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Cruz Is Playing the Media Perfectly
NatRev ^ | 12/28/15 | S. Miller

Posted on 12/28/2015 3:20:21 PM PST by VinL

One thing that frustrated even the most ardent supporters of George W. Bush's administration was his refusal to hit back hard at over the top, abominable personal attacks against him and his family, including his daughters, by those in the media and in the culture at large.

Bush revered the office of the president and, unlike his successor, held it to a higher standard than did gutter snipes such as Sean Penn or the New York Times. This is why Newt Gingrich drew cheers and praise during the 2012 election cycle when he hit back at the media for its open bias.

Who can forget that CNN's John King opened a primary debate by asking Gingrich questions about his ex wife (something to remember every time we're told Bill Clinton is off limits)?

This election cycle, the role of credible media tormentor has been notably filled not by Donald Trump but by Ted Cruz, and it's resonating more because Cruz has a clearer path to the nomination than Gingrich did in 2012.

What started out with Internet memes and social-media snickers at Cruz culminated last week in Ann Telnaes’s cartoon at the Washington Post in which she depicted Cruz's daughters as trained, leashed monkeys. The Post withdrew the illustration but did not apologize. Even primary competitor Marco Rubio, a father of young daughters himself, took a break from his fight with Cruz over immigration to defend the Texas senator.

Telnaes, whose Twitter wallpaper features a Charlie Hebdo cartoon, played the victim and censorship cards when criticized by Cruz and his supporters. What Telneas and our other brave truth tellers in media somehow don’t understand is that we on the right don’t care about the attack on Cruz as much as we care about the double standard of the media.

Telnaes has the courage to satirize Ted Cruz’s children but not Mohammed. That’s why she’s not Charlie Hebdo. For my part, I wish the Washington Post had left the Cruz cartoon up. Cruz’s response to Telnaes may have caught some pundits off guard, but for those following him and his campaign, it was vintage Cruz.

He did not respond with bomb throwing tweets or statements that generate page clicks or mentions on cable news, and the Post's attempts to anger Cruz enough so he’d hulk out into The Incredible Trump failed. He responded simply by defending his daughters, then by posting a cartoon of his own that portrayed the Washington Post and the New York Times as Hillary Clinton’s leashed lapdogs.

It's perfect red meat for his supporters, and the media fall into their own trap. This has to be painfully frustrating for pundits and personalities who are attempting to goad Cruz into a fight that would prove he's not as culturally savvy as Buzzfeed and IJ.com are making him out to be. This is becoming a pattern for Cruz.

Whether he's halting the debate antics of an obnoxious moderator, responding to the incoherent Twitter rant of a pop star, or debating a Hollywood actress attempting to ambush him with cameras for her own show, Cruz is proving that he's a savvy professional with a deft ability to handle the media.

For those who are eager to see just how far they can push conservative candidates, how far they can go in attempting to Palinize conservatives out of mainstream culture altogether — Cruz must come as an unpleasant shock. (snip)


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 2016winner; american; authentic; canadian; conservative; cruz; eligible; fearless; fighter; ineligible; intellect; strategy; strength; tedcruz
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To: caww

Those are wonderful posts...thank you so much.

The written prayer...is that from an Israeli who hopes Cruz will win? Wow...just wow.


101 posted on 12/28/2015 7:30:25 PM PST by CatherineofAragon (("A real conservative will bear the scars...will have been in the trenches fighting."--- Ted Cruz))
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To: CatherineofAragon
Now I have a picture!


102 posted on 12/28/2015 7:41:04 PM PST by caww
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To: ripnbang

103 posted on 12/28/2015 7:43:26 PM PST by caww
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To: CatherineofAragon

I’m not sure who wrote it....but the way it was written would indicate someone who doesn’t write English very well....


104 posted on 12/28/2015 7:44:49 PM PST by caww
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To: caww
"I’m not sure who wrote it....but the way it was written would indicate someone who doesn’t write English very well...."

That's the way it seemed to me, too.

Great pic of Ken!

105 posted on 12/28/2015 7:48:04 PM PST by CatherineofAragon (("A real conservative will bear the scars...will have been in the trenches fighting."--- Ted Cruz))
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To: CatherineofAragon
I thought this quote is so significant for our times......


106 posted on 12/28/2015 7:50:42 PM PST by caww
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To: caww

Great picture of the next VP and wife. Thank you.


