Posted on 03/22/2015 8:36:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
With the formal announcement of his presidential run on Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz officially kicks off his 2016 rivalry with fellow Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Sen. Ted Cruz will not only become the first person to officially enter the 2016 race to the White House on Monday—he will also formally kick off a new rivalry: Cruz v. Paul.
When the Texas Republican launches his campaign for president at Liberty University, he will do so ahead of an upcoming electoral confrontation with Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
Cruz and Paul are vying for the same post—the insurgent Republican frontrunner—who will eventually face off against the more “establishment” candidates such as former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
But there’s a sense of mischievousness to Cruz’s timing: advisers close to Paul leaked a presidential campaign launch date in the first week of April.
By announcing Monday, Cruz becomes the first Republican candidate formally running for his party’s presidential nomination—allowing him a couple weeks of peerless press and fundraising.
It is hard to imagine this as an accident.
Cruz’s campaign strategy, at least in its early stages, has been meticulously planned. Indeed, very little in Cruzworld happens by accident. It remains to be seen, however, whether the senator can maintain his control over the process during a hectic presidential campaign.
The Texas Tea Party firebrand is a man who often writes his own press releases. He admits to checking his phone’s Twitter app obsessively to test the pulse of the public.
(Earlier this month, I tweeted that The Washington Post’s Fact Checker had been less than fair in its evaluation of a Cruz quote. In the Capitol the next day, the senator came up to me and said he enjoyed the tweet.)
The Cruz strategy will not include aggressive, direct attacks on Paul. Instead, the Texan’s strategy will be passive aggressive: Cruz will praise his opponents on the issues they have common ground on, while the real criticism will be left unspoken and implied.
The setting of his announcement Monday morning, Liberty University, the largest evangelical Christian university in the world, is also telling.
While Cruz is willing to cede hardcore libertarians to Paul (some of whom are starting to become disenchanted with the Kentucky senator), he’ll be targeting the conservatives with libertarian instincts who identify positively with the Tea Party movement.
However, the president of Liberty University, Jerry Falwell Jr., has had some nice things to say about Paul in the past: in 2013, Falwell said of Paul, “especially after meeting him this morning, the more I thought to myself, ‘I sure hope he runs for president.’”
Cruz and Paul have always had a sort of frienemies relationship in the Senate.
When Paul held a drone filibuster in 2013, Cruz came to the Senate floor to show support. And Paul supported Cruz when the Texas senator filibustered on Obamacare later that year.
Behind the scenes, however, the personal relationships between Cruz’s and Paul’s offices have deteriorated as the presidential campaigns draw nearer. In Cruzworld, there is a belief that Paul’s staff has a sense of entitlement, that they feel that their senator was the insurgent candidate first.
It’s just not Cruz’s style to take on Paul directly—and it would be a bit hypocritical to start now. The Texas senator is fond of asking reporters whether they’ve ever heard him launch an unkind, personal attack on a fellow Republican (unless that Republican is named “John McCain” or “Mitt Romney”).
On midterm election night in Austin, Cruz told The Daily Beast, “An awful lot of folks in the media like to focus on internal politics in Washington, on the jockeying of one politician versus another. In my view, most Americans could not care less about politicians in Washington bickering.”
One example of how that fight plays out is the differing opinions Paul and Cruz had on NSA reform. Cruz was a co-sponsor of a NSA surveillance reform bill that made incremental reforms to the surveillance agency, while Paul played a role in sinking the bill in November, arguing that it didn’t go far enough.
The maneuver put Cruz between Republican hawks, who want the NSA to maintain its existing surveillance capabilities, and Paul, who was insistent that more could be done to curtail the agency—even at the risk of getting no reforms at all.
And that’s exactly where Cruz wants to be.
This is the second article I have read which refers to Ted as a "firebrand."
Must be a talking point.
I don’t think Cruz is gunning for Rand - Cruz has the conservative part of the Republican party and a lot of non-voting people pissed at the government ready to go. Cruz is going for whomever stands in his way, period.
Liberals always refer to Conservatives as a “Firebrand” or “Controversial” or “Polarizing”
If they play it right, Rand Paul can bring in Independents, libertarians, and disgusted dems to vote for him in the Republican primaries. Cruz can monopolize the conservative vote if the attention is drawn to him. If they could marginalize Jeb, Christie, and any other establishment backstabbers, that'll be a real service.
Scott Walker 2016!
Local Republican chapters may be inundated with calls from people asking "What can I do to help Cruz?"
That will go a long way to marginalizing those establishment stooges.
Firebrand - I thought they might be trying to slide in a “cowboy” reference without really calling Ted Cruz one of those hated gun-toting cowboys.
Competition is good! May the best man win!
Rand Paul’s chief competition is his father - Wrong Paul.
They are in a mortal struggle to dominate the anti military, open borders, legalized drugs demographic...who they expect to leave the Democrats for some reason.
Rand is NOT someone whom most of the base wants.
He’ll get the Paulinistas and the bussed in dopers, like his father, and that’s it.
In most states, Dems can NOT vote in the GOP primaries.
And IF, GOD FOREFEND,, he somehow wins the nomination ( which he won’t ! ), he’ll lose worse than Romney !
That's good....need to light a fire under the slothful GOPe
“without really calling Ted Cruz one of those hated gun-toting cowboys.”
Who in hell hates cowboys? That’s kinda downright insane.
If you dislike Cruz, who are you for? And Cruz is smart, he isn’t one of those idiots who trade on conservatism but really isn’t that bright, like Romney, like Santorum, like any Bush, etc,,,
He will never be caught flatfooted in a debate...ever. This is gonna be a treat.
Im used to the little dog whistles the leftist media(Both print and on TV) tend to use when referring to Conservatives..they say it to scare off people, same typical BS
Anyone that thinks Rand Paul is a credible candidate is sorely mistaken in my opinion. Paul is a wanna be that has zero credibility. He’s an also ran like Rubio.
Do they really think that people don't like cowboys?
Maybe they are trying to make a "trigger-happy" dig.
Yesterday I saw a talking head on TV say the following:
“She heard from a republican politician that Cruz has the same experience as Obama when he first ran, but twice the arrogance”.
So the liberal media has found another adjective for Ted Cruz...Arrogance!
Ted Cruz supports expanding H-1B visa’s to bring in more high tech workers. I support that agenda. It can only help expand the economy.
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