Posted on 11/07/2015 12:32:06 PM PST by VinL
To walk into Ted Cruz's holding room at the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Friday afternoon was to walk into quite the group of happy campers.
With a friendly motion and a quick smile, the Republican Senator from Texas, looking relaxed in short sleeves, his foot up on the coffee table, waves you over to the chair beside him. It's just the tiniest bit unnerving, the notion flashes across your mind, "He knows I'm with NPR, right?"
Yes, everyone knows who you are, and in spite of Cruz's brilliantly recalled denunciations of the liberal media during CNBC's debate, they're just fine with it. This is a political campaign brimming with confidence and a strong sense of momentum. Nobody here's afraid of little ol' me.
During a wide-ranging interview, the freshman senator laid out his vision for America and his presidency if elected:
Abolish the IRS and institute a flat tax
Dispatch the FBI and Justice Dept. lawyers to prosecute Planned Parenthood for fraud
Investigate the Federal Reserve Board and tie the value of the dollar to the gold standard
Deport every undocumented immigrant, including children who grew up in the U.S.
Oppose any legislation on climate change that would raise taxes or fees
Institute term limits for U.S. Supreme Court Justices so turncoats like Justice Anthony Kennedy can be weeded out
Give Iran an ultimatum — dismantle your nuclear program or we will do it for you.
And it almost goes without saying, Obamacare would be consigned to the dustbin.
Cruz's strategy for winning the Republican nomination is sophisticated in its patience and cunning.
Like a football coach intimately familiar with his team's strengths and the other teams' weaknesses, Cruz has been spending his time and money building campaign infrastructure throughout the South and Midwest. That's playing to your strength. Publicly, he stays on message and doesn't attack other Republican candidates. And don't panic, don't always be reacting to what the other guys (and gal) are doing.
Did a New York billionaire unexpectedly jump into the lead? Let the political pundits sneer and joke about the supposedly hapless Cruz picking up Donald Trump's crumbs. The young senator has never felt any threat from the bombastic developer and being friendly to the new guy is smart politics.
Has the quiet doctor suddenly caught the conservative fancy? Not a problem, Cruz defends him from the liberal sharks that are closing in to tear the good doctor apart. You won't hear the Texas senator say a word about grain-filled Egyptian pyramids, scholarship offers from West Point or knife-points and friend's belt buckles, why should he? He's amused that this go-round, it's the Republican moderates at each other's throats, Jeb and Marco can have at it, let The Donald referee.
Meanwhile, Cruz has quietly amassed a campaign war chest that's second to none. Three separate Cruz superPACS with tens of millions more waiting in reserve to attack when the time comes, and it's not just Texas billionaires like technology mogul Darwin Deason, although he has them, too. Cruz takes in millions from a grass roots network of Tea Party and other insurgent Republicans in small amounts. Not unlike another freshman Senator who ran and won on a wave of Internet-driven contributions.
To switch sports metaphors from football to track, Ted Cruz reports he's just fine running in 4th or 5th place after the first lap around the track. He's trained well, feels strong and looks good, there's plenty left in the bank as it were. The two guys ahead of him appear to be straining just a bit, already. With three more laps to go, the son of a Cuban immigrant looks hungry and sharp, waiting.
On Friday night, after his speech to the National Religious Liberties Conference in Des Moines, I was surprised to see Cruz and his staff boarding the same small regional jet back to Dallas as me. Didn't he have a private plane, I thought the Koch brothers took care of this stuff? I'd planned to write about our interview and the day on the flight back, but as we took our seats, I was dumbfounded to see Cruz and I were seated across the aisle from one another in coach. I jokingly asked if he wanted to edit the piece as I wrote it next to him and the talented orator and Supreme Court lawyer said he'd be happy to.
I bagged it. I knew the senator wouldn't look over my shoulder, but it was just too inhibiting, and anyway, I was tired. It was late, we'd been delayed and as we taxied to takeoff, I leaned back and closed my eyes. Next to me, I could hear Cruz and the soldier he'd been seated next to, a private in battle fatigues, quietly talking Texas football.
Do you have ANY evidence that Cruz has been saying anything along the lines that trump has regards sending them back?
All we have so far is Cruz handing out teddy bears, enticing more youngsters to cross illegally.
Did you ever, even once, call out the mean spirited Cruz supporters last spring who infected nearly every FR thread with their abrasive, and often cruel, words?
Your post reads of a smug bastard now that the evidence of your complicity is months old.
Yes, I agree.
I don’t think he helped that goal either by piling on Carson on Friday.
Yes, that’s true, but it isn’t exactly clear by way of Politico’s reporting what is was that Carson exactly did or said if anything.
I am critical of Trump for piling on before verifying the truth of the matter. If anyone should know about the media being out to smear and destroy, it should be him.
I am no fan of Carson either, but I believe the attack from Politico was shady.
Yes -- the statement he makes in the article that leads this thread. Not that that will matter to Trumpkins.
And driving a mustang(with Shelby accents).Really cool.That would make a hell of a campaign shirt
“in spite of Cruz’s brilliantly recalled denunciations of the liberal media...”
So... this tool just happily admitted that NPR is a biased liberal mouthpiece?
If this "deport" business is for real, it'll go a long way toward siphoning off a lot of Trump support. But Trump isn't just getting support from the GOP voters.
Read the comments at the link to bring you back to reality.
