“A prominent aide to George W. Bush’s 2000 campaign could barely contain himself when we asked him to discuss Cruz, who worked in the campaign’s policy shop. This person described Cruz as hyper-arrogant and widely despised, and he emphasized—over and over—that the pervasive dislike of Cruz within the Bush ranks had nothing to do with ideology. (Cruz, he noted, never objected to Bush’s call for compassionate conservatism, immigration reform, and national education standards, and no one on the campaign regarded him as an ideologue.) The problem was simple: his personality.”
“That’s exactly what he was: a big a$$hole,” says a campaign veteran who worked with Cruz.
“Ted thought he was an expert on everything,” says this campaign veteran, who asked not to be named. “He was a smart and talented guy, but completely taken with himself and his own ideas. He would offer up opinions on everything, even matters outside his portfolio. He was a policy guy, but he would push his ideas on campaign strategy. He would send memos on everything to everyone. He would come to meetings where he wasn’t invited—and wasn’t wanted.” In fact, this Bush alum recalls, “the quickest way for a meeting to end would be for Ted to come in. People would want out of that meeting. People wouldn’t go to a meeting if they knew he would be there. It was his inability to be part of the team. That’s exactly what he was: a big a$$hole.” by Tim Murphy & David Korn -MJ
Ted Cruz would no doubt agree with much of your post:
“I was a young man in my 20s, and I had enjoyed a lot of success,” Cruz said, “Almost everything I’d laid my hands to had gone well. And I was far too cocky for my own good.”
At the end of the successful campaign, he said, “I desperately wanted to have a senior job in the White House. Frankly, I wanted to be … Michael J. Fox’s character in ‘The American President,’ a young, idealistic staffer in the Oval Office, saying, ‘Mr. President, do the right thing.’”
“And that didn’t happen, and it became clear it wasn’t going to happen because I had burned too many bridges,” Cruz continued. He went on to say that in retrospect, he is grateful he didn’t get the job, because he never would have been able to run his grassroots 2012 Senate campaign if he hadn’t learned a little humility. “You can’t run a grassroots campaign if you’re an arrogant little snob,” he said. “I needed to get my teeth kicked in.”