ESTHER CEPEDA: Written all over his face (Already grasping at straws to attack him)

The Bakersfield Californian ^ | March 30, 2015 | Esther J. Cepeda

[2ndDivisionVet]

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, native of Canada, junior senator of Texas and lover of Wagner, has thrown his hat into the ring to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election.

But it's not his hat that many recoil from so much as it is the head beneath it. Let's talk about the elephant in Ted Cruz's presidential campaign: his face.

OK, it's symmetrical in its composition, not too pudgy or gaunt -- all in all, a fine face, really. Some might even say he has the face of an angel. Not me, mind you, but some. Like the funsters over at The Verge who cleverly noted that Cruz's Twitter avatar bears a striking resemblance to Jesus Christ.

"Let's really relish, for example, the candidate's oddball Internet acumen, like Cruz's Twitter avatar, which is the most blatant Jesus pose a person can hold without blaspheming the Lamb of God," wrote Chris Plante on the day Cruz formally announced his candidacy. "Scrolling through Ted Cruz's Twitter stream is like shopping at a Christian bookstore or cleaning out my grandmother's guest bedroom. Cruz knows his demo. ... A picture's worth a thousand words."

But, marketing acumen and religious symbolism aside, that's not the Ted Cruz most of us have come to know.

The Cruz who has most often graced the real estate of our newspapers and Web pages has appeared angry, disgusted, tired of your pathetic silliness, done with your sophomoric suggestions, knowing (more than you, duh), barely tolerant (of your ridiculous ideas), superior in every way, extremely self-satisfied and, most often, brimming with contempt.

Those less charitable than me have compared his face to the "tragedy" half of the comedy/tragedy mask common in theater logos. Me? I see the Italian poet Dante Alighieri, author of "The Divine Comedy." Go ahead, Google it, and see the portraits of Dante in a full-on grimace. You'll see. It's uncanny.

But where Dante may have been experiencing what some have described as psychotic distress, most certainly from his political, emotional and financial difficulties, Cruz seems simply tired of those of us who aren't as committed to Christianity or as disgusted with the government as he is.

We're to be pitied, really, since anyone who might not find him palatable as an elected representative of the entire country is just, well, daft. Cruz's conservatism is not so much a political ideology as it is, to him, simply the right and only way to be.

Watching him on "CBS This Morning" the day after his announcement, you saw that Cruz is undaunted. His tilted head, frowning lips, shrugged shoulders and hands upturned in gestures of incredulousness lead you to view his politics as anything other than "speaking the truth" and "defending common sense."

Facial expression expert Paul Ekman's research for the National Institute of Mental Health tells us that the mouth's expression of contempt -- lip corners raised or tightened, usually more to one side of the face than the other -- is universally understood across cultures, especially when combined with head and eye position changes.

Contempt, as you may well know, is the No. 1 sign or predictor of a failing relationship. Contempt telegraphs disdain, disrespect, loathing and other things that you and I and most people don't want in the leader of the free world. Writing on the website of Progress Texas, Ed Espinoza declared "Ted Cruz Has a Latino Voter Problem." To say that the Canadian immigrant -- who has been labeled anti-Hispanic and anti-immigrant by Latino advocacy organizations across the U.S. -- "has never demonstrated an ability to grow support among Latino voters" is putting it lightly.

And it's not just Hispanics. There are too many repulsed Republicans to quote here, but I like the irony of David Brooks, The New York Times' conservative columnist, who said last April: "It doesn't help that he has a face that looks a little like Joe McCarthy, actually. So, you know, I find him a little off-putting."

Mark my words: Whether you agree with some or none of Cruz's conservative positions, his potential for success will come down to his ability to rein in his smug, just-so-disappointed-in-all-of-you facial expressions.

[x]

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, native of Canada, junior senator of Texas and lover of Wagner, has thrown his hat into the ring to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election.

I hope this isn't going to Romney and the dog all over and over and over again.

The only other references to "Ted Cruz and Wagner" I can google up are to MSBNC's Alex Wagner -- and it sounds like she really doesn't like him.

If she and Ted Cruz are lovers, it just made this race a whole lot more interesting.

[MortMan]

Contempt, as you may well know, is the No. 1 sign or predictor of a failing relationship. Contempt telegraphs disdain, disrespect, loathing and other things that you and I and most people don't want in the leader of the free world.

This describes Obama, not Cruz.

[dead]

A woman who looks like a Mexican Danny Thomas should avoid criticizing the appearance of others.

[2ndDivisionVet]

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (/ˈvɑːɡnər/; German: [ˈʁiçaʁt ˈvaːɡnɐ]; 22 May 1813 – 13 February 1883) was a German composer, theatre director, polemicist, and conductor who is primarily known for his operas (or, as some of his later works were later known, "music dramas"). Unlike most opera composers, Wagner wrote both the libretto and the music for each of his stage works. Initially establishing his reputation as a composer of works in the romantic vein of Weber and Meyerbeer, Wagner revolutionised opera through his concept of the Gesamtkunstwerk ("total work of art"), by which he sought to synthesise the poetic, visual, musical and dramatic arts, with music subsidiary to drama, and which was announced in a series of essays between 1849 and 1852. Wagner realised these ideas most fully in the first half of the four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Wagner

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Esther, your mouth...it looks...dare I say it...like it has a specific purpose.

[x]

But where do you find anything about Ted Cruz liking Richard Wagner or his music?

[2ndDivisionVet]

I haven’t yet. I thinks she was “subtly” implying that he is a Nazi, as Hitler and his minions loved Wagner.

[Fast Moving Angel]

Wow. Is that all they’ve got?

[elcid1970]

“Lover of Wagner” = Nazi to the lib crowd

“Senator Cruz, how many times have you attended the Wagner Festival at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus? Is it true that only the works of Wagner are performed there? Did your Hispanic appearance cause any friction with the predominately German audience?”

[marsh2]

http://ringcycle.metoperafamily.org/ Wagner at the Met.

[DiogenesLamp]

I predicted the Liberals would harp on his citizenship, and now one of them has already started doing it.

Rafael Edward "Ted" Cruz, native of Canada, junior senator of Texas and lover of Wagner, has thrown his hat into the ring to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 presidential election.

I predict they will continue doing so for the next two years. They don't care about truth, they just want to damage someone who stands up to them.