It was an intern.
Cruz is going for it all. What benefits him about running a losing race? He has a plan to win the general election, I’m just not sure what it could be. But who knows, the guy’s very, very good at politics. We’ll see.
He’s very good at extreme right wing politics, but I have yet to see any evidence of skill at general election politics. Those are not the same skills, and in some ways are directly contradictory.
Quite true, but he’s smart enough to know that. But yes, he may suffer from never having had to actually beat a real Democrat in a contested election. Most of the other Republicans with experience have beaten Democrats without the benefit of running in Texas.
One take is that he knew he had no chance of the nomination in 2016, but figured he could angle for a later election year. Those who come in 2nd, for example, often receive the ring the next time around.
But actually, I suspected that he was just building up his mailing list and positioning himself as Mr. Right Wing Populist. That can be a highly remunerative business, what with speaking fees and the like. Now Senate corruption rules prevent a lot of that from happening. So this scenario assumes that he would resign after 1 or 2 terms. Unless he’s figured out a work around.
The other factor involves Mr. Cruz’s lack of emotional intelligence. So he may have muffed certain judgment calls. I agree that Cruz is sharp, though the evidence is indirect.
even tho he has less than one full term, and if elected, likely will not serve out the few weeks that would remain to make him have one complete term, he still doesn’t come off as “youthfully inexperienced” like Rubio and Obama. His remarks at IDC are still something I admire. Those things being said, I do not wanna see him as Prez, and I think he’d have a rough road in the GE. He has evangelicals and Tea Party types, but he lacks the unifying ability that GW Bush had in 2000 and 2004 to get those types in bed with the business and country club conservatives.
Whut the hell is THIS? The Planned Parenthood shooter is a “transgendered leftist?”
THAT’S an original take from our Priceton/Harvard Genius…
That’s possible.
Cruz has never had a history of being in it for the money. If there’s anything that the profiles of Cruz seem to agree on, it’s that he’s addicted to competition and winning.
Well, he has managed to win seemingly unwinnable judicial cases, and even managed to persuade liberal justices here and there to back his positions when he’s argued in front of the court. That’s no small feat. If Ted Cruz can make Stephen Breyer think he’s right about something, then it’s not unreasonable that Cruz could think he can bring some liberals on board his candidacy.
Looks like the “transgender” angle came from the execrable Gateway Pundit website, which looked up Robert Dear on the site www.coloradovoters.info, which claims to reproduce CO voter records. That site showed what appeared to be a voter registration for Dear listing his gender as female. The site now gives a 404 error when you try to view Dear’s record.
Of course I have no idea if Dear is transgender or not. But that’s very thin sourcing. It might, just maybe, possibly be the case that there was an error in his registration.
I found this article interesting. The upshot is that Ted Cruz is instantly unlikable and that everyone in his own party hates him immensely:
"*The political strategist Matthew Dowd, who worked for Bush back then, tweeted that “if truth serum was given to the staff of the 2000 Bush campaign,” an enormous percentage of them “would vote for Trump over Cruz.”
Another Bush 2000 alumnus said to me: “Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time.”*"
Then how did he ever get the Texas voters to like him?!
Texas is a single-party state, which means you win the election if you win the Republican primary. These days (especially since the rise of the Tea Party), you win the Republican primary by standing up and saying that you’re more conservative than any of the other candidates. Ted Cruz is pretty effective at this.
Even among Texas Republicans, Cruz is divisive, though. There are a fair number of people who love the guy, but there are also more than usual who really can’t stand him, at least among the people I hang out with.
How do I know Ted Cruz is gaining the polls? Here comes the negative publicity. Cruz starts making gains and voila, here is his freshman roommate, actually quoted in that article, saying he doesn’t like Ted Cruz. I feel like we just went through this song and dance when Carson caught up with Trump in polling.
Nobody likes Texans, either.
Yes, when Carson was polling well, the press decided that it was worth looking at him and uncovered many reasons that man is wholly unsuitable for public office, and as a result, the people had the data they required and his polls have since dropped.
This isn’t a bug, it’s a feature. Plus, Cruz has had some pretty negative publicity from the get go, largely as a result of courting it.
That’s just the way it works. Become an actual contender and people start looking at your background. Hermann Cain made it to front runner last time around before anyone took a serious look at him, and viola, issues that sank him like a stone.
But this time, Trump, Carson and Cruz ain’t sinking, not just yet.
Carson is sinking.
Yet enough people from other sates voted for Idiot Boy Bush to take him within stealing distance in 2000. What was *their *excuse?
Alas, most Texans don’t vote. In statewide races, they assume the Republicans will win. So they stay home & the Republicans do.
My state rep, state senator & US rep are all Democrats. But I live in a city–and not even Groovy Austin. The mayoral runoff is coming up–one candidate is posing as an independent because it’s known that a Republican can’t be elected.
Quotes from college roomies and anonymous Bush staffers is a feature I can live without. Give me some substance. I’m sure there’s plenty to be found.