Harvard Law outsider became Tea Party hero: In liberal bastion, Ted Cruz played a familiar role

Boston Globe ^ | 11/10/2013 | Matt Viser

[poconopundit]

This is a two-year old story about Ted Cruz at Harvard Law School.   My hat goes off to 2ndDivisionVet who posted this a long time ago.

It's an well-written, objective, interesting, and candid portrayal of Cruz from the perspective of his professors and former classmates.

This is not a click bait article. No offensive videos and advertisements or long Javascripts. So it's a clean read and I think excerpting it will lose the power of this well-written piece.

I will tease you a bit about the contents. It includes details on:

• How Cruz decorated his dormitory room.
• His battles with liberal classmates
• His acting role in the 1st year drama Crucible
• Comparison by a professor to another Harvard grad.
• His drive and strategy to become a Rehnquist clerk.
• The event that caused him to pay a Boston visit.

Very enjoyable read.   Good journalism and written long before Cruz become a POTUS candidate.

[American Quilter]

Thanks, poconopundit. Marking for later.

[Zenjitsuman]

Trump beats Cruz with the Tea Party by a wide margin, this was posted on FR yesterday.

Cruz is old Newz. He can run again in 2024 against Ivanka.

[sphinx]

If the game was hearts, his signature move was to “shoot the moon,” the game’s riskiest, showiest, and most aggressive maneuver.

The author apparently does't play hearts.

Oh, Ted also bluffed in poker. Imagine that!

All in all, it's a highly favorable portrait. As a conservative at Harvard Law, Cruz was an outlier. Many would just keep their heads down, stay out of the arguments, and concentrate on getting their tickets punched. Cruz apparently reveled in being a contrarian, and had the intellectual chops to more than hold his own. Good for him.

[5thGenTexan]

He can run again in 2024 against Ivanka.

Wow. The Trump ferver is so high we are wishing for family rule now?

[austingirl]

Yes, that is all we need, another political dynasty like the Clintons and Bushes- why are some elevating politicians to kings and congress to dukes and duchesses in the USA?

[Bidimus1]

well he did refer to the Presidency as a Reign maybe the thinks we elect kings ?

[Qwackertoo]

Nice article. Thanks for sharing.

[Dr. Sivana]

The author apparently does't play hearts.

How is it that the author doesn't play hearts? Not counting the optional shooting the sun, what move is riskier than shooting the moon? If you almost shoot it, you are stuck with a lot of points. Hearts is my favorite card game, and if you shoot the moon early, you get friendly passes the rest of the game, and you can manipulate people' play by feinting a moon shot, where they won't dump points on you out of fear of a moon shot.

[ManHunter]

Yes he did. I was a bit taken aback at that.

[Zenjitsuman]

PPP poll of South Carolina: Trump 35, Rubio 18, Cruz 18, Kasich 10

[Zenjitsuman]

He can run again in 2024 against Ivanka.
Wow. The Trump ferver is so high we are wishing for family rule now?

Thinking ahead, there will be a woman President, I don’t want Ayotte, Haley, Warren. I wouldn’t mind Palin.

But realistically someone with business experience, media savvy, money, telegenic presence, a natural ability to speak before crowds. Ivanka Trump will be 42 years old by then she is the total package.

[Pollster1]

“There is a depressing tendency in modern political life to disparage those who disagree with you as either stupid or evil . . . They’re either too dumb to know the right answer or, even worse, they’re smart enough and yet they wish suffering on others and are just downright evil. The truth of the matter, most people are neither.”
- Ted Cruz (end of the article)

Cruz may have convinced himself of that years ago, but I hope he has learned better. People who would compel the Little Sisters of the Poor to pay for contraception and abortion coverage for nuns are evil. People who would fine a baker $135k for refusing to actively participate in a gay parody of a wedding are evil. People who use force to coerce others to do as they demand in the social wars are evil. Those are not the actions of people with a different but equally valid perspective.

This is a battle between good and evil, and the leadership on the left is boiling over with malice. Some of their followers are stupid rather than evil, but it is not possible to be intelligent and also good while supporting the left’s agenda.

[jmaroneps37]

I guess this means being second choice behind Trump makes St. Ted a TEA party favorite.

[Boogieman]

“The author apparently does’t play hearts.”

You play hearts and you never heard of “shooting the moon”?

[unlearner]

“Those are not the actions of people with a different but equally valid perspective.”

Cruz said, “most people are neither”.

That does not mean all. I agree with your assessment, but his statement does apply to most people. Conservative leaders need to articulate the argument for conservatism and why it works.

[sphinx]

Hearts, like poker, is a game of hedging the odds over multiple hands. More often than not, you try to shoot the moon when you are dealt high risk cards in enough numbers and in a pattern that you can’t sluff your way out of trouble. When you are looking at a hand that is going to get you 10, 15, or 20 points after sluffing, trying to shoot the moon is often the lower risk play. Sometimes you get burned, but over eight or ten hands, the risk balances out.

[Boogieman]

“6 But the thing displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord.

7 And the Lord said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.” 1 Sam 8:6-7

[SPRINK]

thanks for posting this...while the writing wasn’t fawning it was a hit piece either

[SPRINK]

I especially like the part where the Ted today is the same as the same as 20 years ago....Cruz is not acting conservative like some others in the race