# Ted Cruz Presidential campaign discussion thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 23, 2015, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774 "2015-03-23T14:47:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 36
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/701 "2016-03-13T03:08:53Z")
The funny thing about Mike Lee is that even though Lee is as far right as Cruz is, he has never been on board with Cruz’s no compromise approach. Lee has been more in the Orrin Hatch school of Senate dealmaking. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/702 "2016-03-19T22:31:40Z")
According to [MCNBC’s Chris Hayes](http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/03/17/msnbcs-chris-hayes-ted-cruzs-foreign-policy-tea/209386), Cruz’s list of Foreign Policy Advisers is… [QUOTE=Chris Hayes] …a real rogue’s gallery of warmongers and bigots, including Elliott Abrams, who pleaded guilty to keeping information from Congress about his role in the Iran-Contra scandal, and Michael Ledeen, another Iran-Contra figure and namesake of the so-called Ladeen Doctrine, and I’m quoting directly here: “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” But by far the worse of the bunch, a guy who has no business anywhere near the corridors of power ever is anti-Muslim conspiracy theorist Frank Gaffney. The man who the Southern Poverty Law Center described as “one of America’s most notorious Islamophobes.” Gaffney believes the Obama administration and large parts of the U.S. government are fronts for the Muslim Brotherhood. Accusing such figures as Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin, and Republican anti-tax fanatic Grover Norquist of promoting Sharia law. Gaffney’s organization, The Center for Security Policy, is responsible for the bogus poll cited by Donald Drumpf himself in justifying his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S., an idea that now appears to have gone mainstream in the Republican electorate. According to exit polls around two thirds of the voters in this past Tuesday’s Republican primaries said they support banning Muslims from the country. As Gaffney sees it, Islam is less a religion protected by the First Amendment than a militant political plot to take over the U.S. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2016, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/703 "2016-03-19T22:55:22Z")
> [@](#): > > . . . Michael Ledeen, another Iran-Contra figure and namesake of the so-called Ladeen Doctrine, I’m quoting directly here: “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” I have no brief for Mr. Cruz or his advisers. But that phrase “I’m quoting directly” seemed worth checking. Turns out it is about as far as you could get from a direct quotation of Mr. Michael Ledeen. Instead it is an exact quotation of someone else paraphrasing him, based on a decade-old memory: [http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Y4Epv45cXi4J:www.nationalreview.com/article/205187/baghdad-delenda-est-part-two-jonah-goldberg+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Y4Epv45cXi4J:www.nationalreview.com/article/205187/baghdad-delenda-est-part-two-jonah-goldberg+&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) > [@](#): > > I’m not sure my friend Michael Ledeen will thank me for ascribing authorship to him and he may have only been semi-serious when he crafted it, but here is the bedrock tenet of the Ledeen Doctrine in more or less his own words: “Every ten years or so, the United States needs to pick up some small crappy little country and throw it against the wall, just to show the world we mean business.” That’s at least how I remember Michael phrasing it at a speech at the American Enterprise Institute about a decade ago (Ledeen is one of the most entertaining public speakers I’ve ever heard, by the way). ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/704 "2016-03-20T01:09:08Z")
Wow. Serious fuckup by Chris Hayes. Maybe he was reading from an assistant’s research notes? In any case, that merits an on-air correction, and a call to Ledeen to ask what his actual view is. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/705 "2016-03-20T04:44:24Z")
Meh. [Ledeen thinks we need to go to war with France and Germany, because they have made secret agreements with “radical Islam” to wage war on the United States.](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/206119/theory-michael-ledeen) ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2016, 5:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/706 "2016-03-20T05:43:40Z")
It’s interesting that Cruz portrays himself as closer to Rand Paul than GWB on foreign policy, yet he’s surrounded himself with the most prominent neocons. ---
**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:** [March 20, 2016, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/707 "2016-03-20T21:54:20Z")
[Cruz: Obama’s Cuba trip will ‘legitimize’ Castro regime.](http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/273710-cruz-obamas-cuba-trip-will-legitimize-the-corrupt-and) > [@](#): > > Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz is criticizing President Obama for his trip to Cuba, saying Sunday the president’s trip will “legitimize the corrupt and oppressive Castro regime.” Of course, he fails to mention that his father was part of the revolution which put Castro in power in the first place. ---
