Senator Ted Cruz of Texas will become the first presidential candidate (in a strictly legal sense) of the 2016 campaign on Monday. He’s not going to go the whole “exploratory committee” route and intends to jump in with both feet.
Senior advisers say Cruz will run as an unabashed conservative eager to mobilize like-minded voters who cannot stomach the choice of the “mushy middle” that he has ridiculed on the stump over the past two months in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.
“Ted is exactly where most Republican voters are,” said Mike Needham, who heads the conservative advocacy group Heritage Action for America. “Most people go to Washington and get co-opted. And Ted clearly is somebody that hasn’t been.”
I’ll have to look at the financial implications of Cruz’s decision, but getting an early start is important regardless of how you legally organize your campaign.
This guarantees that Cruz will get the attention he craves, and that won’t be a good thing for the Republican Party. I don’t think he plans to leave any room on his right for his competitors to maneuver in, and his schtick is going to be that everyone else is a weak-kneed conservative wannabe. I expect this to get very personal, very quickly. Because the other candidates will be more comfortable attacking Cruz than the outlandish conservative ideas he espouses, I think they will talk about his knowledge, temperament, and effectiveness rather than challenge him from an ideological point of view.
The exception will be Jeb, who will attempt to be the voice of reason. He’ll have to hope that his opponents divide up the majority into enough pieces that he can win with a small plurality.
We ought to remember that Ted Cruz isn’t a former pizza executive, backbench representative from Minnesota, or even a disgraced former Speaker of the House. He is one of two U.S. senators from the largest red state in the country, the same state that gave us Lyndon Johnson and both Bush presidents. How he behaves and what he says helps define the Republican Party to the nation and the world. This will be more true than ever now that he’ll be a presidential candidate.
That most of his Republican colleagues in the Senate despise him and disagree with his critiques means that there will be a lot of pushback. It’s not only the Republican Establishment, but a much broader segment of the Republican base that doesn’t want Cruz to speak for them. This should quickly become evident even on Fox News, and it’s going to take existing wedges on the right and pry them wide open.
I can see Jeb prevailing as a kind of champion against Cruz, but there will be a Humpty Dumpty effect even if Jeb is successful.
What about the whole “not born in America” and not born a citizen and the naturalization thing?
Let’s see, mommy a US citizen and daddy a Cuban and later Canadian citizen (not clear which he was when Teddy was born), and baby born in Canada (which wasn’t then and isn’t now a state). Will the “birthers” support Cruz? Let’s see them jump through that hoop and explain why Cruz is “natural born” and Obama isn’t.
Mommy Cruz didn’t follow the rules to register her baby as a US citizen, but being a generous liberal, I’ll give her a pass as long as she didn’t apply for or obtain Canadian citizenship.
A political resume with a mere two years in the US Senate and now he’s ready to be POTUS? Oh well, it’s more than Ike, Wesley Clark, and Colin Powell (in 2000) had.
maybe the Bush camp will become birthers.
Not their style. They’re good at setting up an opponent as a “crazy loon” and winning. Cruz is easy because they can skip all that setting up hard work because he’s an actual loon.
Except that, as an actual loon, he fairly represents most of the looney GOP/TP these days. So the Jebster camp will have to think this one through.
Sadly, they’ll think of something, I fear. Because I’d really like to see the Repubs nominate this lunatic, with Hillary coasting to a 52-45 victory. Theodore wouldn’t be close enough to allow the GOP backroom boys to work their magic with the computerized vote tally.
It’s Rafael Edward Cruz. Doubt he has the cajones to use his actual name in his campaign. Unlike someone we all know.
If team Bush could get him well enough trained to hold his own in debates against Gore and Kerry, they’ll have not trouble getting Jeb ready to take out the loony Cruz.
Except they didn’t get W well enough trained. Don’t you remember? He was so bad against Kerry we were wondering if there was something organically wrong with him. He was just epically awful – long blank stares, stumbling over words, bleck. The media (that had recently dumped the #1 talk show host, Donohue, for telling the truth during the Iraq War runup) shamelessly called the debate series a draw.
I admit that perhaps the media would equally shamelessly call a Republican debate a “win” for Jeb even if Cruz trashes him, which is actually pretty likely given Cruz’s debating experience (top speaker in the national college championships, 1992). Maybe that will work for Republican primary voters – I don’t know.
Well, I though GWB was terrible in all his debates against Gore and Kerry. But that’s because I listened. On content Gore was the sharpest. Kerry only so-so.
However, scoring debates include demeanor, poise, energy level, courtesy, steadiness, etc. Recall that even Obama flubbed on those measures in his first debate with Romney.
Have heard that Cruz was a champion debater in college. But maybe those scoring him were as biased as the media was in calling the GWB’s debates draws.
