My theory on Ted Cruz.

Great Debates
1

I watched some of his blather today. He can’t be President. A congressman’s salary sounds good but it’s nothing spectacular and he knows there is a lot of money out there to be made by preaching to the choir.

My theory is that he is setting himself up to be the next Rush Limbaugh. Rush won’t last forever. He still has the hearing problem. From what I hear and read, everyone in Washington hates Cruz, Pub or Dem. Ted can come behind Rush and snag a lot of his listeners. He will be the fresher, crazier voice and be able to claim that he is much more educated and has inside government experience that Rush lacks.

I’m thinking that what he is doing is very calculated in that direction.

2

I did NOT need that imagery!

3

Butt it’s appropriate.

4

Eh. The simpler explanation is usually the best, lacking any concrete evidence. He probably believes what he’s doing.

Having said that, there are probably thousands of would-be Rush Limbaughs out there, and it’s certainly possible he’s one. If so, and if he’s successful, then he’s smarter than you or me. He’ll be laughing all the way to the bank. To be successful, though, you need to be more than smart. You have to be entertaining, which is what Rush does-- he’s fundamentally an entertainer. I don’t know enough about Cruz to evaluate his ability in that category.

5

If Cruz’ incoherent nonfilibuster is any indication, he’s not cut out to be a tenth of the radio-man Rush is.

6

The space of people trying to be rightwing pundits a la Rush is pretty crowded. Even the subset of ex-politicians trying to do the same has a lot of members. I don’t think there’s really any reason to think Cruz would be better placed then any of the competition, or that just getting noticed for political crankery is going to help him that much.

The space of meaningful GOP 2016 Prez contenders, OTOH, is basically just three people. Cruz is trying to expand it to four.

7

Make no mistake, Ted Cruz believes in what he’s doing, and he is a citizen by birth and eligible to serve as POTUS, and he is going to run. I would like to be the first to point out that brother Ted looks amazingly like a young Joe McCarthy. Now somebody 'splain to me how my fellow Texians elected a Canadian/Cuban doughy looking girly man to the senate?

8

Here’s another.

9

He seems to have an approach to polling much like a noted Doper… Perhaps he is adaher?

10

Yeah, there is a tendency here to postulate something complex because the poster can’t wrap his mind around a different political outlook.

11

I’m not sure its Cruz’s political outlook that’s hard to understand. I’m sure he honestly thinks Obamacare is a terrible idea and should be repealed. He’s hardly alone in believing so.

But I think people are fishing around for complex ulterior motives not because its hard to understand Cruz’s political beliefs, but because its pretty hard to see how he thought his actions would advance those beliefs. The tactic he chose to attack Obamacare has a very small chance of working, a very high chance of backfiring, has split his caucus and pissed off both the GOP leadership and business interests that are usually in the GOP camp. And the drama of the shutdown has pushed the news of Obamacare’s rather embarrassing technical glitches off the front page.

So while I don’t doubt Cruz really wants Obamacare repealed, I don’t think people are wrong to look around for a possible other motive for his current antics (even though I think the theory put forward in the OP is rather silly).

12

If so, he’s a very recent convert. And he didn’t suddenly get stupid. More likely, ISTM, this is simple posturing for a target audience by somebody who’s got some uncommon skill at recognizing it and using it. This is a freshman who has his entire party wrapped up in knots in *both *houses, and who’s the top choice of its guiding faction for *President *as a result.

I don’t think those considerations are relevant to him. His own ambition has been very well served by what he’s been doing.

13

No, sir, there is not, unless by “complex” you mean “stupidly oversimplified,” and that’s all entirely on the RW, not the LW.

14

Ted Cruz reminds me of a (thankfully former) contestant on Survivor, Colton Cumbie. He had no strategy other than to create chaos, and then with people paranoid and not thinking clearly, figure out a way to put a target on someone else’s back. His problem was that the rest of his tribe, when confronted, refused to engage. They just told him to go away.

Ted Cruz is the same except that his fellow Republicans did engage, and he did get them to stop thinking clearly. Then, when he had to get by the Democrats, which he had to do to make his plan work, they showed him the hand. They said “Shut up and go away, jerk.” At this point he had no other cards to play.

Colton’s reaction was to burst into tears and quit the game. We can only hope…

15

Stop that. Mockery is perilously close to insulting and I’ll permit no ‘whipping boy status’ sort of things in Great Debates.

No warning issued, but don’t do it again.

16

Stop that. Mockery is perilously close to insulting and I’ll permit no ‘whipping boy status’ sort of things in Great Debates.

No warning issued, but don’t do it again.

17

There are three prime right wing hate talk radio show hosts on the main station in the DC area. They are Limbaugh, Hannity and Mark Levin. it was interesting last evening to hear Levin spewing his venom usually reserved for Obama, liberals, statists and Marxists now being spewed against the Republican more sane establishment politicians and Pundits.

Levin’s hate and anger was way beyond normal control because it looks like the surrender on the debt limit and shutting down the government by Republicans has clearly arrived. Susan Collins has replaced Cruz as the Republican to follow in the Senate. Paul Ryan leads in the House with no talk about defunding Obama Care.

Levin was lamenting the next Ronald Reagan, by the name Ted Cruz has been shafted by McCain, MCConnell, Boehner, Rove, Fox News hosts, Haley Barbour, Krauthammer etc etc. and how it’s time for his Tea Party masses to cut the Republican Party off at the knees.

Levin has had it.

I believe Levin will lead some kind of radio driven insurrection againt Republican establishment leaders with Cruz as his standard bearer.

Levin is awestruck by Cruz. Levin is on the air three hours a day literally losing his mind for being on the losing side with Cruz in the GOP civil war.

With any luck Cruz will not only succeed at taking the Tea Party and GOP down; he will take right wing hate talk radio down too.

I don’t mean right wing anti-government hate talk radio will go away. It will no longer have mainstream Republicans paying homage and seeking approval from these crazy, annoying and unreasonable radio hosts if the Tea Party secedes from the GOP union.

The GOP will go down but never be fully out once the Tea Party scourge is cast aside.

I think Levin crossed a line last night because of his infatuation with Cruz. In the coming weeks it will be interesting to listen to where Rush, Hannity and the ditto-heads go.

If Cruz intends to venture into hate talk radio - he’ll get there as that form of
entertainment is on the decline as far as big money goes.

It will represent a Cruz led non-governing bitchy grumpy anti-government mostly white male movement that is best at throwing stones. They will amuse themselves until their arms fall off I suppose.

The extremist right will be disarmed we can hope.

18

You completely missed my meaning, but you’re still wrong.

19

Rush yesterday blasted GOP shutdown-compromisers for “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”

No, Rush, they are snatching defeat from the jaws of utter humiliation.

20

Sorry.