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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: VanDeKoik; EveningStar
"Why dont you just anoint him the 2nd son of God, avoid the whole primary, swear him in tomorrow for as president for life and promptly chisel a face on a mountain. "

Cruz supporters aren't into that kind of thing. We understand that our candidate is a fallible human being---a good man, but just a man who's asking to be hired by us to do a job.

But there have been any number of threads comparing Trump to Patton, Napoleon, Churchill, MacArthur, etc.

There was a thread which compared him to Jesus throwing the moneychangers out of the temple. He's been Photoshopped as Washington and called the greatest American since that Founder. The other day he was compared to Moses and King David---and both of those Old Testament figures were the ones who came up lacking.

So, yeah...maybe you better patrol some Trump threads if you want to caution against such behavior.

21 posted on 12/28/2015 3:46:57 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: VinL

Sorry, Vin...I meant to ping you, too


22 posted on 12/28/2015 3:50:22 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: Bryanw92

You sound like the 13 year old girl .......... We aren’t the Center-Right nation on the Left=Socialism/Right=Free Market scale we once were. We are a Far Left and Far Right nation on the European model (Left=Globalism/Right=Nationalism). It isn’t 1998 anymore!

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

We are not! We are a Republic governed by a CONSTITUTION-— we fought wars to preserve it. We are a nation of Law, not the cult of Obama or Trump, and we have not yet acceded to a Divine Right of Kings, from which this nation revolted.

I hope you will memorialize your post, ensconcing your capitulation to socialism. Better then to understand the transformation when Cruz is elected.

And I sound like a 13 year old girl, eh??????


23 posted on 12/28/2015 3:53:28 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

“Evangelicals are retards”

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

Oh, it’s the Evangelical, again.


24 posted on 12/28/2015 3:54:53 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: VinL
They've feared him for longer than most of us have been aware o him.

Uber lefty Chris Hayes had this to say in 2013.

In october 2007 I sat in the media gallery of the united states supreme court and watched the solicitor general of texas argue on behalf of the state that he should have the ability to put to death a mexican national, Jose Medellín, who had been convicted of raping and murdering two teenage girls in houston. He won that argument and he (Medellín) was executed by texas on august 5th , 2008 , despite the objections of the united nations and the international court of justice . at the time, I had no idea who this man arguing on behalf of texas was. but all I could think was holy crap , this guy is good. it was one of his nine times arguing before the supreme court and he was witty, incredibly fast on his feet and clearly had a brilliant legal mind.

it is to this day one of the most impressive displays i have ever seen before the court and i have had the good fortune to spend a lot of time there. so you can imagine my horror in 2012 when i tuned into the texas senate race. i hadn't been paying much attention to. and realized that lieutenant governor david dewhurst , the republican establishment candidate, was being prepared by a tea party candidate who was the same guy i saw kick ass in the supreme court in 2007 . i thought that night, night i made that connection, oh, this is trouble. and trouble that man has been. trouble in every direction. as he vies to be the singular voice of the right wing grassroots and as he has very quickly assumed a leadership role in movement.


Is Ted Cruz the most dangerous man on the American right?
25 posted on 12/28/2015 3:56:04 PM PST by cripplecreek (Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.)
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To: VinL
Oh, it’s the Evangelical, again.

Oh look, it's a lying pile of crap VinL who quotes me out of context and didn't provide the link so people can read the sentence.

How's it feel being a filthy liar? Must be liberating to be shameless.

26 posted on 12/28/2015 3:56:19 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: VanDeKoik

“...And this concludes the hourly Cruz supporter Virtue Signal. Remember, if you dont support Cruz, you are a fake conservative that doesn’t believe in the constitution.....because reasons.”
******************************************************************************
I just did a search on your recent posts (1st page only) and just about everyone is attacking or disparaging Cruz or Cruz supporters in one way or the other. I guess you don’t understand that, between them, Trump and Cruz can make the number of GOPe delegates a smallish minority at the convention. Unless we constitutional conservatives somehow self-immolate before then by going to war with one another. Perhaps that is your aim?


27 posted on 12/28/2015 3:57:08 PM PST by House Atreides (Cruz or lose! Do TG & Boogieman have to be asses every day?)
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To: CatherineofAragon

Thanks COA— I don’t reply to that poster— he’s seldom coherent.

