Fox News/screenshot A focus group reacts to Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) campaign ad.
On Thursday, a pollster went on Fox News to discuss her focus-group results evaluating some of the latest campaign ads being run by Republican presidential campaigns.
Lee Carter, of the firm Maslansky + Partners, showed how Republicans, independents, and Democrats reacted to a single ad supporting five of the major GOP contenders for the White House.
Carter said "the most surprising" of the focus-group reactions was in response to a new Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) spot, in which the hard-line conservative took a much more soft-spoken tone than he is known for.
"Barack Obama sticks by his principles. It's time for Republicans to stand by ours. That's how we win. And that's how I'll lead," Cruz said in his ad, speaking directly to the camera in what could be his living room.
The focus-group dials showed that Republicans and independents gave rave reviews to Cruz's campaign commercial.
"It showed a softer side of Cruz," Carter said. "I think a lot of people are concerned that he's bombastic and a little over the top. This was a really, really good ad for Cruz. And I think it was the best thing we saw this week out of the political ads."
Both independents and Republicans also responded very favorably to an ad from a super PAC supporting New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). That campaign commercial featured Christie's vow to keep terrorists in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Meanwhile, real-estate mogul Donald Trump's first and only television commercial thus far performed quite well among Republicans in Carter's focus group. The Republican front-runner's provocative ad repeated his proposal to bar Muslim tourists and immigrants from entering the US.
The two other ads featured in the Fox News segment from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) did OK with Republicans and independents, but not as well as the other candidates' ads shown.
If I had a "top-ten" list of things I think are wrong with politics in 2016 Am Amerika, the idea of focus groups would be near the top.
The whole idea illustrates our lack of leadership and principles. Nothing is a fickle as "the mob". The Founders realized this - that's why they gave us a re republic (not a democracy)
What if the Revolutionary War had been "focus grouped"? The D-Day invasion? Dropping the bombs at Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
If I had a "top-ten" list of things I think are wrong with politics in 2016 Am Amerika, the idea of focus groups would be near the top.
I agree. It is nothing more than a tool the Beltway Bandits use to control who our candidates will be so they can keep the bucks coming in.
Anybody that steps forward and bucks the tremd will be hammered by the focus groups,who are all looking for candidates just like the ones most of us have already rejected.
Every single one of these Beltway Bandit firms is dedicated to not rocking the boat and to keep thing going the way they are now. Anything else would be the end of their influence. "GOOD candidates speak quietly,don't offend anyone,and are all about comppromise in order to attract voters from all parties." Which is nothing more than a PC way of admitting "If you stand for everything you will take a firm stand for nothing",and "everything" is what everybody that is a cog in the beltway machine dreams about. "Everything" means there are no limits and no right or wrong.