Free Republic

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz wasn’t taking any chances the other day when he announced he will seek the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Cruz launched his bid at what for him was the friendliest of venues: Liberty University in Virginia, a Christian school founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. It would have been difficult for Cruz to pick a more receptive crowd for his announcement. And he didn’t disappoint. He asked Christian conservatives in the audience and across the nation to imagine a United States without the IRS, without Obamacare and without abortion rights. Said Cruz: “I believe...

The left lost its collective grip last Monday, when Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas announced he was running for president. Really, it was the mirror image of the visceral way Republicans react to Hillary Clinton. It’s no overstatement to say that Cruz is absolutely hated by the left, loathed as the embodiment of right-wing insanity. Which, of course, makes conservatives love him even more. Following Cruz’s announcement, lefties comforted themselves by reassuring everyone within earshot that Cruz has no chance of winning. “It will never happen,” was the title of a post on the Talking Points Memo blog by...

John Zogby, founder of the Zogby Poll and the Zogby companies, is an internationally renowned pollster, author and political pundit. He spoke to the Trib regarding U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas becoming the first Republican candidate to officially announce a 2016 presidential bid. Q: Does Cruz benefit at all by being the first GOP candidate to be formally out of the gate? A: I don't think so, but it doesn't hurt him, either. He got the news cycle on a slow news day, so he took advantage of that and he got the announcement in his hometown newspaper first,...

A broad cross-section of Republican officeholders, major donors and conservative pundits are agreed on one thing: Ted Cruz has no chance to be elected president. The junior senator from Texas marked the fifth anniversary of the signing of ObamaCare by announcing his candidacy for the presidency today at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia and no one in the chattering classes thinks he has a prayer of being sworn into office as commander-in-chief in January 2017. Just about everyone thinks his positions on the issues are too extreme and that his advocacy of the 2013 government shutdown and the complete antipathy...

I work in a major department store west of the Pittsburgh area and I sold some jewelry to a lady who was buying it foe her grandaughter's tea party. Just to make conversation, I referenced the Tea Party political group. She said how bad they were and Ted Cruz is "too Christian." I asked, "what do you mean by that?" She said, "I'm Catholic and liberal," and I replied, "hopefully if him or someone like him was elected, we can start to fix the damage of the last 7 years." She didn't like it. People like that drive me nuts....

“He thinks he is going to do a Nixon to China. He is the man who is going to develop the entente, the understanding, the condominium with Iran to run the Middle East. We will join with them. We are going to recognize their presence, their dominance in Iraq, in Syria, in Lebanon, and now in Yemen as that will be the reward for having cut a deal with us on nuclear weapons.” “That’s impossible, O’Reilly said, “because if that ever were to come true, we would alienate all of the Sunni nations. Saudi Arabia, the Emirates…” “But that’s exactly...

After the theatrical launch of his presidential campaign Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz now faces a massive hurdle: raising the tens of millions of dollars it will take to mount a year-and-a-half long campaign. The Texas Republican and tea party darling is months behind his competitors in recruiting the megadonors and bundlers essential to a credible GOP primary bid. He’s not well-liked among cash-flush lobbyists. And his uncompromising policy positions and role in forcing the government shutdown in 2013 didn’t exactly excite the financiers and business executives who make up the elite donor class. Those considerations, along with the need to...

Former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, a foreign policy adviser to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening at the Washington gala dinner for J Street, a Soros-funded left-wing group that is devoted to disrupting the close U.S.-Israel alliance. Baker said that Netanyahu had been too forceful in his opposition to a nuclear deal with Iran, and that he had shown insufficient commitment to peace with the Palestinians....

MEGYN KELLY, KELLY FILE: Senator, good to see you tonight. A lot of Rand Paul supporters showed up today at the Ted Cruz announcement. Was that orchestrated? SEN. RAND PAUL: Somebody did. I'm not sure know who did orchestrate it. I kind of remember those days because I went to Baylor University and we were all required to go to convocation. So all these kids are required and some of those who are required wanted to make sure that just by having to be there they weren't expressing their support. But we were glad to see them there and organized...

