# Cruz and Rubio **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [February 21, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715 "2016-02-21T17:38:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/21 "2016-02-22T04:50:56Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Trump might seem to be the safest bet to avoid World War III, since he seemingly likse Putin. At this point, I think the only thing Trump genuinely likes is the attention he gets from saying crazy shit. I seriously doubt he’s given more than 5 minutes of thought to Putin in his entire life. “A world leader admires me? That’s terrific. This guy’s a winner! Excellent leadership. What country’s he from?” ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/22 "2016-02-22T05:15:26Z")
The Cruz campaign has been sending out [this anti-Rubio mailer](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbqnVfrUkAAsW_x.jpg:orig). The next Republican debate should be fun! ---
**Author:** ![Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kolak_of_twilo/32/73_2.png) [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/23 "2016-02-22T05:47:45Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > The Cruz campaign has been sending out [this anti-Rubio mailer](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CbqnVfrUkAAsW_x.jpg:orig). > > The next Republican debate should be fun! Not only that, but your link shows how woefully incorrect it would be to think that: > [@adaher](#): > > Ideologically they have few differences. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/24 "2016-02-22T15:45:12Z")
Cruz is anti-TPP? That’s an odd position for him to take. Is he a conservative, or does he just hate Obama? ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/25 "2016-02-22T15:55:40Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Cruz is anti-TPP? That’s an odd position for him to take. Is he a conservative, or does he just hate Obama? It’s not blindingly obvious? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/26 "2016-02-22T15:57:36Z")
It is, but I had hoped Cruz was just being ideologically inflexible, not making about his personal issues with the President. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/27 "2016-02-22T22:43:03Z")
Today Cruz fired his spokesman, Rick Tyler, after Tyler posted an anti-Rubio video that impugns Rubio’s religious convictions. > **[Cruz Fires Spokesman Who Shared False Rubio Video](https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/cruz-fires-spokesman-rick-tyler-after-posting-false-rubio-video)** > > Rick Tyler posted a video that purported to show Rubio saying the Bible held 'no answers.' Apparently it’s video in which Rubio passes someone (a Cruz staffer?) who is holding a Bible. The audio is a little unclear, but Rubio says he told the person something to the effect of “Got a good book there. Got all the answers in it.” Which makes sense and is consistent with Rubio’s image. The Cruz people, though, added captions to the video to make it look like Rubio says “Not many answers in it.” Looks like this is the version of the video Cruz’s people posted: [- YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJ-5GxHNhKQ) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/28 "2016-02-22T23:04:48Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Today Cruz fired his spokesman, Rick Tyler, after Tyler posted an anti-Rubio video that impugns Rubio’s religious convictions. > > [http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/cruz-fires-spokesman-rick-tyler-after-posting-false-rubio-video](http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-02-22/cruz-fires-spokesman-rick-tyler-after-posting-false-rubio-video) [From this article.](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/02/22/cruz-fires-top-campaign-spokesman-over-rubio-bible-video.html) > [@](#): > > “We are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate. Even if it was true, our campaign should not have sent it. That’s why I’ve asked for Rick Tyler’s resignation,” Cruz said in Nevada, ahead of the state’s GOP caucuses on Tuesday. **“The standards of conduct in this campaign have been made absolutely clear.”** And yet the guy gets fired for it. > [@](#): > > Cruz on Monday said it was a “grave error in judgment” – but at the same time accused Rubio of exploiting the controversy for political advantage and to distract from his own record. No shit, Sherlock, what did you think he would do? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/29 "2016-02-22T23:44:54Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > It is, but I had hoped Cruz was just being ideologically inflexible, not making about his personal issues with the President. What do you expect? He is a frontrunner for a party which has long since erased the difference between the two. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/30 "2016-02-23T14:38:32Z")
