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Jeffrey Toobin: Ted Cruz ‘Could Not Be Farther’ from Sarah Palin
Mediaite ^ | March 25, 2015 | Matt Wilstein

Posted on 03/25/2015 7:39:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Last June, CNN’s senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin profiled Ted Cruz for The New Yorker under the headline “The Absolutist.” Now that Cruz has made his 2016 presidential campaign official, Toobin discussed the senator/candidate at length with Fresh Air’s Terry Gross on Wednesday’s show.

Towards the end of their conversation, Toobin discussed what it was like to spend time with Cruz last year for a series of interviews. “Well, first of all, he’s just a very smart guy,” Toobin said, calling the former Supreme Court clerk a “law nerd” at heart. Toobin also called Cruz a “very polished speaker,” noting, “This is someone who is an extremely good political communicator. Now, obviously, you have to be receptive to his message which is extremely conservative.”

Toobin even defended Cruz from those — like Morning Joe’s Donny Deutsch — who have equated Cruz with someone like Sarah Palin.

“One of the things that I find frankly offensive when I hear discussions of Ted Cruz — they say, oh, he’s just Sarah Palin,” Toobin said. “You know, he could not be farther from Sarah Palin. This is someone who has a completely thought-out political philosophy. And you can agree with it or disagree with it, but it holds together.”

But the interview wasn’t all praise for the first official 2016 GOP candidate. At the same time, Toobin pointed out how “unpopular” Cruz has become in his own party, as evidenced just this week by Rep. Peter King (R-NY) suggesting he might jump off a bridge if Cruz becomes the nominee.

Earlier, Toobin criticized Cruz for suggesting the abolition of the IRS. “That strikes me as a false note in what otherwise I think is a fairly comprehensive and comprehensible worldview on the part of Cruz,” he said. “You know, when I wrote about him in The New Yorker, he was not quite in full presidential campaign mode. And if I can speak simply, he wasn’t saying dumb things like abolish the IRS.”

Listen to audio below, via NPR:

(AUDIO-AT-LINK)


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; U.S. Senate
KEYWORDS: cruz; palin; taxes; tedcruz
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1 posted on 03/25/2015 7:39:18 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I don’t understand why they all think its dumb to abolish the IRS. Its not like its required to collect taxes.


2 posted on 03/25/2015 7:44:27 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
“One of the things that I find frankly offensive...

He says, launching into a frankly offensive insult to Governor Palin.

Cruz/Palin scares the Rats and RINOs so badly they're wearing Depends.

3 posted on 03/25/2015 7:48:29 PM PDT by Talisker (One who commands, must obey.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Toobin is blindly arrogant.
He likes Ted Cruz because he is of his tribe - an Ivy League intellectual just like him. Naturally the implied (and unexamined) idea in Toobins head is that people like him are better than people not like him.
I do not see that having a “completely thought out political philosophy” helps a real politician, or a real statesman for that matter. Its historically absurd. Churchill didn’t have a “completely thought out political philosophy”, neither did Metternich.
I’m not saying anything about Ted Cruz, he seems a fine fellow, but on the whole being a fine fellow comes in spite of his Ivy League background, not because of it.


4 posted on 03/25/2015 7:51:42 PM PDT by buwaya
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To: cripplecreek

They’re just against whatever conservatives are for. That pretty much sums up liberals. Then later they make up reasons to justify it, and finally tack a label onto it so that they don’t need to repeat the argument. When enough people have forgotten why they opposed it, they may support it and call it a liberal idea.


5 posted on 03/25/2015 7:53:54 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder (The only thing the Left has learned from the failures of socialism is not to call it that)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“. . . Rep. Peter King (R-NY) suggesting he might jump off a bridge if Cruz becomes the nominee.”

Well, there’s another good reason to hope Cruz is the nominee.

Oldplayer


6 posted on 03/25/2015 8:01:29 PM PDT by oldplayer
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I think I already suggested before Ted Cruz announced that the Left will try to hang Sarah Palin around his neck, having in their mind no better way to keep him corralled from breaking out beyond his conservative base.

