Ted Cruz Ping! 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 05/28/2015 7:30:21 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The senator is known as a Tea Party firebrand. What he’s not known as is a hidden geek who can’t get enough of ‘Candy Crush.’ He tells The Daily Beast why he can’t have a console.
Long before Ted Cruz became a senator from Texas, he was a gamer. He’s known for being pugilistic on the Senate floor, but sometimes he’d rather be fighting cartoon zombies on his iPhone.
It’s an uncommon lens through which to view Cruz, a controversial conservative figure who is now running for the highest political office in the country. Cruz’s video game habit fits into a largely hidden geek persona that lurks just behind his better-known public reputation as an obstinate Tea Party firebrand.
At the moment, Cruz is playing Plants vs. Zombies, a game where users collect sunlight points to feed plants who fight off waves of zombies; Candy Crush, the puzzle game where he claims he’s in the 217th level; and The Creeps!, a tower defense game.
His video game addiction is so severe, Cruz says, he has to proactively deny himself the ability to spend time on it.
“I don’t have a console, mostly as a time management tool, because if I had one, I would use it far too much,” he told The Daily Beast.
The Texas Republican explains the origins of his love for video games as a generational phenomenon. He ticks off his favorite games at his childhood arcade: Galaga, Space Invaders, Centipede.
“I was a kid growing up in the ’70s and ’80s. I had a Nintendo, an Atari,” he said. “I still remember the Christmas we got our first Pong game.”
His love for video games evolved over time as he entered college, then law school. David Panton, who was Cruz’s roommate for 4 1/2 years through Princeton and later Harvard Law, recalls all-nighters spent on Super Mario Brothers and Japanese fighting games.
Putting aside debate and school government, Panton said, “our favorite activity…was video games.”
“We would spend many hours playing video games, often until the sun came up. In reality, Ted was a much better player than I was—he beat me in everything—but I think I was sufficiently competitive that he felt somewhat challenged,” Panton told The Daily Beast. “I’m a far better video game player today as a result of Ted Cruz.”
Video games have only once entered into Cruz’s comments about government and public policy: in December, when he publicly mused about the overuse of drones in warfare.
“There are also concerns from the perspective of national security. No administration has used drones as aggressively as has the Obama administration. And I’m worried about what I would call video-game warfare,” Cruz said at a Foreign Policy Initiative forum in Washington, D.C.
Here’s where video games help: Cruz suffers from a perception of rigidity. When asked a question, his responses are always airtight and measured, the mark of a former debate champion. Often these conversations seem stilted and rehearsed. Unlike a more gregarious politician like Sen. John McCain, Cruz doesn’t make unscripted jokes or pal around much.
If asked a question Wednesday that he was previously asked on Monday, he will repeat his original answer nearly word for word, as if it were memorized, raising the risk of questions about how genuine he really is.
His passion for video games, and the way he uses them to connect with his children, cuts through some of that.
“I play with my daughters,” he told The Daily Beast. “One of the fun things that I do with Caroline and Catherine is we get on the iPhone or the iPad and play games. Drives my wife crazy. She doesn’t like it, but both girls like to curl up and play games. In our household, I’m the one in charge of taking the girls to Chuck E. Cheese, and it’s not much of a secret that I don’t mind doing so. I’m trying to get brownie points from [his wife] Heidi for taking them to Chuck E. Cheese, and she’s like, ‘What, are you kidding? You have more fun there than they do.’”
Geeks are cool now, they rule the world. So Cruz’s love for video games is an admission that presidential candidates have only really been able to make in the past few years.
But there is one time a video game was used against Cruz. In Texas’s 2012 Senate Republican primary, David Dewhurst launched an attack ad accusing Cruz of being “PAC-Man.” Dewhurst used the classic video game and accompanying theme song to highlight the funds Cruz received from super PACs in Washington, D.C. The ad wasn’t enough to put Dewhurst over the top, however: Cruz ended up winning by 14 points.
“I’m a far better video game player today as a result of Ted Cruz.”
LOL. there’s our campaign slogan.
Ted Cruz Ping! If asked a question Wednesday that he was previously asked on Monday, he will repeat his original answer nearly word for word, as if it were memorized, raising the risk of questions about how genuine he really is.
Actually, since his answers are based on unchanging core principles, giving the same answer would be proof on his “genuine” nature.
Same with me. I'd love to play what video games offer these days but simply don't have the time.
same for me.
Comparing Cruz to McStain is just laughable.
“don’t have the time.” You have far more time than you think, but you’ve chosen to spend it better. I’m right there with you. If I had video games, that’s all I would do. America sucks partly because real men are taking out their frustration on pixels.
Then you must not be very good at video games Mr. Panton, because if Cruz is only at level 217 on Candy Crush and is a self-professed addict, he is not very good either.
Ping.
I love Ted Cruz and he has already has my vote, but hearing him mention Galaga makes me like him even more.
Ted Cruz is a normal person. Who woulda thunk it?
That's because virtually every question put to him by the liberal media is a "Do you still beat your wife" gotcha type question which isn't really seeking an answer. He's smart to anticipate and script a non-answer to a non-question. Jeb wasn't smart enough to figure this out and got hammered on the easily dealt with Iraq question.
I was hooked on the first Nintendo Mario game. Then Tetris was a real obsession for me until I got to the end where the roof turned into a rocket. After that it starts over. Then Yoshi’s Cookie was fun except for the weird flashing light.
I got over it. But I do play with a gameboy once in awhile. I think the game I play is called Snood.
Candy Crush?!!! Fallout, Skyrim, X3TC/AP, or SEIV would have been much cooler.
And I too remember Pong. Simple but fun.
My dating years were spent with my husband-to-be playing a pinball game that would reward you with “You are a star player.” It was back in the day of the big arcade businesses. We were both pretty hooked on that silly game.
Okay, so this brought the first real smile of the day!
Tell me about it. I play Call Of Duty for 1 to 2 hours most nights before bed. I’ve master prestiged the last 5 releases and have been playing for about 8 years. I’m a beast! I’m in the top 3,000 of millions who play hardcore team deathmatch.
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