Well that is actually America. We are 1 percent of the population. Most people don’t care for Cruz much. What can you say? That is his problem not ours.
Did you ever, even once, call out the mean spirited Cruz supporters last spring who infected nearly every FR thread with their abrasive, and often cruel, words?
Your post reads of a smug bastard now that the evidence of your complicity is months old.
****************
You see, YOU are an example of a Trump 3rd grader— you bemoan the use of “abrasive, and often cruel, words” used by some Cruz supporters— and then, proceed to drool all over yourself by calling me a “smug bastard!” Pretty dumb even by 3rd grade standards, eh?
Now, regarding your inquiry as to whether or not I chastised others for overly aggressive remarks— I have, quite a few times.
Here’s one that seems appropriate:
“I need not remind you that Sen. Cruz has told us not to criticize the Trumpets.. they are Ted’s future voters; unfortunately, even the juvenile and obnoxious ones.”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3328381/posts?page=20#20
If Mr. Cruz is prepared to support deporting illegal aliens, then I wish to heck he would directly say it and support it in no uncertain terms.
It is just common sense that we must have borders, and we must enforce laws that protect those borders.
People that are trying to implement open borders in this country are insane.
I think Ted could gain a lot of support by standing up for that.
Incidentally, I do not think that this is a time to increase legal immigration by 500% as he has stated he wants to do.
We need to get our country back on track first. I don’t care what anyone else on this earth wants us to do, or thinks we owe them, this is our country, we say who comes in and when.
If we say that it is time to stop immigration for a time, then that is what time it is.
America does not belong to everyone on this earth, and American citizenship is not to be given away like candy.
So, you are admitting that, until this article, he hasn't said the things Cruz has said.
That's exactly what the original poster said also, which caused you to appear to fly off the handle.
BTW, belittling remarks such as 'Trumpians' doesn't do much more for me.
If you want to 'get my goat' you are going to have to be more clever.
Cruz will appeal to a very large demographic akin to Reagan’s appeal once the crowd thins and he must be given a larger time in the spotlight in upcoming debates. I truly believe there are only three candidates in the presidential field who truly desire to be president because they are fully committed to making America great again - Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Bernie Sanders. We have an Economic Giant, a True American Statesman, and an Avowed Socialist. America will rally to a True Statesman overwhelmingly - this is what they saw in Reagan, this is what they will see in Cruz!
Cruz is a good man, there is no doubt about that.
I too think that once the crowd thins, he will shine in debates. He shined in the last one with a masterful performance.
As much as I am able to tell, this began earlier than I suggested, the Cruz supporters attacks began during the first quarter this year.
Here is what I posted during that time, and what seems to be the response I got, my records are a bit garbled, and my search capabilities all but non-existant:
First a vocal supporter uses trickery to falsely slam an opponent, then another mocks an opponent’s position, all the while freely admitting he knows nothing about the issue, but continues to mock the opponents supporters.
But the real coup de grace is the supporter who cheers because he believes an opponent of Cruz is Pro-Amnesty. Cheers for Gods sake. He never thinks for a moment that it reveals that his loyalties lie first with his candidate, not America, and that he cares not how America suffers when major candidates hold position which undermine her.
Unless Team Cruz pulls out this feckless team, Cruz is going to have a hard go of it here at FR,
+++++++
He is my choice. If the GOP chooses someone else, they will have to win without me.
3 posted on ‎(February 1 2015)‎ ‎AM by ClearCase_guy
If this is truly from Cruz, we’ll hear a lot more on it.. But you’re right, deportation helps lower and lower middle income folks get to work. However, screwing thousands of American college grads out of a job by quintupling H1-B visas is more than a little contradictory.
If you’ve been watching all his speeches all the way through, as I have, you experience these Eureka! moments when you hear him say something no one has said before and you have been dying to hear.
Then to hear another candidate take up the issue later when he’s more than 20 points behind Trump in the polls is a bit irritating, although you are glad to know they have seen the light thanks to Donald Trump.
Nobody said Trump invented the English language, or the political speech, or even the innovative, courageous, beholden-to-no-one speech, but he’s doing a good job of it at the moment.
No one else is pointing this out, and Trump would sound petty if he did it, so I’m doing it. In fact, he was gracious enough to say the candidates were “coalescing” around criticizing the media. He’s going to criticize candidates when they deserve it but not be a “three-year old.”
TARP and the GM bailouts have both been repaid. Porkulus not so much. We didn’t realize it was going to almost-bankrupt solar energy companies and the like. I don’t know whether Trump knew this at the time he made that statement.
He is right about not letting the banks fail, even the European banks. The Great Depression did not really reach its full calamitous impact until the European banks failed, and then it was unstoppable.
He is right about the Export-Import Bank being another form of crony capitalism and he’s right about money printing, which is going to implode at same point—after Obama’s out of office, Obama hopes, and the average schmo in the street will say it’s the Republicans’ fault.
He is right to oppose the TPP as not free trade but trade rules that help our trading adversaries.
.
He is right on eminent domain if there is an actual benefit to the people that outweighs the intrusion of government. It’s never right just to increase tax revenue.
Politico is now garbage. Wasn’t always. But to complicate things, the story was closer to the truth than we all would have liked. Carson seemed fuzzy on the procedure for getting into a service academy and he misspoke.
Hopefully that will silence the anckle biters who constantly harp and yap on about Ted Cruz’’s immigration policies about illegal immigration.
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