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Dreaming of 'President Ted Cruz' will turn into a nightmare for the GOP
The Washington Examiner ^ | March 11, 2014 | Noemie Emery

Posted on 03/12/2014 2:33:45 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

As with most things, there are good and bad aspects of the Tea Party movement. And all the bad ones were on display March 6 in a speech by Ted Cruz to the Conservative Political Action Conference that replayed every silly thing ever said by conservatives and added some riffs of his own.

He began with a mocking refrain about "presidents" Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney (two of them veterans impaired by their trauma), chiding them for not being his kind of conservative. He also asked if we remembered their reigns.

Well, we do remember, and we remember one more that for some reason is never brought up in this context: the glorious tenure of "President" Barry M. Goldwater, Mr. Conservative, far more in-your-face than Ronald Reagan, who lost by far more than those other worthies. Goldwater lost in one of the great drubbings in history, lost by more than any Republican but Alfred M. Landon, and carried only his home state and five southern states for all the wrong reasons (opposing -- for a fairly innocent reason -- the Civil Rights Act of 1964.)

No one followed the Cruz playbook more than Goldwater, and no one has managed to lose so conclusively. He offered a choice, not an echo, and nobody took it. But how, if Cruz is so right, could this have happened? It can’t, which is why it is never brought up in this context. In his world, it doesn’t exist.

As the Goldwater debacle has been excised from history, so have the actual reasons why Dole, McCain and Romney all lost. Dole lost because the Bill Clinton he faced in 1996 was not the Clinton of 1993-94, but the Third Way Bill Clinton...

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Arizona; US: Kansas; US: Kentucky; US: Massachusetts; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: arizona; barrygoldwater; bobdole; cruz; dole; goldwater; gope; johnmccain; kansas; kentucky; massachusetts; mccain; mittromney; tedcruz; texas
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Dreaming of 'President Ted Cruz' will turn into a nightmare for the GOP"

...or as Karl Rove would say, "STOP DREAMING and learn to live with the beltway status quo"

21 posted on 03/12/2014 3:06:04 PM PDT by Baynative (Got bulbs? Check my profile page.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The national socialists trying to frame the race before it gets going.


22 posted on 03/12/2014 3:07:18 PM PDT by School of Rational Thought
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To: School of Rational Thought

Worked for them in 1996, 2008, 2012 and **almost** in 2000.


23 posted on 03/12/2014 3:10:52 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I will raise $2M for Sarah Palin's next run, what will you do?)
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To: alstewartfan

Cruz will be good when he gets some results and the only way to do that is for him to get reelected with a Republican majority in the Senate and House. He has not been able to do much. He is only in his first term so it is understandable.


24 posted on 03/12/2014 3:14:40 PM PDT by napscoordinator ( Santorum-Bachmann 2016 for the future of the country!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The people who stood by Goldwater were landslide candidates in the next 4 of 5 elections.


25 posted on 03/12/2014 3:20:02 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
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To: napscoordinator

Never miss an opportunity to CREATE a good crisis.


26 posted on 03/12/2014 3:20:52 PM PDT by DaveA37
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To: iacovatx
The effects of a nuclear bomb TV commercial, ideology,

Ahh the infamous Daisy Add.


27 posted on 03/12/2014 3:31:27 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I’m willing to concede that many people are smarter than I am, sometimes much smarter — for example, Ted Cruz. It’s also clear from his record that Ted Cruz is smarter than almost everyone else, including Noemie Emery who wrote this article.

Ted Cruz graduated with honors from Princeton and the Harvard Law School, one of whose most distinguished professors, Alan Dershowitz, has gone on record to say that Ted Cruz was one of the most brilliant students he ever taught.

Senator Cruz also served as a Supreme Court clerk; came from far behind in the polls to win his Texas Senate seat; and in a matter of little more than a year in Washington has become a front runner for the Republican 2016 presidential nomination, picking up the most coveted Conservative endorsement — Sarah Palin’s — along the way.

Ted Cruz is an expert at winning, and if he thinks he can win the presidency in 2016, who are the rest of us relative mediocrities to disagree with him? After eight years of President Obama, only a towering genius will be able to undo the damage. And Ted Cruz is the only candidate who even remotely qualifies. Rand Paul, his principal opponent, is a mediocre product of nepotism; he inherited his father’s supporters.

