Posted on 03/28/2015 5:12:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The voters are just getting to know the candidates running for president on the Republican side, and the months ahead will allow plenty of time to weigh their credentials and assess how they perform under pressure on the campaign trail. It will be a grueling experience for those who accept the challenge, and whoever emerges in the spring of 2016 joins the battle again in the fall against the Democratic standard-bearer.
As the first official entry into what promises to be a crowded field, Texas Senator Ted Cruz got quite a ride from the media for his announcement this week. He and his wife appeared with Matt Lauer on the “Today” show, and he was the subject of numerous profiles attempting to divine what he is all about, his motivations, and whether he is presidential material.
The early line on Cruz is that while he’s undeniably smart, even brilliant, that he has charted such a narrow path for himself on the far right of his party that he could not reach out to the rest of America should he manage to win the nomination. At Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, founded by Rev. Jerry Falwell, Cruz told a packed auditorium of students to “Imagine” a presidency where every word of Obamacare is repealed, and where the IRS is abolished – a fantasy presidency where everything on the tea party’s wish list comes true.
It will take a whole lot of imagining to believe that Cruz could make these things come true even if he were king, let alone president. Yet he might just hit upon a theme that could catch on, that could make him the leader of the angriest wing of the GOP, the folks who cheer him for forcing the government to shut down and want him to do it again. Never mind the cost to the country, and the workers who were displaced, the shutdown put Ted Cruz in the spotlight.
We’d all like to file our taxes by postcard, but most of us realize how impractical that would be, and that it couldn’t happen unless the tax code were completely overhauled. Still, it’s the kind of idea that Cruz specializes in — totally unachievable, but sounds good.
That’s why he’s made for the tea party. He can take its obsession with a balanced budget, add a touch of sophistication, and before you know it, he’s got a proposal and a presidential platform. There’s a word for that, it’s called demagoguery, and in today’s fast-paced media environment, it could catch on, at least for a while, until the race gets serious.
That’s the bad news, but the good news is that the scrutiny will get more intense once we get past the fun and games stage of the presidential contest. That’s when it will take more than outsized ambition and ego to reach the finals of this fierce competition.
The great jurist, Oliver Wendell Holmes, said Franklin Roosevelt, who steered the country through the Depression and World War II, had a second-rate intellect but a first-rate temperament.
By that yardstick, Cruz has a ways to go. He has the intellect, but he is among the least liked members of the Senate.
Among the rest of the Republican field, there are contenders whose smarts don’t immediately jump out, and there are problematic personalities. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry is the most congenial of the candidates, and not the smartest if we count his “oops” moment in the 2008 debates. Jeb Bush was always considered the smartest of the Bush brothers, but we don’t know that much yet about his temperament. That’s what the campaign trail is for, and so the months ahead will be enlightening for the voters and for the candidates too.
Maybe his colleages in the Senate don’t like him....but the question is do the voters in Texas like him? It would appear that they do. So who cares what Juan McAmnesty, Lindsey Grahmnesty, McConnell, and the entire cast of RINO’s think.
I’m likin’ Cruz, but not sold yet. I was likein Walker too but it looks like he jumped the shark on Amnesty. And there’s some murkyness out there with Cruz on that score too.
He’s got to say these criminal trespassers need to be deported....all of them. They can apply for resident alien status from their country of birth, and get in line, at the back, behind those who are already in that line. They will not be eligible for any sort of public assistance once they get here and for 20 years after taking the oath of citizenship.. This is not negotiable.
Eleanor Clift, as always, trying in her own way to put down a conservative. Referring to him as a “king” and that he’s “unfriendly”. If you read political columns and op-ed pieces long enough you can read between the lines and notice all the little buzzwords that writers use to get their little jabs in. The bottom line is Ted Cruz has got the lefties and their media arm spooked out of their minds.
What if Cruz catches on ? GOOD !
They keep repeating this talking point like it is a bad thing. As if one would need to be "liked" by Harry Reid, Chucky Schumer, Mitch "Chamber of Comm" McConnell, and McCain, to be seen as a good candidate.
That is just a mean and hateful thing to say. Are you a mean and hateful person, Eleanor?
Would you rather have the corrupt, sleazy, out of touch, and owned wing of the GOP?
I’m on the wrong planet. I don’t belong here. The angry, crazy tea party. Those idjuts just want to pay less taxes and balance budgets, how marginal and clueless they are! They aren’t like US, no, we are the great Americans who enjoy statism, and the tyranny of king like rulers. We actually love what we say we hate about the tea party. We love controlling people and protecting our favorites, and damn if we hate those ugly tea party people for supposedly doing that!
The bottom line is Ted Cruz has got the lefties and their media arm spooked out of their minds.
Ted is opening the hearts of Americans far faster than the Left can find missiles to shoot those hearts down again.
Ping.
One of my sons said, “I can tell when McLaughlin is on.” How so I asked. “Because all I hear is intermittent screaming at the TV.”
Eleanor Clift might well be one of the original lizard people. She’s as shrieky and over-talking as any T-Rex.
Senator Cruz has zero legislation passed with his sponsorship so far. But primary process is long ways away. Senator Cruz has plenty of time to woo the senators and congress critters and get a consensus going to pass some important and meaningful legislation such as abolishing the IRS.
Never gonna happen.
Eleanor has been brain dead since the days of our beloved Pres. Reagan, whom she mocked and despised. She is totally wrong on every issue, so this article slamming Sen. Cruz is very encouraging.
Yeah, exactly.
but most of us realize how impractical that would be,
Well, somehow Russia and about twenty other countries have made a flat tax work.
and that it couldn’t happen unless the tax code were completely overhauled.
Yeah, exactly.
I take it you’re a Bush man?
Cruz doesn’t have a chance in hell. He’s a junior senator with no executive experience, opposition from his own party, eligibility issues and he’s facing off against a pre-decided candidate with a powerful last name.
Never gonna happen.
Ted has studied for 20 years how best to bring down the Dragon. He declared for POTUS so he can do exactly that. You could use David v. Goliath as a metaphor if you choose.
Barack Hussein Obama has studied for 20 years how to bring down the American Eagle, and damned near succeeded, consider that.
You can’t be more wrong. Jeb Bush disgusts me with his pandering to illegals.
My current preferences are: Walker, Jindal, Cruz, Kasich.
And I mention Bush because I know that no respectable person on this board can stand him. His name is useful because it insults people and gets them to name the ones they really like. I don't have to criticize Bush. I just say his name.
Here is an article in which the Clift Lizard claims Chris Stevens died by “smoke inhalation.”
http://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2014/05/16/chris-stevens-wasnt-murdered/
I’d vote for a sheet of plywood if it promised to prosecute Obama and the first two levels of his administration if it won.
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