Will the weather favor Trump or Cruz?

By Tom Quiner

Peyton Manning plays his best when it’s warm

The great quarterback, Peyton Manning, isn’t so great when the weather gets cold.

His record is 0-5 in play-off games when the temperature at game time is 40 degrees or less.

Mr. Manning is headed to his fourth Super Bowl after two gutsy play-off wins in a row. His team beat the Pittsburgh Steelers the week before last, 23-16. The temperature at game time? Forty-six degrees.

Then last Sunday, his team beat the New England Patriots, 20-18. The temperature at game time? A sunny fifty degrees.

I see a comparison with the upcoming Iowa caucuses. Donald Trump is a warm weather team; Ted Cruz has a cold weather team.

In other words, Ted Cruz has a formidable ground game with more than 1000 precinct chairs, 5000 volunteers, and some 240 people on their leadership team. This is the type of manpower than can get out votes, even if the weather goes south.

On the other hand, Donald Trump has a dozen paid staffers here in Iowa. Trump supporters tend to be newer to the process of caucusing. The current polls indicate a whopping 50,000 additional voters for this year’s caucus compared to four years ago, with Trump winning by 7%. But if turnout is the same as four years ago, which was a record year itself, Cruz and Trump are pretty even in the polls.

The weatherman says we have a brutal blizzard heading our way with a foot of snow or more in the forecast for Tuesday.

The Iowa Caucus is Monday.

Donald Trump better pray for Peyton Manning weather and hope he can beat the clock as well as Peyton has.