Posted on 04/03/2015 1:55:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Here it is, the first television ad of the 2016 presidential campaign, courtesy of the first official presidential candidate, Ted Cruz. No beating around the bush here—we get a mention of Jesus in the very first sentence:
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
"Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the house. God's blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation. Over and over again when we faced impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. This is our fight, and that is why I'm running for president of the United States."
Wait, why were you running again? Because the American people rise to challenges? Or because "this is our fight"? And what is our fight?
OK, so we shouldn't expect too much specificity from a 30-second ad. But it's pretty clear that at least at this point Cruz is presenting himself as the most Christian candidate (Cruz is a Southern Baptist). I get that his religious faith is very important to him, but as a political strategy, even in a party made up in significant part of evangelical Christians, taking Jesus as your running mate is a sure loser.
We know that because so many people have tried it before and failed. That's what Rick Santorum did in 2012, and what Mike Huckabee did in 2008. It doesn't succeed for a couple of reasons. First, the evangelical voters to whom it's primarily aimed are a large part of the party's voters, but not so overwhelming a part that they swamp everyone else. For instance, in 2012, evangelicals voted 4-1 for Mitt Romney, but they were only 21 percent of the electorate. Which means that they made up only about a third of Romney's voters. That's a lot, but it isn't so many that you can get the Republican nomination if evangelicals is all you've got.
Secondly, no one's going to get all of them in the primaries, or even nearly all. Even if you're looking for the most devout candidate, there will be plenty of contenders to choose from, including Scott Walker (whose father was a Baptist minister), maybe Huckabee (himself a Baptist minister), possibly Bobby Jindal (who holds prayer rallies), and definitely Rick Perry (who's "not ashamed to admit that I'm a Christian"). Even if Cruz succeeded in becoming the top choice of Christian conservatives, that would still leave him a long way from the nomination.
Somebody always tries to be the Christian candidate, and that person never gets the nomination. But maybe Cruz is just starting out by establishing his religious bona fides, and then he'll move on to win more people over with his compelling policy ideas.
Comparing Sweater Vest and Huckleberry to Ted Cruz?! Hilarious!
A lot more to Cruz than this introductory ad, but I like it and think it hits the nail on the head. America has lost sight of God and lost sight of our founding principles. Ted is right to stake his campaign on restoring both. A godless, unprincipled nation cannot survive.
Go, Cruz, GO!!
Yeah, that comparison is lame.....but having said that, I would not have led with this.....I think the Liberty U introduction was enough.
He is checking all the boxes and is securing all the different wings of the Republican party before any of the other one dimensional candidates grab one of them.
Oh, how Satan and his little boot lickers hate the name of Jesus.
He knows that Iowa and South Carolina are crucial (Jebbie will almost certainly win in Red Hampshire) and he knows that Evangelicals, Charismatics, hard-shell mainline Protestants and traditional Catholics will be key in those two states, as well as the follow-on primaries. He has already wrapped-up Nevada and other Western states on different issues such as land & water.
I’m in.
Just to be clear...does he plan to clobber'm directly in the middle of the forehead?
Smart Strategy. They will dismiss him as all about religion and then he will rock their world when he concentrates his debates on the constitution.
Cruz should be ashamed of himself for mentioning Jesus in his commercials. Instead, he should proudly display a couple of homos having butt sex, or maybe a giant black thug beating up a diminutive shop owner. Or a couple of body-pierced lesbian bunny huggers chained to a tree.
But if he did, everyone would think he was a just a run-of-the-mill Democrat.
I understand Iowa, but SC is not normally driven by evangelical issues. Newt ran the best SC campaign maybe ever, and it had very little emphasis on those issues.
Not when Islam radicals are beheading and shooting people for being Christian abroad and at home Christians are being forced to support values that are against their religion.
If you do a spray and pray time outreach you don't get too many wins.
And whoever wrote the headline is an idiot.
I just made my second donation to https/www.tedcruz.org/donate
Jeb may not get NH. Last poll I saw had Scott Walker up.
Good...He drew the line in the sand...An ambassador for Jesus Christ...
God offered his kingdom to the Jews, his chosen people...They rejected him...The outcome was not pretty...
Now we have an ambassador of Jesus offering to lead the Country...If we, his adopted children reject him, perhaps the times of the Gentiles are over with...
I'm sure Ted will not be trying to win the muzlim vote...I suspect he will pit Christianity against Izlam and I'm sure there are at least some liberals who will support a staunch Christian againt the murdering slime of Izlam...I suspect Ted will lead the charge against Izlam...
Come Monday he gets more.
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