long time.

An analogy can be drawn between the "radicalism" of Washington, Jefferson, Adams and Franklin some 250 years ago, versus the desire of so many good British subjects in His Majesty's American Colonies to apply to King and Parliament for better understanding and compromise. The radicals won in part of North America but another part, named Canada, took the gentler approach. The rest is history.

As the Primaries Turn

Bud Norman:

If the presidential race turns out to be a match between a convicted felon and a constitutionally-ineligible foreigner, we’ll be rooting for the constitutionally-ineligible foreigner.

Possible Republican presidential candidates in 2016

• Donald Trump39.3%
• Ted Cruz12.8%
• Ben Carson9.6%
• Marco Rubio8.5%

ANN COULTER: IT’S TIME FOR THE OTHER 13 CANDIDATES TO DROP OUT

At what point in Donald Trump's inaugural address do you figure the GOP establishment will finally grasp what's been happening?


...


Trump is a runaway hit with Americans for the simple reason that he's the only candidate saying anything Americans care about.


After the San Bernardino terrorist attack, committed by Muslim immigrants -- which followed the 1993 World Trade Center terrorist attack committed by Muslim immigrants; the 9/11 terrorist attacks committed by Muslim immigrants; the Fort Hood terrorist attack committed by a Muslim immigrant; the Boston Marathon terrorist attack committed by Muslim immigrants, and on and on -- Trump suggested a temporary pause on Muslim immigration.


The other candidates responded by attacking him viciously. Now, the eunuchs are duking it out over who has the most aggressive approach to ... fighting ISIS!


Asked why he called Trump's proposal "unhinged," Jeb! explained: "Well, first of all, we need to destroy ISIS in the caliphate."


Marco Rubio said: "The problem is we had an attack in San Bernardino," adding that "what's important to do is we must deal frontally with this threat of radical Islamists, especially from ISIS."


Ted Cruz said: "We need a president who understands the first obligation of the commander in chief is to keep America safe. If I am elected president ... we will utterly destroy ISIS."


Why are Republicans talking about starting a war in Syria to stop Muslim immigrants from killing Americans in America? Is it our job to straighten out Syria? Can't our government just stop bringing the terrorists here? If Rubio thinks he knows how to govern Syria, he's free to run for president there. (Except he'd have to stop talking about his dad the bartender because Muslims don't drink.)



Republicans love pointing out that all the gun restrictions proposed by Democrats after every mass shooting would have done absolutely nothing to stop that particular mass shooting.


But the GOP's demand that we take out ISIS would also have done nothing to prevent the San Bernardino attack. As we know from Jim Comey, the director of the FBI: Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik were planning a terrorist attack against Americans before ISIS existed.


It's as if there's a law of toughness conservation: The weaker a candidate is on protecting our borders, the more aggressively he talks about bombing foreign countries, a move known as "the Lindsey Graham."


....

Here's an idea: We let backward, poverty-stricken, misogynistic, clitorectomy-performing Third Worlders scratch out a living in their medieval hellholes, and just keep them out of our country. Also known as: the Trump Plan.


Except the fun parts when Trump was speaking, the candidates talked about almost nothing else at the debate but carpet-bombing the Middle East, taking out this leader or that group, sending American forces to train Sunni Arabs, touting the Kurds, announcing their specific strategies for defeating ISIS, giving perfect little answers about our nuclear throw-weights and the "nuclear triad" and correctly identifying the "good guys" and "bad guys" -- all of whom live 7,000 miles away from us.


When do we get to talk about Americans?


Only Trump seems to care. Asked about dictators running the Middle East, Trump said:


"In my opinion, we've spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could've spent that $4 trillion in the United States to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems; our airports and all of the other problems we've had, we would've been a lot better off. I can tell you that right now ..."


The nice thing about having your own helicopter is you can see the terrain below. The rest of them keep bumping into one another, as if they're 9-year-olds trying to out-precocious one another on knowing unimportant military terminology and the pronunciation of foreign names.


As we learned from Spelling Bee champ Rubio, the "nuclear triad" refers to the fact that we have nukes on (1) the ground, (2) airplanes and (3) submarines.


Wow, isn't that fascinating? Having learned it, I now have to excise it from my brain, as Sherlock Holmes would, as useless knowledge.


Did FDR know how to change the oil on a landing craft vehicle?


These debates have turned Republicans into self-parodies of wonkery over common sense. Without Trump in the debate, the entire audience would have been asleep in 30 minutes.


Rubio lectures Americans that "we need to understand who ISIS is." Rubio needs to understand what a border is.


At this point, the most important question facing the Republican Party is: When Trump's the only one with the poll numbers to make the main stage at the next debate, what should he do? Card tricks? Juggle? Sing "Danny Boy"?

Ted Cruz and The Princess Bride: Who Wouldn't Want a President Who Can Do This?

Ted Cruz illegal immigration crackdown blocked by Harry Reid

For some reason I thought that the Senate was under Republican management.

Cruz rips press in debate

Senator Cruz Questions Sierra Club President Aaron Mair

Ted Cruz: States Should ‘Stand Up and Lead’ on Defunding Planned Parenthood

"I encourage every state legislature and every governor to stand up and lead on Planned Parenthood,” the GOP presidential contender said. “Unfortunately, Republican leadership in Washington is unwilling to lead and, indeed, it’s Republican leadership who’s joined with Barack Obama in leading the fight to preserve taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.”

Sen. Cruz: The Real Story of What Is Happening in Washington

DRUDGE updates on the Presidential Race

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Media thumps Trump, but polls show he's winning big...

Donald set to release tax plan...

RUBIO RAMP UP!

CONSERVATIVES TO GOP FIELD: DEFY US AT YOUR OWN PERIL...

Cruz wins Values Voter Summit straw poll...

VIDEO: Stage backdrop collapses on Carly...

Pro-Abortion Activists Interrupt Fiorina Event, Throw Condoms... 

MAP: Presidential Elections Used to Be More Colorful...

Ted Cruz Explains Why GOP Leadership Won’t Fight to End Planned Parenthood’s Federal Funding

Cruz has led the fight in the Senate against Planned Parenthood’s $500 million in taxpayer funding. He attributed its failure to Republican leadership’s decision to rule out a government shutdown.

“From a Democrat’s perspective,” Cruz said, “why would you let an appropriations bill pass if you can just wait until the end of the fiscal year, come right up to the edge of the cliff, and know Republican leadership will surrender? You don’t even have to guess on it. They promised you from the outset.”

This is a perfectly reasonable prediction.

More Ted Cruz

Ted Cruz on Obama Immigration Policy