File this under "If they had been doing their damn jobs" Go to about the 6 minute mark...the experts and the talking heads are only just beginning to figure out what they should have known Obama would do all along.

LYNCHBURG, Va. - Launching his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas asked Christian conservative voters to imagine a United States without the IRS, Obamacare or abortion rights - and to imagine they can make that happen by supporting him. His aspirational appeal on Monday, aimed at America's most conservative voters, could quickly run into challenges in winning over moderate voters - and eventually deep difficulties in governing should Cruz win the White House. But it's a message that Cruz, the first major 2016 contender to declare himself a candidate, is expected to forcefully emphasize in...

The horse race for 2016 is several months old now, so it might surprise you that no presidential candidate left the gate before today. That changes with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declaring for the presidency later today in a speech at Liberty University. He made it official this morning...

There’s a reason Ted Cruz kept asking his Liberty University audience to “imagine” a conservative president: no one of normal college age has ever lived under one. If Cruz wins the Republican presidential nomination in 2016, he will only be the third movement conservative to do so, after Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. (Liberals will count George W. Bush, but he wasn’t a product of the movement in the same sense as Reagan or Goldwater even if you think he was a conservative.) Republican primary voters are starting to imagine a conservative president. In 1999, Dubya led the field by...

Ted Cruz? Lizzie is a liberal like me now. But what if one day she embraces the Tea Party, like her grandparents? My parents are Tea Party. I’m a liberal. My husband is to the left of your average communist. Dinners together walk a tightrope of small talk — none of us wanting to veer too far in either direction, frightened we’ll go careening into a political abyss. Our daughter, Lizzie, is always a safe topic. She’s our Switzerland. But I’m not sure how much longer that will last. Lizzie, at 12, is becoming politically aware. She’s always been well...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz began his 2016 presidential bid with an impassioned appeal to the religious right on Monday, exhorting a cheering crowd at the world's largest Christian college to "join a grassroots army across this nation coming together and standing for liberty." "God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation, and I believe God isn't done with America yet," he said. "I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America, and that is why today, I'm announcing that I'm running for...

Now he belongs to the ages. Today Ted Cruz, one of the foremost representatives of the state’s persecuted Texan-Canadian community and the junior Senator from the North Texas tea parties, ascended from this state’s low mortal plane and affixed himself to the celestial realm of presidential politics, where he’s always thought he truly belonged. The announcement wasn’t a surprise, but when it happened (earlier than his competitors) and where it happened (at the evangelical Liberty University) was. What to make of it? Is this the beginning of a long, slow grassroots groundswell of the kind that Cruz harnessed to trample...

There is a fierce and sometimes bitter debate among conservatives over an Article V convention of the states to amend the Constitution. Both sides have worthy arguments. Opponents of a convention say that the Constitution need not be amended, but simply enforced. They fear that a convention will produce amendments that detract from the Constitution, leaving our constitutional protections of liberty worse than they are now. The fear is justified. Proponents of such a convention accurately note that the Constitution has been effectively amended by the legislative, executive and judicial branches, but not through the amendment process set forth in...

 Today Ted Cruz announced his campaign for President at Liberty University to a crowd of Rand Paul Supporters.

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he will run for president in 2016 via a Twitter post early Monday, becoming the first major candidate to officially declare. "I'm ready to stand with you to lead the fight," Cruz says as the video concludes. Shortly after midnight Monday, the campaign had launched its website.  Cruz had been expected to make the official announcement later Monday during a speech at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He is expected to start his campaign immediately rather than launch an exploratory committee, which many do as a precursor to a campaign. 

(CNN)Ted Cruz is first out the gate. The first-term senator from Texas announced early Monday he is running for president. Cruz announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination in a 30-second video message in a tweet shortly after midnight Monday. Later in the day, he will appear at Virginia's Liberty University, the largest Christian university in the world, where he will make his in-person declaration. "I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support!" Cruz said in his tweet.Cruz, 44, will be the first candidate to formally throw his hat in the ring for what's expected...