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.
ROTFL! That's almost as impressive as a doctorate in education.
A Real geek does have a BSAE and an MSAE plus and a PHD in Engineering MGMT. Yes, the man had an 800 SAT in math in 1963 plus 780 plus in English. He got one B in his life. He was honor grad of every class plus three officer’s courses.
I guarantee the man would not hire you.
Does he call his sister’s daughter his niece?
Wait, Candy Crush? That's it, He just lost my VOTE!
Yeah, I still do some PC MMO’s to have some fun. I once claimed that I would be gaming on my deathbed.
My Nintendo is on my “If I should die before I wake” list of things not to be sold under any circumstances as are a few other treasures I have managed to hang on to from my kids younger years in the 1960’s.
Can’t believe you sold your ‘cuda. But then we can’t keep everything. We had a 1967 Plymouth Fury Convertible - gold with a black top. Had been previously owned by some bank robbers and had steel reinforced sides and trunk. Loved that car - it could outrun anything on the street or strip at the time. Wish I still had it.
I’m not sure I would go that far, but video games are a huge problem.
You owned a freakin BAR, who knows how many alcoholics were enabled in there, how many lives and families you helped destroy, and you want to focus on SPACE INVADERS MACHINES?
I mean, REALLY?
My ‘cuda got about 10 miles per gallon. It was a tank. I didn’t appreciate it at the time. Sold around 1980 I think. It was my first car and I was embarrassed of it. It is probably worth over $10,000 now. What I bought instead was a little boxy Honda civic. Oh how I loved that car — fiery red.
Shirley you can't be series. This is hugh.
Your posts are hilarious.
FF8 for me. 7 was very good but 8 was on another level storywise The tech of the day held back what it could have been. I would love to see 8 done for modern hardware
Ever notice people will sit for hours watching reality TV and football/baseball but suddenly get all ‘adult’ when it comes to videogames?
Talk about a logical disconnect.
LMAO
It’s always been a pet peeve of mine, all kidding aside. Some people spaz out about gaming yet they sit in front of a TV passively drooling and it becomes their life. They can tell you the stat of every member of the team, every name of the guys the shows resident whore was sleeping with, the price of some esoteric designer’s jewelry line...and then have the gall to bitch about gamers being mind numbed robots.
I absolutely love it. I live with two voters who are gamers. THIS WILL HELP. One will be voting for the first time in 2016.
This can be a great language for Cruz to speak with to 18-25 year olds.
What level on games do you want your senators to be??? ;)
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