Ted Cruz to Newsmax: GOP Will Lose With 'Establishment Candidate'

Newsmax ^ | Wednesday, 22 Apr 2015 04:01 PM | Sean Piccoli

[SoConPubbie]

Republicans will lose the 2016 presidential election if they nominate an "establishment" GOP candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz told Newsmax TV on Wednesday.

In a candid and wide-ranging interview at Newsmax headquarters in Florida, Cruz predicted that a candidate in the mold of a Mitt Romney, John McCain, or Bob Dole will nearly guarantee that Democrat Hillary Clinton wins the White House.

"It will, in effect, be a third term for Barack Obama,&qquot; the Texas Republican said in an exclusive interview with "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.

Cruz, who in March became the first major Republican to declare his candidacy, said that if he were elected president, he would put an end to the domestic and foreign policies of President Obama, which he termed a "disaster."

Cruz didn't single out any rival GOP hopefuls, but named the last three Republican general-election losers: Romney, McCain, and Dole, as examples of how to sideline millions of conservative voters who feel ignored.

"... all three are good, honorable, decent men. They're heroes, but what they did didn't work. And if we do it again, the same voters who stayed home in '08 and '12 will stay home in '16 and Hillary Clinton will be the next president," said Cruz.

This wasn't the first time Cruz used that cautionary trio in his presidential pitch.

In March, before he declared his intention to run, he said, "All of those are good men, those are decent men — but when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate."

[JRandomFreeper]

I don't want them voting for liberals. I want to take them into the fold and get them to vote for conservatives.

Just maybe not Republicans, because all republicans are not conservative.

/johnny

[duffee]

“Is he setting himself up as a third party candidate in event he is not nominee?

No, he’s just telling the truth.

[Yaelle]

Thanks for your forgiveness. Actually, it was a natural evolution. There are hurdles to get over. Did I know then that the GOPe was useless, constantly “reaching across the aisle” and drawing back a stump? Yes. But at the time I thought preventing more Obama was the top priority.

I’ve given up. We need to hold out for a Constitutional President. I don’t care what party. Though not one Dem believes in the constitution for real. I might have thought Dershowitz, maybe, one day in the past.... Though maybe the old idiot believe the Constitution only applies to on land. His boinking the teen girl seems to have happened mostly aboard planes.

But Ted Cruz gets it. Our Constitution is our country.