Ted Cruz wins Twitter with call to defund Planned Parenthood

Washington Post ^ | July 29 at 7:40 AM | James Hohmann

[SoConPubbie]

On Tuesday, Ted Cruz’s crusade against Planned Parenthood allowed him to win the day online.

The day belonged to the conservative Texas senator and 2016 presidential candidate, who commanded more media attention than any GOP contender who has never had his own reality TV show, according to our analytics partner Zignal Labs. Cruz’s call to defund Planned Parenthood stoked the conservative netroots. Cruz himself drove the social-media chatter with a series of widely-circulated tweets:

The gambit proved so successful at generating attention that one of his fellow GOP contenders decided to join the fray. Look at what happened to Ben Carson’s mentions when Carson also pushed for the government to defund Planned Parenthood on Tuesday evening:

But Cruz was the one who got the lion’s share of the attention. Carson received 40 percent of the Twitter mentions that Cruz did, but the Texas senator had five times as many television mentions, meaning his story reached millions more people than Carson’s announcement. Look at that same total mentions graph when we only chart mentions of the two candidates on network and cable television:

The Planned Parenthood story is proving a boon for conservatives like Cruz. Iowa freshman Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) filed a bill in Congress last night to completely block any federal money from going to the group. It came at the end of a day that saw the release of a third undercover video by an anti-abortion rights group. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) — also a 2016 candidate — and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are among the cosponsors.

[SoConPubbie]

"If we must have an enemy at the head of Government, let it be one whom we can oppose, and for whom we are not responsible, who will not involve our party in the disgrace of his foolish and bad measures." - Alexander Hamilton "We don't intend to turn the Republican Party over to the traitors in the battle just ended. We will have no more of those candidates who are pledged to the same goals as our opposition and who seek our support. Turning the Party over to the so-called moderates wouldn’t make any sense at all." -- President Ronald Reagan "A thing moderately good is not so good as it ought to be. Moderation in temper is always a virtue; but moderation in principle is always a vice." - Thomas Paine 1792 "It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or your arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams

[TNMOUTH]

Where was Trump?

[SoConPubbie]

    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!

[cripplecreek]

I see that Pa Cruz is in Michigan today. I’ll keep an eye out for a news story.

[right way right]

Don’t worry Trump will be on the news tonight.

Cruz 2016

[TBP]

We give them half a billion dollars a year and they report a profit of a billion dollars a year. Why should we support a profit-making enterprise, especially one that profits off the most gruesome, anti-human activities: killing babies (especially minorities, whom they target) and harvesting the body parts for profit?

[cripplecreek]

Well he did say he would Repeal and replace Obamacare with “something terrific”.

What that actually means is anybody’s guess but it got some 70 retweets.

[TNMOUTH]

:-)

[TNMOUTH]

LOL...

Yes, he also said it would be awesome! No wonder we like Trump

[MarMema]

A wonderful day. Ted Cruz becomes more popular every time they go after him.

[MarMema]

I didn’t know that.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Aren’t there nine or ten more videos out there?

[PhilDragoo]

A NETWORK election--the people are mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore.