Posted on 03/23/2015 9:50:27 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Well gang, it’s officially here. It’s Presidential primary season! The festivities got off to a real bang early Monday morning with the first hat thrown conclusively into the ring. That Stetson belongs to Texas’ junior Senator and government shutdown advocator Ted Cruz. Ending months of very little suspense, Cruz tweeted “I’m running for President and I hope to earn your support!” to his 370,000 followers.
In a piece entitled Ted Cruz Hopes Early Campaign Entry Will Focus Voters’ Attention, writers Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman of The New York Times quote longtime Republican strategist Dave Carney as saying, “It’s the shiny object principle. He wants to be first, get in the conversation, not show any doubt or hesitation.” If there are two things at which Cruz excels, it is the use of shiny objects to distract constituents from real issues and a refusal to second guess himself. Thus the announcement bore a fitting similarity to the man making it.
After capturing the zeitgeist and the ire of lawmakers from both parties during October 2013’s partial government shutdown, GOP rainmakers no less authoritative than longtime Arizona Senator John McCain labeled Cruz’s pointless stoking of the House, “a fool’s errand.” New York Republican Congressman Peter King minced a few less words in observing, “My sound bite is to say he’s a fraud…I start with that, and then I go on. It takes me two or three minutes to explain it.”
With just three years on the Senate floor, Cruz has certainly cut some kind of figure. Love him or hate him, he’s made sure we all know his name. However when it comes to gearing up for general elections, it’s easy to dissipate into a footnote. As the Times piece notes, “in recent months, Mr. Cruz has been overshadowed by other potential Republican candidates in the early competition for donors, staff, volunteers and news coverage. Most notably, Mr. Walker has drawn attention from those interested in an alternative to former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.”
There are only so many right wing base unifying government shutdowns a man can leverage. Unfortunately for Cruz he’s now going to have to deal with highly skeptical Republican moderates who rightfully question whether the Senator’s loyalties lie with the nation – or with number one.
Though numerous GOP strategists have concluded that a prolonged primary season is bad business for the party (as it was in 2012 when Romney’s conservative pandering pivot fell completely flat), this part of the show is actually kind of fun for the rest of us. As our own Jason Easley wrote this week, disingenuous circus clown Donald Trump beat low-class liberals to the fray by immediately launching a fake birther conversation about Cruz’s legal right to run. Whee!
And if there’s anything more delightful than watching a senior statesman with a long record of accomplishment flat out dismiss the idea of a one-trick narcissist in the Oval Office, I’ve yet to discover it. On this past Sunday’s edition of NBC’s Meet the Press while addressing the topic of climate change, California Governor Jerry Brown told host Chuck Todd, “That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.”
Here’s the thing though. I struggle to believe that Cruz is delusional enough to think he can win the nomination. Smarmy and dangerous? Yes. Stupid? Not at all. He pulled in just 4 percent of Republican primary voters in the latest CNN/ORC poll. And as I’ve argued already, the support of the GOP establishment is far from guaranteed. So why put himself and his family through the grueling, often humiliating process that is party vetting?
I offer that Cruz and Trump are actually fairly similar. Ignore either man too long and like a pouty puppy, he’s going to do something to get attention. The conversation has shifted away from Cruz for far too long. He can stand the ignominy of primary season. He can handle being called “a wacko bird” by McCain. But what he can’t suffer is our silence. That gnawing, aching need for limelight, even more so than Cruz’s disingenuous flouting of science in exchange for base adoration, is what makes him unfit to lead. See: Sarah Palin 2008.
He’s just a trouble maker that hates being ignored. /s
Yup,,the left, the media, and the good old boy network of GOP-e are a bunch of mean old racists who wants to keep a Latino brother down.
I used to click on the Link to that Site so I could comment on their idiotic Articles.
Since they “moderate” Comments, not one of my Messages of Peace (LOL) has made it to Primetime.
The only electable Republicans are Romney, McCain and Dole.
Pray America is waking
Funny how Janeane Garofalo is nowhere to be found these days. I may as well paraphrase her stupid comment.
You can hear it in their voices on TV and you can read their terror in the op-ed pages of our major newspapers. Folks, the left and the RINOS are scared to death of Ted Cruz and when they’re this hysterical you know they think this man can win it all. He announced his run for the presidency less than 24 hours and how many hit pieces and boasts from the media that Cruz is unelectable have you already seen, heard, and read? Frankly, I don’t know who’s going to win the GOP nomination but all I know is the happy faces the liberals are putting out there and saying Hillary is a done deal as our next president is just a facade. They know she’s beatable, but like clockwork they’re already trying to tear apart Ted Cruz and likewise with Rand Paul and Marco Rubio who will be following soon with their presidential announcements. They’re panicked in lefty and RINO land, and that should give all of us a sense of purpose now to defeat these people next year.
Guilty!
Assuming that he’s not capable of winning the nomination, which I don’t necessarily agree with, a politician will typically run for the Presidential nomination because it raises their profile.
If he puts up decent numbers, it forces the establishment to notice him and have to bargain with him because he showed that he had a following.
This is liberal spin/projecting. All it is.
well she did but no one told her that. McCain was a waste product. she should have run like she was running for pres. instead she listened to the republican consultant electioneers. she could have decided which venues, etc for all of her press exposure. vetted that all out. she knew the press. she worked for them. i saw her interviewed on cnbc for sever months about oil. kudlow interviewed her several times.
very true lol
“six years too late and we STILL don’t know who (the actual name, identity, birthplace, citizenship, immigration status, etc. of what) we’ve elected to the WH (twice)”
He’s like a 3-legged, one-eyed, rabid, mangy mutt you find in a gutter in Indonesia.
Ted Cruz unelectable... That’s what David Dewhurst thought, too. LOL!!!
yes but dogs can be loyal
They keep trying to compare him to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI) but how many people today have any recollection of that era? Besides, McCarthy was proved correct after the fall of the Soviet Union.
[ Ted Cruz unelectable... That’s what David Dewhurst thought, too. LOL!!! ]
I watched that debate, it was great, it is like a prequel to the jeb Bush, Ted Cruz debate we may see
LOL
Exactly...don't hear a whole lot about Ben Carson. No threat, no news.
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