Wow, here we are, and it is Wednesday, the second to last debate before Iowa is happening tonight, and we'll talk about all of that. We'll also do the first, the inaugural Ben Shapiro Show mailbag on the podcast. We used to do it on the old show. We will do it on this show, too. So we'll be doing that. Plus, all these balloons are here because my birthday is tomorrow. So happy birthday to me. I'm a 32-year-old Jew tomorrow,

which means I have one more a year until I become the second most famous 33-year-old Jew in history.

I'm Ben Shapiro, and this is the Ben Shapiro show.

Tend to demonize people because don't care about your feelings.

All righty, so here we are, and it is indeed the day before my birthday. That's why these balloons are out here for decoration.

They're also out here to signify the competitors in tonight's second to last penultimate Republican debate.

So here is Ben Carson, and here is John Kasich, and here is Jeb Bush. And here, of course, is Ted Cruz.

Here is Marco Rubio, and here's Chris Christie so in any case leading up to the debate I have to say that all of the pressure

tonight is going to be on Marco Rubio everybody is saying it's all about Cruz Cruz is the one who

has a lot to lose I don't think that's true here's's why. The main line of attack on Cruz tonight, there are going to be two lines of attack on Cruz. The first line of attack on Cruz is going to be along the birther lines. He was born in Canada, therefore he's ineligible to be president. I don't think that this plays on a debate stage. I think it plays in the press. I think it plays with a certain level at the grassroots. I don't think that it plays on a debate stage. And here's why. Donald Trump is going to say, they'll ask him about it. And Donald Trump is going to say, I think he's eligible, but I think that we need to ask the question because otherwise the Democrats will sue. And Cruz will say, let him sue. The only reason they'd sue is because they're afraid of me. Right? That's going to be his answer. And if they ask all the other candidates on the stage, if they think that Cruz is eligible, there's only one way that goes badly for Cruz. And that's if multiple people on the stage all raise their hands and say they think he's ineligible. That's not going to happen. The reason that's not going to happen is because this is basic game theory. The worst outcome for any one of those candidates is if they are the only person on the stage raising their hand when asked if Cruz is ineligible. If only one candidate raises their hand and says, yeah, I think Ted's ineligible, that person becomes the kook. Right? So to avoid becoming the cuck, nobody is going to raise their hand and crews will get away with it.

Plus, it's an

implicit rebuke to Trump, and they all dislike Trump. So I don't think this is going to be a big

problem for Cruz. The other reason that they're going after Cruz is because of these so-called

Goldman Sachs controversy. So apparently, when Cruz was running for Senate a few years back, he took a loan from Goldman Sachs to run. And this is not uncommon. People take swing loans from banks all the time, actually, to run. And it wasn't even a swing loan. It was something even more obscure. And they were saying that he didn't report it. Okay, first of all, the idea that that people are supposed to be ignorant of Cruz's ties to Goldman Sachs. His wife works for Goldman Sachs.

Heidi worked. and they were saying that he didn't report it. Okay, first of all, the idea that people are supposed to be ignorant of Cruz's ties to Goldman Sachs, his wife works for Goldman Sachs, Heidi works for Goldman Sachs. So the idea that he has no ties to Goldman Sachs, that's silly. But nonetheless, the media are jumping on this and trying to finish Cruz off with this one. Joe Scarborough on MSNBC, for example, he says that he thinks that Cruz's Goldman Sachs scandal

is really going to cost him.

So here's Joe Scarborough, if we can grab that clip.

It's about halfway down the list.

I think it's clip five.

Mark, the big complaint when you talk to Republicans, especially Republicans who worked with

him, Bush campaigns in the past administrations, is they say he's a hypocrite they say he's a phony

They say that he preaches populism

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