**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:** [March 21, 2016, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/708 "2016-03-21T04:48:46Z")
Rick Perry and Carla Fiorina are in Arizona, promoting Cruz. I’m watching them on FOX News right now–man they are really sucking Cruz’s dick. Think they’re both hoping for the VP slot? ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/709 "2016-03-21T05:13:12Z")
Some mental images posted should have an “icepick” spoiler symbol, for the tool you will want to get for your DIY lobotomy. Tequila and bongwater is equally effective, but takes a _lot_ longer. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/710 "2016-03-21T12:18:55Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Rick Perry and Carla Fiorina are in Arizona, promoting Cruz. I’m watching them on FOX News right now–man they are really sucking Cruz’s dick. Think they’re both hoping for the VP slot? Its been a week or two since the first trial balloons of the traditional Rs’ “Romney (or somebody) as 3rd party candidate” and “Romney (or somebody) as convention floor draftee” trial balloons were released and duly fell flat. Since Desperate Plan #45 & #46 fell flat, now they’re on to desperate plan #47. I think anybody who’s anybody who hopes to have any future within in the traditional R party will be falling in line behind Cruz pretty aggressively. Whether these two are trying extra hard or are just some of the first remains to be seen. I also wonder what desperate plan #48 will be after this too falls flat. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2016, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/711 "2016-03-21T13:00:13Z")
Burned down, fell over, and sank in the swamp. ---
**Author:** ![Scandic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecb155/32.png) [@Scandic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scandic)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/712 "2016-03-22T01:37:17Z")
I’m not American, but i prefer Trump over Cruz. Cruz is a religious nut and the worst president candidate I’ve seen ever. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/713 "2016-03-22T03:29:04Z")
Mr. Cruz gave a [rather stirring speech before AIPAC](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/aipac-israel-cruz-trump-221068) this evening. I wish him well in his campaign to be elected President of Israel. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2016, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/714 "2016-03-22T03:37:59Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Mr. Cruz gave a [rather stirring speech before AIPAC](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/aipac-israel-cruz-trump-221068) this evening. I wish him well in his campaign to be elected President of Israel. Good luck with that Dominionist Christian thing. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2016, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/715 "2016-03-22T04:02:16Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Mr. Cruz gave a [rather stirring speech before AIPAC](http://www.politico.com/story/2016/03/aipac-israel-cruz-trump-221068) this evening. I wish him well in his campaign to be elected President of Israel. That’s funny. That’s the event that Trump said he was skipping the debate for. When did Cruz get invited to it? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/716 "2016-03-22T13:21:57Z")
[His foreign policy adviser says](http://gawker.com/ted-cruz-declines-opportunity-to-disavow-foreign-policy-1766283263?utm_campaign=socialflow_gawker_facebook&utm_source=gawker_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow) President Barack Obama, Governor Chris Christie, and longtime Hillary Clinton aide Huma Abedin are part of a secret Muslim conspiracy. > [@](#): > > “I don’t have the full context,” Cruz said. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/717 "2016-03-22T13:47:56Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > That’s funny. That’s the event that Trump said he was skipping the debate for. When did Cruz get invited to it? Not sure, but all the remaining Presidential contenders except Sanders made speeches there, with varying degrees of pandering. Cruz was far and away the most blatant, however, getting much applause for revisiting his peculiar claim that a temporary suspension of US flights to Israel following a terrorist incident there in 2014 was an attempted “economic boycott” of the country by the current administration. ---
**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:** [March 22, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/718 "2016-03-22T13:58:06Z")
So my impression then is that they were all invited about the same time which means Cruz and Kasich were planning on skipping it for the debate. Cruz is lucky Kasich pulled out of the debate too so they could just cancel it- would have been bad optics if only Trump and Clinton had addressed AIPAC. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/719 "2016-03-22T14:38:09Z")
> [@Scandic](#): > > I’m not American, but i prefer Trump over Cruz. Cruz is a religious nut and the worst president candidate I’ve seen ever. I am an American and feel similarly. However, I’d change “candidate” to “person.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2016, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774/720 "2016-03-22T17:57:47Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Not sure, but all the remaining Presidential contenders except Sanders made speeches there, with varying degrees of pandering. Kudos to Sanders, risking his Jewcred over principle like that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774.md?page=35) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ted-cruz-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/715774.md?page=37)