If you want on/off this ping list, please let me know.
Please beware, this is a high-volume ping list!
CRUZ or LOSE!Posted on 03/29/2015 6:44:20 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
As we have discovered since he jetted from the starting blocks as 2016’s first declared presidential candidate, Ted Cruz seems to be a lot of things: scholar, radical (or patriot), genius (or know-it-all), upstart, loner, throwback (or traditionalist) and all-around lightning rod.
Unproven, however, is that Cruz, a devoutly conservative Republican, is not qualified to seek the presidency, which was the position staked out by feather-trigger snipers even as Liberty University students showered his announcement with standing ovations. (Yes, they sort of had to be there, but they didn’t have to be enthusiastic about it.)
Cruz, 44, is a first-term senator with limited executive experience who started running for president almost (?) before he was sworn in 26 months ago. He betrays no appetite for the difficult work of legislation, appears to have no true friends on Capitol Hill and gives every sign he considers the Senate a launching pad.
What Cruz does have is a proven intellect, a silver tongue, an intriguing personal narrative, a well-formed political philosophy and a passion for unleashing it — while correcting the nation’s wayward course — from the Oval Office. Oh, and just this moment he’s given a hamster’s chance in a den of boa constrictors of becoming his party’s presidential nominee.
Taken together, the qualities affixed to Cruz describe, word-for-word, Barack Obama as spring dawned on 2007. Well, except for the proven intellect part. We simply conceded Obama had to be bright, despite an absence of documented evidence. Obama’s university transcripts remain sealed tight, and classmates or professors proclaiming his unique smarts seem lost to witness protection.
Cruz, meanwhile, has both the book-learning bona fides — he sprung from Princeton and Harvard Law School cum laude and magna cum laude, respectively — was a one-man Kentucky of the university debate scene and, says legendary Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz — a liberal’s liberal — is “off the charts brilliant.”
Cruz clerked for Chief Justice William Rehnquist and, as Texas solicitor general, he returned to the Supreme Court nine times to argue cases, each time incandescently, observers say. This is in no way to suggest the country will, or should, promenade again with an untested partner. Only that, in politics, weird things happen.
The real problem with Cruz isn’t that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The New Yorker’s Jeffrey Toobin, a grudging admirer, says his “comprehensive and comprehensible world view” informs “some very serious political arguments.” Yes, even on climate change. It’s not that he’s hypocritical, although if he’d opted for Medi-Share, the Christian health network, instead of Obamacare, it would have been a master stroke. And it’s not that he’s a lousy strategist, no matter what’s said about his filibuster that precipitated the government shutdown in September 2013. Every self-respecting Texan aches for his Alamo moment, and a year later Republicans dominated the midterms like Sam Houston at San Jacinto.
No, the real problem with Cruz is that he is absolutely certain he is right. About everything. Even for those on his side, the word for this quality, says wife Heidi, is “irksome.” To endure, he must learn to talk to, not at, those he needs to persuade.
To Cruz’s credit, he insults the right detractors, beginning with the usual suspects: California Gov. Jerry Brown, MSNBC, left-wing talking heads and elite journalists hammering out hit pieces for journals revered on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. But he also appalls the Republican establishment, who gave America Dole, McCain and Romney.
In other words, so far, so good. Whether this is the boast of the man on his tumble from a high-rise or some genius strategy, only the primaries will reveal.
“3. The Constitution was written to be understood by the voters; its words and phrases were used in their normal and ordinary as distinguished from technical meaning; where the intention is clear, there is no room for construction and no excuse for interpolation or addition.” —United States v. Sprague, 1931.
They’ll attack his father as a Castro supporter. That will only endure him to the left, however...
Precisely.
Heidi Cruz knows how to wear a skirt like a real First Lady.
I saw more than a few red-shirted Paul supporters applauding and standing up for Cruz.
Yeah, I noticed that too.
However, Rand did comment that he was glad to see his supporters at the event - but he never mentioned they were applauding for Cruz.
bttt
CRUZ or LOSE!B T T T
Dittos, I stand with Ted, he speaks for us and all of us with Ted speak with one voice.
Manifest Cruztiny ( I.e. manifest destiny )
Spot on. Hacks and slackers hate smart, serious, accomplished people like Ted Cruz.
Oh, and just this moment he’s given a hamster’s chance in a den of boa constrictors of becoming his party’s presidential nominee.
More like a mongoose I would think.
I am hoping that conservatives are strong enough to come together early to beat the stuffing out of the wanna bes
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.