Posted on 05/20/2016 6:30:35 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Sen. Ted Cruz and his most determined supporters are likely still licking their wounds and mending their broken hearts. Such a sudden end to his primary campaign for president has left marks that will heal but slowly.
Soon, though, Cruz will see that he has come through the hurricane of his first presidential campaign with his prospects enhanced, rather than retarded. We hope that knowledge gives him confidence and patience to reconsider his approach to the job he is returning to, as the junior senator from Texas. That’s the work, after all, that Texas voters singled him out for in 2012.
We’d like to recommend two courses of action as Cruz considers his immediate future, and begins to mull whether — or how soon — he’ll try again to become president.
We don’t offer these suggestions because we, too, mourn his defeat. He was not our candidate. But he is our senator, and we believe he’d gain much if he learned to be a good one. We think these suggestions will make him a stronger, more capable public servant and more attractive candidate no matter how high his ambitions soar.
First, become the second senator Texas needs. Cruz did not arrive in the Senate in 2013 with the goal of being a good senator. His goal, as his fellow Texan Sen. John Cornyn remarked recently, was to run for president, a goal he took further than nearly anyone anticipated. At 45, he may well run again someday. But for now, his focus and his efforts belong to the Senate.
Instead of using his high office as a perch and a platform, he should use it as a tool to pass good bills that help Texans and to block bad ones.
He has a model nearby. Sen. John Cornyn can be as partisan as the next senator, and often his job as deputy leader requires it. But along the way he has steadfastly worked to advance legislation — sometimes compromising and sometimes not — aimed at making life better for people who count on him to help. From criminal justice reform, to advancing the nomination of our ambassador to Mexico, to the Justice for Victims of Sex Trafficking Act, Cornyn has worked hard at being a good legislator.
Cruz should pick his own priorities and then go to work building bipartisan relationships on Capitol Hill so he can pass his own laws. Such a path will require humility. Like it or not, success as a senator will require allies.
Come 2018, he may just be able to offer Texas voters something he’s not yet been able to — a record of achievement, measured in what he has done for Texas and not just what he has done for his ambition.
Secondly, we recognize that Cruz’s ambitions will continue to stretch beyond the Senate. And we suspect he’ll continue to be voice of protest against the White House, no matter who wins November. But we urge him to broaden his appeal beyond the evangelical voters he initially promised would make him president. If he cannot, his path to the White House will never get any easier than it was in 2016. And his influence on history will remain small.
This will require profound introspection. Cruz and his allies may be tempted to see in his near-miss reasons aplenty to continue again in the same vein. But for Donald Trump, they will counsel, this path might have succeeded!
That’s a seductive falsehood. Trump did him favors this time around, clearing out all the better-known GOP rivals early on. Cruz shrewdly stayed on the sidelines, waiting for Trump to implode. That never happened, and by the time he engaged with Trump, it was too late. Trump was too strong and Cruz, having built no bridges beyond the evangelical camp, found himself stranded on his own island.
By broadening his base, and developing a track record in the senate, Cruz can grow in stature between now and the next time he runs for president. But whether he ever wins that higher office, he owes it to Texas to do a better job in the office he already holds.
The Teddy Bears could compile an equally damning list of “offenses” against Trump. In my opinion, both candidates were strong. Trump was the better of the two, given the seismic shift leftward this country has taken.
” Ted isn’t the man for the times.”
Ted has a small window of time to get behind Trump enthusiastically. If he does not he will be another Lindsay Grahamesque candidate. Perennially running, and garnering sub 1% of the vote.
I do not think he has the capacity to bow to the reality that he is irrelevant. Just like Lindsay Graham.
Here’s the difference between Trump & “Lyin’ Ted the Traitor” that the Cruzbots simply cannot intellectually grasp...
- Lyin’ Ted is a messenger for the GOP-Establishment (our enemy)
- Trump is a messenger for the people
Well said.
Does Ted know that a failed filibuster qualify as an achievement?
I think Ted really damaged himself with his increasingly absurd antics. The takeaway is that reality really isn’t his strong suit.
I think he’s vulnerable to a primary challenger. And that’s a good thing.
Yes the hated TPA/TPP that Trump promises to kill.
Supreme Court?
...............................................
Not in a hundred million years!
Ted and Heidi should move to Hollywood and remake the old Blondie movies. He’d be an excellent Dagwood.
LOL Ya really think he is humble enough????
Cruz’s conduct was shameful from the beginning. I don’t care what he does.
I had not heard he was on vacation in Mexico. Where did you hear that?
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http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3431861/posts
“I think that Ted Cruz is presidential material.”
Raphael has yet to be vetTED.
He is not qualified, and he knows it...He is laying on a beach in mexico, laughing his ass off spending campaign contributions to buy drinks all around.
Many have commented that Cruz might make a good captain, once Trump turns the ship around and bails out the water.
A constructive article which probably will not reach its intended audience.
“All I hear from Cruz and his supporters is gloom, doom, and despair. Why not look at the glass half full rather than half empty and help fill the glass?”
Many of those who remain in that camp are having a literal crisis of faith, having vested in that odd little man Godlike qualities and destiny.
Obama wants to give up U.S. open internet protection.
Ted Cruz is now fighting against Obama’s plan.
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