> [@PhillyGuy](#): > > Trump is the worst face of America to the world. > > Cruz is the worst in that he would push hard-right policies the hardest. > > While there is a lot concerning about Rubio, I think he would be the least objectionable. Trump would be embarrassing, but I think Rubio or Cruz would be worse. [Here’s an article that compares Trump and Rubio, and Trump comes out much better](http://www.vox.com/2016/2/20/11067932/rubio-worse-than-trump). > [@](#): > > Rubio has proposed a tax cut that will reduce federal revenue by $6.8 trillion over 10 years. Numbers that large don’t mean anything to people, so for comparison’s sake let’s say that if we entirely eliminated American military spending over that period we still couldn’t quite pay for it. > > \ > > Rubio’s approach to world affairs essentially repeats the “let’s have it all and who cares if it adds up” mentality of his fiscal policy. His solution to every problem is to confront some foreign country more aggressively, with no regard to the idea of trade-offs or tensions between goals or limits to how much the United States can bite off at any particular time. > > \ > > After the Paris attacks, Trump vowed to shut down mosques where radical preaching might be taking place; Rubio said that didn’t go far enough and that a Rubio administration would be willing to stamp out Muslims’ freedom of assembly wherever it might present itself. Trump would be bad, but it sounds like Rubio could be a lot worse. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/31 "2016-02-23T14:47:02Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > No shit, Sherlock, what did you think he would do? “Dippy’s Kaboom (And Tyler’s Too!)” would make a fun bumper sticker… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/32 "2016-02-23T15:09:51Z")
These two have to get together and unite behind Rubio ASAP or they are both toast. Rubio could offer (openly or secretly, not sure which would be best) either the VP spot or a promise to nominate Cruz for Scalia’s vacant SCOTUS seat. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/33 "2016-02-23T16:36:30Z")
I don’t understand why anyone is considering Rubio for anything. One issue I think should be concerning to almost everyone is he is an unmitigated disaster with his personal finances. Rubio’s second home nearly went to forclosure when he failed to pay the mortgage for 5 months. He eventually sold the home for $18,000 less than he paid for it. He took out a home equity loan on his first home and didn’t report it on his financial disclosure forms. He mixed campaign and personal funds “by mistake”, and used a Republican party credit card to repair his minivan and charged $7,000 on the card in order to attend a family reunion. He double-billed the Republican party for airline travel, he liquidated his $68,000 retirement account for which he had to pay more than $20,000 in taxes in penalties (so not only is he a spendthrift, he’s stupid), he failed to disclose $34,000 in personal expenses from $600,000 collected from two political committees he and his wife ran, he paid family members for expenses that were incorrectly labeled, he borrowed money from his family to pay back misappropriated funds and lied about his diligence in paying back party funds he spent personally, missing payments for a 6-month period, and when he joined the Florida legislature, he had more than $30,000 in personal credit card debt. There is still information on personal expenditures he hasn’t disclosed, and he obfuscates when asked about them directly. At best, Rubio is a financial mess who can’t even balance a checkbook. More likely, as [Simon Maloy](http://www.salon.com/2015/11/05/were_missing_the_real_marco_rubio_scandal_the_problem_isnt_his_financial_trouble_its_that_hes_a_corruptible_sneak/) says, he’s a corruptible sneak. This is who Republicans want to be President? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/34 "2016-02-23T17:03:14Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > These two have to get together and unite behind Rubio ASAP or they are both toast. Rubio could offer (openly or secretly, not sure which would be best) either the VP spot or a promise to nominate Cruz for Scalia’s vacant SCOTUS seat. If that’s the price to stop Trump then the sane choice is to let Trump win. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/35 "2016-02-23T17:52:09Z")
For America, agreed. Not for them though. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/36 "2016-02-23T18:01:10Z")
No, for them too. You don’t reward a party saboteur with a goddamn seat on the Supreme Court. Sheesh. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/37 "2016-02-23T18:06:16Z")
By “them” I meant Rubio and Cruz. But I think you are underestimating the appeal of a deal that stops Trump, gets their lackey in the White House, and a reliable conservative on the Court for years. (Although Cruz is such a phony, who knows what he might turn out to be once he is confirmed to a lifetime appointment.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/38 "2016-02-23T18:14:19Z")
but based on how much antipathy there is to Cruz amongst his Senate colleagues, what’s the chance some Republican Senators might mount a filibuster? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/39 "2016-02-23T18:14:27Z")
Cruz is not a reliable conservative as far as the party establishment thinks. He’s a nut job who actively fucked with incumbents primaries because they weren’t conservative enough for him and his tea party buddies. And if Rubio is considered such a lackey, why did everyone wait for Bush to drop out before jumping on board? If they were going to promise Cruz something it would have to be something you could take away from him. He’s the type that doesn’t stay bought. Supreme court is a ludicrous suggestion, never mind that he’s never getting confirmed. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715/40 "2016-02-23T18:16:36Z")
He clerked for the Court for chrissakes. And it would get him out of the Senate permanently. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cruz-and-rubio/746715.md?page=3)