I tell you if that photo doesn't scare the bejeezus out of every person with a brain then nothing will.
Posted on 10/26/2013 3:49:19 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Iowa Republicans hold their annual dinner Friday commemorating the life and career of Ronald Reagan, with Texas Senator Ted Cruz as the featured speaker. Cruz is widely viewed as a presidential contender in 2016.
AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:
As we just heard, Republican Party approval ratings are lower than ever, but that's not stopping Texas Senator Ted Cruz from taking a post-shutdown victory lap in Iowa tonight. Cruz is headlining the state Republican Party's annual Reagan dinner and he's often talked about as a potential presidential candidate. Iowa, of course, holds the first presidential caucus. NPR's Tamara Keith is in Des Moines to hear the speech and she joins us now. Hey there, Tamara.
TAMARA KEITH, BYLINE: Hey, Audie.
CORNISH: So Ted Cruz in Iowa already and you're in Iowa already.
KEITH: I know, it's painful. It's so early but apparently it is never too early to visit Iowa. And this isn't even Senator Cruz's first time here. This is his third visit in three months. But at tonight's dinner he comes in off of this big shutdown. And for the folks who will be at this dinner, that is a triumphant arrival. I spoke with A. J. Spiker who's the head of the state party and he says Senator Cruz isn't the only person visiting.
A.J. SPIKER: In the next 30 days we're going to be seeing quite a few candidates. We've got, you know, Cruz at our dinner, but Mike Lee will be here. Next month, Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, Mike Huckabee and Paul Ryan. So there's a huge list of people that are going to be coming in the next 30 days.
KEITH: This is the phase that you would call the planting-the-seeds phase where potential possible maybe candidates come and raise a lot of money for state Republicans.
CORNISH: Seriously? I mean, most people are probably thinking, no, it's too early to start talking about the next presidential election. But, of course, since we've already started, what do political operators you've been talking to in Iowa have to say about a potential Cruz candidacy?
KEITH: He's hot right now but he is also a very polarizing figure. You know, either you love him or you hate him. And you either think that he's exactly what the Republican Party needs or, as many operatives have said, they feel like he led the party into a boxed canyon with this government shutdown. There was no way they would win and they distracted from the health care law's failings for two weeks while the government was shut down. In the process though, he did build his name ID and his donor base.
But now, today, is so far away from when the caucuses really get going. John Stineman is a public affairs consultant with deep roots in Iowa Republican politics.
JOHN STINEMAN: He will come here and he will be well received by the Tea Party element of the party and he'll stir things up. And he'll raise a lot of money for Republicans and that's great. But it's not to say that that popularity within this moment in time translates to the lead-up to the 2016 caucus. That is a lifetime between now and then.
CORNISH: So that's John Stineman talking about the Tea Party. But if Cruz is, as you've described, a polarizing figure in the Republican Party, how is he likely to be received tonight?
KEITH: Well, tonight he's likely to be received like a rock star. As Stineman put it, if you buy Justin Bieber tickets you're going to scream when Justin Bieber comes on stage. In this case, people paid $75, $100, even more to come see Ted Cruz. I don't know that there will be any fainting but, you know, this is going to be a dedicated crowd of conservative activists. And also just given the dynamics in the Iowa GOP right now, these are likely to be people who are on more of the Tea Party side of the spectrum.
Earlier this week, I was at a GOP Senate debate and I met a woman named Kay Cork and asked her about Cruz and about the government shutdown, sort of fishing around to see if those divisions were there. She said the shutdown didn't bother her at bit.
KAY CORK: He's doing what he believes is right for the people that he represents. And that's what I want to see in Washington, absolutely.
KEITH: And that's probably exactly what you'd expect to hear from someone who would show up for a candidate's debate eight months before the primary. There is a very big debate in the Republican Party about tactics and in some cases about issues. But you're not likely to find that at an early candidate's debate or at tonight's dinner.
CORNISH: That's NPR's Tamara Keith in Des Moines. Tamara, thank you.
KEITH: You're welcome.
2016 is a long ways off.
Worry about 2014.
I tell you if that photo doesn't scare the bejeezus out of every person with a brain then nothing will.
This is the same exact crap they said about Sarah Palin in 2009 and 2010.
I predict that the next Republican party will be called the Cruzers.