That clip of Cruz from last week speaking to a non-adoring audience suggests that he’s not a skilled speaker. Easily rattled when his canned lines don’t work.
We shall see.
IOKIYAR
Or IOKIYACanadian….
Ted Cruz-ader is, without any doubt, a real psychopath.
Brilliant in some respects, evil in most.
He chose law and politics, instead of keeping pickled dead lady-parts in his fridge.
As a life-long Liberal, I’ll just sit here, read, comment, and root for horrific political casualties!!!
“He chose law and politics, instead of keeping pickled dead lady-parts in his fridge.”
It would be irresponsible not to speculate…
My comment history is full of warnings about Ted Cruz. It’s exactly his antagonism with his fellow Republicans that will enthrall their extremist base. He will either win the nomination, or lead a tea party ticket. There is no chance for reconciliation if Cruz stays on the lunatic attack, which he will. He is that committed a demagogue.
Cruz has definitely tried to make that antagonism his brand.
He never had the slightest interest in “legislating”, that’s for sure. We will now see if he has the chops and quick-wittedness to be the demagogue the doubled-down and distilled “conservative” movement has been seeking.
Please pass the popcorn.
There is no way Ted Cruz could win the presidency against any living being except The Donald (NO ONE can vote for THAT hair).
I’m not sure that he could take Texas in a presidential race.
Maybe he is a stalking horse for HRC, like Ross Perot for Bill.
Not likely. iirc the Kochs and one or more of the Silicon valley “libertarian” billionaires like him.
They like anyone with lips like a vacuum cleaner.
Please
lead a tea party ticket
The fact that he is announcing at “Liberty University” should be all anyone needs to know about Mr Cruz. No mainstream media corporation should treat him as a serious candidate (but they will, just like Trump).
How is the symbolism of Liberty University any worse than Philadelphia, Mississippi? Did not that work out OK for Saint Ronnie?
Even so, Cruz does not have a clear path while he must compete with Dr. Carson for the loonies.
It’s full speed ahead on the madness.
Why would an American conservative “explore” the viability of a campaign of irrationality, hierarchy, rage and hate? There’s clearly a huge market for it. Running for prez was Calgary Cruz’s plan from day one.
Will he be as effective a demagogue as he imagines himself? Champion debater, world class intellect, radical extremist, man of destiny! Or will he crash and burn like so many of these rightwing Icaruses, who fly too close to insanity?
We shall see….Game On, Jeb!
Is Portland far enough away from D.C.?
Which Portland is that again?
Thank You, Jesus! Ted Cruz Will Personally “Torpedo” The ENTIRE GOP Effort To Attempt to Regain The White House In 2016. My Grandmother Always Said: “You Don’t Foul Your Own Nest” —-> Ted Cruz Is “Soiling” The ENTIRE GOP Brand. It’s Going To Be “Damaged Goods” Before The End Of This Year. They’ll Be Merely Fighting Over “Shouting Rights” For WITHIN The GOP Circus For The Next 4-Years. If Hillary Runs, If She Can “Walk, Talk & Chew Gum At The Same Time” —-> The Presidency Is Her In 2017!!!
He’ll need his very own clown car.
Perhaps a Parisienne would be appropriate.
who will be the first to run ads showing Cruz making babies cry?
Party elders will hate him, he’ll go up against Bush and wipe the floor with him and base will fall in love. Bush is not a good debater.
Not only is Ted batsh*t crazy; he has some really crazy father. They are a dangerous pair. And, the Republican base is just too stupid to see that.
Sadly true. The father holds views even crazier than the son’s. However, I know nothing about the Mother. Haven’t cared to look her up.
A year or so ago, I came across Chris Hughes saying, either in print or on his show, that Ted Cruz was a political force to both fear and respect. That he first observed Cruz when Cruz was arguing, and largely winning, cases at the Supreme Court. Cruz is not someone to laugh at or take lightly and it will be altogether interesting to observe how the Bush campaign handles him. I do hope that Hillary pays attention.
How do you know Ted Cruz’s view are more sane than the father’s? Do you honestly think he is not capable of lying thru his teeth about what his REAL views are?
Why shouldn’t Cruz believe he has been anointed?
Ted is also kinda funny looking, with an irritating voice and a condescending manner… not someone you’d want to have a beer with. And I’m not saying that just because I went to a ” minor ivy”.
IMHO this is stunning:
Did he forget that he wasn’t at a KKK rally with no recorders allowed?
Ted Cruz reminds me of Joe McCarthy.
I think our Governor put it very well:
“That man betokens such a level of ignorance and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office”
Cruz has hijacked every institution he’s ever been a part of, and he’ll be a real contender in the primaries. The smart money won’t be on him, but I could see him grinding this thing out McCain style. He is not to be underestimated. His brand of reactionary extremism is attractive to far too many to ignore, and he won’t be ignored, Dan.–hat tip to Glenn Close.