It is notable to me that even the Left’s Jeffery Twobit laid that to rest. I’m not sure it’s enough, or the end of hearing the Palin comparison, but it is a start.

Cruz was careful not to alienate that IRS point, when he was discussing his support for a simple flat tax, and then, only in the cooler style of a well placed after thought, did he add the words, “ideally we really should abolish the IRS”, and went right back to discussing the need for simplifying the tax rate with no more than a postal card.


7 posted on 03/25/2015 8:04:38 PM PDT by RitaOK ( VIVA CRISTO REY / Public education is the farm team for more Marxists coming)
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To: buwaya

I see no problem with Toobin speaking well of Ted Cruz. Gotta take it when you can get it.


8 posted on 03/25/2015 8:08:03 PM PDT by be-baw (still seeking)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

further


9 posted on 03/25/2015 8:15:47 PM PDT by latina4dubya (wheni have money i buy books... if i have anything left, i buy 6-inch heels and a bottle of wine...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Picturing Toobin a few years from now, muttering bitterly to himself as he does his taxes on a post card.


10 posted on 03/25/2015 8:17:17 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

When did Peter King (R-NY) become so popular?


11 posted on 03/25/2015 8:23:44 PM PDT by SeaHawkFan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Toobin ia an amoral a-hole who cheated on his wife. I guess that makes him qualified to judge the character of the most honest and patriotic politician in Washington, D.C.


12 posted on 03/25/2015 8:27:14 PM PDT by SeaHawkFan
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

As you know better than most, Palin was an easy target because she fit their paradigm. She was from “outside” the elite class, so when she said anything that they could twist int sounding dumb, it helped them marginalize her conservative beliefs.

Ted Cruz is from the “inside” - Ivy League schools, high-powered lawyer, former federal employee, US Senator. So his conservative beliefs are at odds with his pedigree which is awkward for the elites to deal with. In their view, a man with his credentials simply should not think the way he does. Because he doesn’t fit the mold he is not an easy target like Palin was, so they are going to have to work a lot harder and devote more resources to taking him down.


13 posted on 03/25/2015 8:30:01 PM PDT by bigbob (The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly. Abraham Lincoln)
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To: Telepathic Intruder

“They’re just against whatever conservatives are for. That pretty much sums up liberals.”

Sad, but true. Can’t get much more mindless than that.


14 posted on 03/25/2015 8:44:55 PM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

If Ted Cruz has become “ unpopular “ with the GOPe then ?
That’s all the more reason to like him and vote for him.
Haven’t donated to the RNC in about 10 years, you hear that RNC ? No Money to you dopes.

GET ON THE SUPER CRUZ TSUMINI WAVE IN 2016.

RINOS NEED NOT APPLY BUT GO HOME !


15 posted on 03/25/2015 9:32:54 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (The Keystone Pipe like Project : build it already Congress !)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Donny from CNN ?

SUPER CRUZZING IN 2016 : TED CRUZ / SARAH PALIN 2016 !


16 posted on 03/25/2015 9:34:51 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (The Keystone Pipe like Project : build it already Congress !)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Most people would love to abolish the IRS.


17 posted on 03/25/2015 9:35:07 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Talisker

The RINORATS got the hebegebies scared out of them.... GOOD TOOTING !


18 posted on 03/25/2015 9:36:24 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (The Keystone Pipe like Project : build it already Congress !)
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To: Georgia Girl 2
Most people would love to abolish the IRS.

IRS = Protected Democrat extortioners/goon squad.

19 posted on 03/25/2015 9:42:14 PM PDT by The Cajun (Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, Mark Levin, Mike Lee, Louie Gohmert....Nuff said.)
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To: bigbob

That’s why they are gathering all their forces and sources to bring down Ted Cruz and early.

They, both the left, the MSM and the RINOo elites see him as a threat to their golden boy or golden gal and needs to be stopped early.

Unfortunately for them, he’s got a voice that’s being heard not since Ronald Reagan and people are sitting up and taking notice and shutting out the white noise riffraff from the MSM, the left, and the RINORATS GOPe.


20 posted on 03/25/2015 9:45:19 PM PDT by American Constitutionalist (The Keystone Pipe like Project : build it already Congress !)
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