Posted on 08/21/2013 9:09:21 AM PDT by SoConPubbie
He may be a right-wing nut, but the Texas senator can beat a Democrat in a general election. Here's why
There’s been some more buzz this week about Ted Cruz’s presidential prospects. The demagoguing senator took his first trip to Iowa just six months after being sworn in to office, and he’s pretty clearly reaching for the White House. Early reports are that it’s going well. And Rich Yeselson wrote a high-profile (and fascinating) essay arguing that, basically, Cruz is perfectly positioned for reaching the top of the Republican ticket.
The focus of this piece is on Cruz’s general election viability. When it comes to the primary, I’m not going to start handicapping the viable candidates seeking the Republican nomination yet; I’ll only say that I don’t see any reason not to include Cruz in that group, as of now. Viable candidates have conventional credentials and are in the mainstream of their party on questions of public policy. Cruz, from what we know now, qualifies. With four years in elected office by January 2017, he’ll be in a similar boat with Barack Obama (who, granted, had held lower office as well) and Mitt Romney (who at least had four full years before his campaign began). And while Cruz surely is planted at an edge of the Republican mainstream, I don’t see any reason, so far, to believe he’s close to falling off that edge. Whether or not Yeselson is correct that Cruz is a particularly strong candidate, it’s certainly very possible to see him nominated.
But what about the general election? Could he actually win?
What I hear from many liberals about Cruz’s chances are two things. One is just disbelief: Republicans wouldn’t really do something like nominate Cruz, would they? The key is that Ted Cruz isn’t Herman Cain or even Michele Bachmann; he’s a United States senator, and that counts for something (that is, conventional credentials count for something) in presidential elections. So, yes, they really could do something like that.
The other thing I hear, however, is perhaps even more wrong. Some liberals react by actively rooting for Cruz. The theory? The nuttier the nominee, the worse the chances of Republicans retaking the White House. Indeed, in conversation I’ve heard all sorts of justifications: Cruz couldn’t possibly win Florida! Therefore, he couldn’t win the White House!
Don’t listen to it.
I agree...she IS a left-wing nut.
Here's what Camille Paglia - Dem columnist - has to say about Hill!, in a Salon interview, today....
It remains baffling how anyone would think that Hillary Clinton (born the same year as me) is our party’s best chance. She has more sooty baggage than a 90-car freight train. And what exactly has she ever accomplished — beyond bullishly covering for her philandering husband? She’s certainly busy, busy and ever on the move — with the tunnel-vision workaholism of someone trying to blot out uncomfortable private thoughts.
I for one think it was a very big deal that our ambassador was murdered in Benghazi. In saying “I take responsibility” for it as secretary of state, Hillary should have resigned immediately.
Do you have any doubt that Cruz would? I don’t.
I don’t want *anyone* with dual citizenship in the White House.
He can be a Cabinet member or keep working as a Senator but where he was born in Canada he is not qualified to be President and if he’s nominated then I fully expect the Democrats to sue to have him kicked off the ballot and I expect them to win that fight based on everything that’s been done to Obama on the same topic.
Let someone else run who doesn’t have a cloud like this in their history.
"He may be a right-wing nut,"
These folk cannot cover up their fanaticism, even when they are trying to appear dispassionate. It is very obvious, we think, who the "nuts" are.
And for a discussion of the thought processes of the Leftist/Egalitarian/Collectivists in our midst: Compassion Or Compulsion? Yes, of course, we are attributing neurotic motives to our foe. But the difference is that the article gives the reasons for the attribution. It is not gratuitous insult.
William Flax
Maybe. But he will never beat Hillary’s 2,000 copied FBI files.
Hope we aren’t talking about arm wrestling. Pretty sure the hildebeast would take that one.
So some foreign government says they bestowed it on him and he qualifies. He has never recognized it and renounces any claim to it.
Besides, he is a natural born American. He is a citizen of the USA by virtue of birth. No naturalization was required.
The constitution mentions Aliens, citizens, and natural born citizens. If you gain citizenship by birth, you are indeed NBC. Naturalization makes you a “citizen”.
Everything else is non constitutional BS parlor games that sound like made up sorority membership rules.
Thanks for posting that list of comparisons.
They are skeered already. They should be. If he runs, I’m on board.
Salon tipping off the rest of the MSM, “triple-down on the birther stories NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW! He’s a CANADIAN, I tell ya, a CANADIAN!!”
I have some money just burning a hole in my pocket. President Ted Cruz........... that sounds good to me! :D
OK then. He can cream her. Oh wait. Nevermind.
Weird how no one on the other side is ever referred to as out of the norm. Obama votes to allow babies to be murdered a halfway through birth by having the doctor use scissors on their skull but he will never be labeled as out of the norm. Our guy is always a ‘nut’. Even when most of the views are clearly majority opinion.
I like most of what I’ve seen from the senator so far. Let’s see how he conducts hmiself over the next several years. I’ve seen too many in the GOP go soft....not saying the senator will, but better safe than sorry.
One, nothing has been done to Obama on this topic. His past is much sketchier than Cruz's yet he is well into his second term.
Two, I am good and blankety-blank sick of running from fights. If they can beat Cruz on the basis of his being born in Canada, then that is our fault, not his.
Cruz has a Canadian birth certificate. ‘Nuff said.
If your theory holds true, then Biden would have been President 5 years ago.
In 1981 the MSM got together and created an Immune Response System to see to it that no more Reagans would ever get elected.
Here you see it springing into action.
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