He’s on my “Certified Trump 3rd grader- ignore” list.


28 posted on 12/28/2015 3:57:39 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: dforest

Trump hit Cruz with ‘maniac’ and other childish insults, but Cruz was gracious enough not to hit back. He should start hitting back at the actual opponent(s). Attacking media will not help against Trump. The real opponent is Trump. Trump is in the way. If Cruz is to become the nominee, Trump has to be set aside. There is no other way for Cruz, unless he wants to be Trump’s VP pick. Then, again, Trump is very likely to pick Rubio to appease the establishment that he has ticked off or pick Fiorina to court the vaginists should Hellary remain the Demonratic favorite.


29 posted on 12/28/2015 3:58:21 PM PST by sagar
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To: VinL
Absolutely incredible that some on FR have caved and forsaken their conservatism

There will always be posters here who will cave. The issue for me is their utter disregard for Trump's known liberalism and refusal to recognize that the candidate they support is really no friend of theirs.

30 posted on 12/28/2015 3:59:17 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg (Revenge is a Daesh best served cold.)
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: VinL

>>We are not! We are a Republic governed by a CONSTITUTION-— we fought wars to preserve it. We are a nation of Law, not the cult of Obama or Trump, and we have not yet acceded to a Divine Right of Kings, from which this nation revolted.

Keep on believing that. The 50% on the Left do not agree with you and they vote, often more than once. The Millennials don’t agree with you. The children don’t agree with you. The power brokers and money changers don’t agree with you.

You and I are in the dwindling middle class who believe in the Republic. They are eradicating us through demographics and indoctrination.

“Ensconcing your capitulation to socialism”?? Funny. Keep tilting that those windmills, good knight.


32 posted on 12/28/2015 4:01:23 PM PST by Bryanw92 (Sic semper tyrannis)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

didn’t provide the link so people can read the sentence.
******************

“Evangelicals are retards”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/gop/3371223/posts?page=89#89


33 posted on 12/28/2015 4:01:31 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: Bryanw92

“That might require a leader who knows when to issue Ahead Flank on some screws and Back Emergency on the others in addition to the rudder orders. Cruz is a rudder only guy.”

You are essentially admitting that Trump is a megalomaniac, end-justifies-the-means and screw-the-constitution-because-I-can-solve-the-problem guy. I think so, as well.


34 posted on 12/28/2015 4:01:57 PM PST by sagar
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To: VinL

“An Iowa Evangelical is a retard who will vote for a Mormon, a Roman Catholic, or a Seventh Day Adventist if they can act like Evangelicals. “

I stand by every word!


35 posted on 12/28/2015 4:02:18 PM PST by Greetings_Puny_Humans (I mostly come out at night... mostly.)
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To: dforest
How is Cruz supposed to “hit back” at Trump when Trump isn’t hitting Cruz?

So it wasn't Trump that said Cruz can't get along with the GOPe leaders in congress, but he, Trump, could? There's some big red flags in that statement.

36 posted on 12/28/2015 4:04:35 PM PST by Starstruck (I'm usually sarcastic. Deal with it.)
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To: Greetings_Puny_Humans

It seems like the Cruz base is desperately looking at everything that they say about Trump, and then trying to muddle together a “me too” parallel narrative around Cruz.


37 posted on 12/28/2015 4:07:57 PM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: Bryanw92

Keep on believing that. The 50% on the Left do not agree with you and they vote, often more than once. The Millennials don’t agree with you. The children don’t agree with you. The power brokers and money changers don’t agree with you.

You and I are in the dwindling middle class who believe in the Republic. They are eradicating us through demographics and indoctrination.

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

And so what... you capitulate?????? You get the best deal for Bryan92???? Is that what you do?

No, one fights. One educates and one fights. If one believes in liberty and freedom,, one fights.

Good Lord, Americans should be made of sterner stuff.


38 posted on 12/28/2015 4:09:55 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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To: VinL

LOL, gotcha


39 posted on 12/28/2015 4:10:30 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: Greetings_Puny_Humans

“An Iowa Evangelical is a retard....I stand by every word!
***************

And I stand by my word... you’re an EVANGELICAL!


40 posted on 12/28/2015 4:11:40 PM PST by VinL (It is better to suffer every wrong, then to consent to wrong.)
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