After the sh!t the GOP tried pulling with freedom works last year, the GOP is dead to me.
.
Draft Jim DeMint!
That’s my opinion.
This is NPR. They see what they see. They’re worried about Big Bird.
Exactly right. Learned today that the evil GOPe will to primary Mike Lee in 16.
The vile GOPe (including that slob Rove) despise Conservatives.
2012 was the last time I will cast a vote for the slightly lesser of two evils.
“This is the same exact crap they said about Sarah Palin in 2009 and 2010.”
Exactly. I;ve posted time and time that the earlier you stick your head out, the bigger the bulls-eye you have and enough time for the DEmocrap media to destroy you.
the new model for the president’s race is perpetual campaigning.
years before, and all the years during for the next election.
If it has not been launched already, by 5 years ago, then it would be nonserious.
To successfully run in 2016, you had to be running in 2012.
Basically, most people get better with practice. Coming out of the blue and running and expecting to win is like a rookie qb in the NFL expecting to win the super bowl. It does not happen.
And actually a lot of 2016 candidates will not be running to win but running to get the experience necessary to have a viable 2020 campaign.
GO JOE GO! He is a TN State Legislator thus he has a voting record, conservative, pro life pro 2 A, anti-Common Core
"The Second Amendment is a fundamental, individual right of each American. While hunting and enjoying the outdoors are great ways for families and friends to spend time together — and many times provide food for their tables — the Second Amendment was understood by our Founding Fathers as a check against a tyrannical government, as well as for personal self-defense."
From Nooga.com
By James Harrison
JOE CARR
Before participating in a forum with the Chattanooga Tea Party Thursday, state Rep. Joe Carr slammed Sen. Lamar Alexander for not standing with Republican colleagues to support defunding the Affordable Care Act through a potential government shutdown.
Carr, who is challenging Alexander in next year’s Republican primary, issued a press release calling on the senator to “change his mind” and oppose any funding bills that included monies designated for implementation of the new health law. The candidate also criticized Alexander for touting his opposition to the law in a string of recent statements and campaign advertisements.
“He is trying to rewrite history by ignoring his votes yet again,” Carr said. “Sen. Alexander stood with President Obama on March 20, 2013, when he voted in favor of the fiscal year 2013 continuing resolution, which included funding for the implementation of Obamacare.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander. (Photo: Staff)
The vote Carr cited was approved by the Senate in a 73-26 roll call, with 20 Republicans supporting the legislation. After voting, Alexander said he supported the bill because it reduced government spending in 36 percent of the budget to 2008 levels.
Later on Thursday, Carr said he thought the prospect of allowing the government to shut down “for a short amount of time” would be better than allowing elements of the Affordable Care Act to stay in place.
“If Obamacare is as bad as Sen. Alexander says it is—and I believe he’s right—if it’s as cataclysmic as he says, then setting aside government services for a short amount of time is certainly the lesser of two evils,” Carr said in an interview with Nooga.com.
Carr was referring to a string of statements and ads by the senator, touting his opposition to the law.
According to a page on Alexander’s website, the senator has voted to repeal or defund the Affordable Care Act 23 times since it became law, as well as voted overall to oppose or repeal the law and various provisions of it more than 90 times. The senator counts that he has also sponsored bills, written letters or taken other actions against the Affordable Care Act more than 60 times.
In recent weeks, Alexander has said he doesn’t see the tactic of defunding the law through threat of a government shutdown as productive. In a recent Tennessean report, the senator said he would prefer to focus on electing more Republicans who could effectively repeal the law down the road.
“I’m not in the shut-down-the-government crowd,” Alexander was quoted saying. “I’m in the take-over-the-government crowd.”
Carr said that despite the talk, several of Alexander’s votes weren’t genuine.
“His votes haven’t meant anything,” he said. “They didn’t matter. It’s easy for an elected official to hide behind votes that don’t matter.”
The GOP Senate primary is Aug. 7, 2014.
I don’t know if it is ever too early, but I just don’t want the revolving door of ‘front runners’ we had in late 2011 and early 2012. That was a train wreck that left us with the bigger train wreck that was Mitt Romney.
Yes. Campaigns are too stunningly boring already, all we really learn about the candidates is to hate seeing them on our TV.
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