Ted Cruz has always had a master plan. Now it could win him the White House.

Yahoo ^ | 11/24/15 | Andrew Romano

[VinL]

Over the course of his brief, polarizing career in electoral politics, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has been called many names, especially by liberals. "Dirty Syrup Guzzler" (Jon Stewart). "Creature from the Nether Regions" (Cher). “"The Most Dangerous Canadian in America" (the Huffington Post).

Yet so far the most indelible description of Cruz has come from a fellow conservative. In 2013, when Cruz decided to protest U.S. drone policy by filibustering the nomination of incoming CIA chief John Brennan, John McCain told reporter Jon Ward.. now a senior political correspondent for Yahoo News .. that his junior colleague was a "wacko bird."

The sobriquet stuck. It was emblazoned on T shirts. It appeared in countless headlines. Cruz himself proudly displays a black WACKO BIRD baseball cap with a picture of Daffy Duck on it in his Senate office.

By using that particular moniker, McCain was, in effect, dismissing Cruz as both flighty and crazy. And for the most part that is exactly how the Texan has been characterized in both the press and the public imagination since he alighted on Washington, D.C., nearly three years ago and immediately set about trolling his fellow Republicans and hijacking the legislative process: as an irresponsible far right demagogue prone to behave in irrational, counterproductive ways. Cruz's showy obstructionism suffers from "basic logic problems" and "just doesn’t make sense," wrote the Atlantic's Molly Ball in 2013. "Zealot leaders" like Cruz "forget that the key to leadership is essentially getting results by moving agendas ahead," added Inc. magazine.

Many pundits were skeptical when, in a speech at Virginia's evangelical Liberty University on March 23 , Cruz became the first Republican to announce he was entering the 2016 presidential race. As the New York Times' Nate Cohn put it at the time, "The most interesting question about Mr. Cruz's candidacy is whether he has a very small chance to win or no chance at all."

But suddenly it seems that Cruz is running what even Dan Pfeiffer, a former top aide to President Obama, concedes is "the best campaign on the other side." (snip)

[editor-surveyor]

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At the moment of his birth, Ted Cruz, the son of an adult US citizen, was himself a US citizen.

That is the nature of natural born citizenship.
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Just Plain Sub Brilliant?

[editor-surveyor]

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Obama was born in Kenya to an under-age mother, who was incapable of conferring citizenship on her son.
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[editor-surveyor]

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>> “You would imagine that conservatives would be thrilled to hear that a solid conservative would be advancing in this race.” <<

A conservative definitely would be.

All of the conservatives here are solidly behind Cruz, and that is a large majority of FReepers, but many here that call themselves conservative haven’t a clue what foundational principles make them such.
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[generally]

“showy obstructionism” = Democrats don’t like it when he doesn’t roll over and vote for their crap.

“basic logic problems” and “just doesn’t make sense”. How about a concrete example. Your magazine article suffers from basic logic problems and just doesn’t make sense.

“the key to leadership is essentially getting results by moving agendas ahead”. I couldn’t disagree more. This is a Dem concept. They can take their agendas and shove them. Their homosexual agenda. Their anti-American immigrant agenda. Their big brother government control of your life agenda. The key to leadership is honesty and integrity and wisdom. An intelligent, honest leader is one who can take us where we need to go and where we will ultimately benefit. It might be difficult, like charging up a hill into enemy territory, but the goals should be worth the sacrifices. What a leader is not: Someone who advances his personal agenda in order to line his pockets and indulge his sexual perversions (Clinton, Clinton, 0vomit, and too many other Democrats to count. And yes, some Republicans, too.)

My new T-Shirt: “I’m with the Wacko Bird!”

[Uncle Miltie]

I’ve been a campaign contributor since early last Spring. I maxed out in the Summer and I’m now double maxed.

Early money is like yeast!

:-)

Many of us knew long ago who the player was, in spite of the MSM and Comrade Juan McNuts.

[jaydee770]

“...Cruz is the exact same position that Obama was in in 2008, except Obama provided “proof” he was born in the USA and Cruz can not...”

What do you mean Cruz “can not”? Cruz has readily affirmed his birth as a US citizen born abroad. He has no reason to hide it. Ted Cruz’s mother was an adult US citizen when Ted was born and it was her status as a US citizen, above the age of majority, that bestowed Ted’s US citizenship AT HIS BIRTH. He had no need to be “naturalized”.

The first Congress of the United States passed the Naturalization Act of 1790, A MERE THREE YEARS AFTER THE CONSTITUTION WAS WRITTEN, which stated that children born abroad to U.S. citizens were themselves “NATURAL BORN CITIZENS”. Unless you can find another, I believe it is the only US statute ever to use the term “Natural Born Citizen”. This statute was passed by a congress that included members who were also authors of the Constitution. I don’t know how to make it any clearer than that. I’ll take the founding fathers at their word. You can do what you wish. Good luck with it!