107 posted on 12/28/2015 7:53:18 PM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject")
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To: erkelly

I would like to invite you into the real world, we are no longer governed by the constitution....

Let Mr. Trump take his sledge hammer and tear this whole dreadful construct down, and then Senator Cruz, Senator Sessions, Governor Walker, and other great conservatives who believe in our constitution can take out their chisels and restore our Republic.

***************

No, in the real world, this nation is still governed by the Constitution— unfortunately, a relative handful of people have forsaken it-— 426 in the Legislature, 5 in the Supreme Court- and a few score in the Executive.

Seems to me that rather than to dispose of the Constitution, we should merely remove the venal individuals that are corrupting it.

As for “letting Mr. Trump take his sledge hammer and tear this whole dreadful construct down”-—

Myself, I’d prefer Ted Cruz with the constitution in one hand and a law book in the other— bringing the corrupt to justice.


108 posted on 12/28/2015 8:19:14 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: ripnbang

I’d be so proud with Ted and Heidi representing our country on the World Stage. Class will have returned to the White House!


109 posted on 12/28/2015 8:44:22 PM PST by caww
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To: caww

Yes, when they visit Pres DJT and First Lady Melania, the class will be multiplied.


110 posted on 12/28/2015 8:49:53 PM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject")
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To: ripnbang

Well that’s really quite debatable as you know....on both counts.


111 posted on 12/28/2015 8:54:31 PM PST by caww
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To: VinL

...”Ted Cruz with the constitution in one hand and a law book in the other— bringing the corrupt to justice”....

Indeed !!!


112 posted on 12/28/2015 8:56:11 PM PST by caww
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To: caww

Trump selecting him as VP, maybe so.


113 posted on 12/28/2015 9:02:53 PM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject")
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To: VinL

Ahhhh, VinL the leftist troll let it slip, the truth slips out, they want to take America to a socialist European country.

Yes, we are a Constitutional Republic.


114 posted on 12/28/2015 11:45:53 PM PST by American Constitutionalist (Trump is the pawn and creation of the Media and Political Establishment)
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To: Bryanw92

You sound like Obama declaring that America isn’t a Christian nation anymore.

America is a Constitutional Republic, not some Socialist country modeled after the European model.


115 posted on 12/28/2015 11:49:02 PM PST by American Constitutionalist (Trump is the pawn and creation of the Media and Political Establishment)
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To: VinL

Their leftist roots are revealing.

” Evangelical are regards “ ...

Spoken like a true blue leftist.


116 posted on 12/28/2015 11:51:41 PM PST by American Constitutionalist (Trump is the pawn and creation of the Media and Political Establishment)
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To: American Constitutionalist

>>You sound like Obama declaring that America isn’t a Christian nation anymore.

>>America is a Constitutional Republic, not some Socialist country modeled after the European model.

Can’t you guys have a discussion without reverting to the “ you sound like Obama” argument?

Do the research for yourself. Look at how many people are receiving government checks of one form or another. Look at who gets tax breaks and who doesn’t. Look at the labor participation rate and ask yourself how those people survive. Take a good critical look at the rules for your own 401k and who benefits when you look at the value of money invested versus your returns in present day dollars.

Don’t just superficially look at the stated purpose of each program. Look at the unintended consequences of each and ask yourself, “are they actually unintended?”

Oh, we’re still a culturally Christian nation. But how many people on your street are in church every Sunday?


117 posted on 12/29/2015 3:28:39 AM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: VinL

118 posted on 12/29/2015 9:07:56 AM PST by reviled downesdad (It's time for an AMERICAN CRUZade !)
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To: ripnbang
Trump isn't suited to sit behind a desk in Washington....if anything he should be mobile and operate freely on the International stage doing the so called "deals" he believes he can accomplish, in whatever position that would free hi to do so...President isn't that.

We will more than celebrate when President Ted Cruz and the First family take their walk down Pennsylvania Avenue!....we'll be praising God that in His great Mercy he saw fit to give this nation opportunity to be A Constitutional Nation Under God once again!


119 posted on 12/29/2015 10:22:40 AM PST by caww
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To: caww

I don’t think Trump intends to sit behind the desk much...he has to many plans for making America Great Again. That is for Vice President Cruz to do when he is not attending to other VP duties.


120 posted on 12/29/2015 10:28:50 AM PST by ripnbang ("An armed man is a citizen, an unarmed man a subject")
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