Do we want a better country or not?


28 posted on 03/12/2014 3:34:45 PM PDT by Bluestocking
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To: Bluestocking

Cruz would get my vote over most, if not all, Republicans. Certainly over any democrat...I will donate to his campaign should he win the nomination (still haven’t picked my primary candidate)....


29 posted on 03/12/2014 3:37:21 PM PDT by Tulane
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
No one followed the Cruz playbook more than Goldwater, and no one has managed to lose so conclusively. He offered a choice, not an echo, and nobody took it.
"defoliation of the forests by low-yield atomic weapons could well be done" -- Barry Goldwater
30 posted on 03/12/2014 3:54:25 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

All should be appreciative of Dole and McCain’s war time sacrifices, but if it impaired their ability to run for the office or perform the functions of POTUS, then they should not have been nominated. Period. If they were nominated because it was “their turn”, then shame on us, we deserved to lose.

Cruz was right, neither were really conservative, just Pubbies.


31 posted on 03/12/2014 4:03:47 PM PDT by X-spurt (CRUZ missile - armed and ready.)
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To: Fiji Hill

Actually it is the best example of the GOPe abandonment of conservative candidates


32 posted on 03/12/2014 4:22:53 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: alstewartfan

Ted Cruz is a great man - he has back-bone and has wonderful ideals.


33 posted on 03/12/2014 4:28:08 PM PDT by dgkb
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Neither Abraham Lincoln nor FDR come back from the grave could've defeated LBJ that year just months after the "martyrdom" of JFK in Dallas. Terrible example.

Johnson would have won the election against another candidate, but Republicans might not have lost 36 House seats if Goldwater wasn't the candidate.

Losses in the Senate weren't as bad, but Johnson did get his veto-proof Congress (even taking into account that some Democrats wouldn't vote with him).

34 posted on 03/12/2014 4:30:04 PM PDT by x
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To: napscoordinator

What a leader — first term!


35 posted on 03/12/2014 4:33:07 PM PDT by kvanbrunt2
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I remember the Goldwater campaign. Every time you picked up a newspaper or watched Cronkite you got a slash-and-burn criticism of Goldwater from George Romney (Mitt’s father), Nelson Rockefeller or William Scranton, governor or Pennsylvania. It was the advent of the establishment Republicans and the MSM coordinating their efforts to kill the conservative candidate.

Over the years it has developed into a science. They don’t even have to have secret meetings to figure out the game plan.


36 posted on 03/12/2014 4:43:06 PM PDT by Liberty Wins ( The average lefty is synapse challenged)
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To: kvanbrunt2
What a leader — first term!

Yes and we are falling into the same disaster. I can't believe how dumb the Republicans are to hold two one-term Senators up as our nominees. I guess Republicans love to lose.

37 posted on 03/12/2014 4:43:18 PM PDT by napscoordinator ( Santorum-Bachmann 2016 for the future of the country!)
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To: X-spurt
If they were nominated because it was “their turn”, then shame on us, we deserved to lose.

They were, and we did.

38 posted on 03/12/2014 5:00:57 PM PDT by NonLinear (Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

"President Obama and Sen. Ted Cruz have some things in common, including stunning ascents to political stardom, exotic and mixed ethnic backgrounds that give additional resonance, complex starts in life that give rise to birther/conspiracy theories, and reputations for brilliance that do not seem to translate well into dealing with political everyday life."

"Their judgment is bad, their experience slight, and their egos enormous. They are cult figures with frenzied admirers, which compounds the problem. They are full of themselves and firmly believe they can do the impossible."

"They are obsessed with ideology and see little beyond it. They are fixated on health care — to destroy or enshrine it — and will sacrifice anything to do so. And they are running headlong into optional coming implosions they created all by themselves."

39 posted on 03/12/2014 5:02:50 PM PDT by kcvl
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To: napscoordinator
I can't believe how dumb the Republicans are to hold two one-term Senators up as our nominees. I guess Republicans love to lose.

Yeah. It really failed miserably when the Democrats tried it in 2008 & 2012. They lost by a landslide...oh wait...

40 posted on 03/12/2014 5:03:12 PM PDT by NonLinear (Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.)
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