[Hoot Gibson]

Ted Cruz apologized to Ben Carson for this incident immediately. Both CNN and Carson deserve much of the blame that they are not getting. If Carson had built a better ground organization, then his team would have checked with CNN and sent a clarification to his own supporters when Cruz's volunteers repeated the initial CNN report. It is crazy to think that all Cruz's supporters had to do was repeat a CNN tweet to flip Carson supporters to Cruz. Also, Carson has just cut his staff my more than 40 percent, so apparently, his campaign is on the rocks.

Cruz had more than 10,000 volunteers working in Iowa. It is unreasonable to think that Ted Cruz was prepared for the CNN tweet and personally orchestrated a political dirty trick in the midst of the Iowa caucuses. What he did personally was to accept responsibility for his staff and apologized for the incident.

What does Carson want, for Cruz to fire volunteers or a paid staff member for not doing the due diligence that Carson's campaign should have done? Nearly 190,000 voters participated in the Iowa caucuses. There are bound to be some incidents like this.

Contrast that with what Donald Trump did. He claimed that he lost the Iowa caucus because Ted Cruz lied and demanded a "do over." I have never heard a political candidate whine and make such an outrageous demand in my life. Trump lost Iowa because he failed to build a strong organization. Trumps big, vulgar mouth is no substitute for hard work and good campaign management.

The only thing that Cruz did in Iowa that I fault him for, which Rubio did as well, was to send out voter violation notices using publicly available voter information. I have seen these in previous elections and I do not like them. There is nothing illegal about them, but they are still a big turn off to voters who value their privacy. Cruz refused to apologize for the flyers, but I believe it was a mistake to send them.

Wide, as for your question, gay rights issues are not that important to me compared to other issues facing this country. I support equal rights for homosexuals but there is no right to marriage in this country. I oppose laws that make homosexuals a "protected class" and punish Christians and anybody else who wants to refuse to provide them with housing, wedding cakes, etc.

Whatever laws individual states want to enact regarding gay rights, including marriage, is okay with me but no federal court should be able to set aside the will of voters on gay rights, nor should federal courts allow homosexuals to trample our rights under the U.S. Constitution, regardless of state laws that may exist. I would oppose gay marriage at a state level, but absent a constitutional amendment, I would respect democratically adopted state laws.

Donald Trump is a liberal. If he is elected president, then all sorts of liberal goodies will be on the table when he sits down to sessions of Let's Make a Deal with Congress. There is no doubt in my mind that Trump would support federal laws to protect gays, lesbians, and transgenders from discrimination. He is no more of a constitutional conservative than Obama is.

Cruz may yet do something that disqualifies him from receiving my vote, but nothing has come close yet. There is absolutely nothing that Donald Trump can do to get my vote. Hardly a day goes by that Trump does not do something that makes me feel good about my decision. Dropping the F-Bomb during speeches to an audience that includes young children was the latest example. People deserve much more from a presidential candidate.