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The Pig in the Republican Poke
Townhall.com ^ | June 10, 2014 | Bill Murchison

Posted on 06/10/2014 2:04:03 PM PDT by Kaslin

Sir Isaac Newton instructs us, in the Third Law of Motion, that for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. It may be another way of saying that without Barack Obama there might not now be a Ted Cruz.

The political writers swarmed all around the Texas Republican Party's recent convention with the tale of how much enthusiasm Cruz aroused there as the party's prospective answer to Barack Obama and Harry Reid. "I tell you this," Cruz said at one Republican event, "as good as 2014 is gonna be, 2016 is gonna be even better."

"Something incredible is happening," he told delegates. "Something is sweeping the state of Texas; it's sweeping every state." He likened the "something" to "the Reagan revolution we saw in the face of stagnation, in the face of feckless, naive foreign policy, in the face of America getting weaker and weaker ... " Cruz won hands-down the delegates' straw poll for president. He wants to get it done -- the repeal of "every blessed word" of Obamacare; an end to the Common Core standards for public education; support for pro-freedom dissidents everywhere; rebukes galore to the "corrupt, bipartisan cabal in Washington." The delegates cheered and cheered -- in opposite and possibly equal reaction to the political and philosophical excesses of the past five and a half years.

It had to come to this, maybe. Barack Obama's policies of economic intervention and foreign policy retreat, along with his change of course on same-sex marriage, have conservatives, along with droves of moderates, ready for something very different. Newton, no politician -- a scientist, rather -- would likely have surveyed the current scene with solemn recognition.

Like George W. Bush, running as the un-Clinton, Cruz seems ready to run for president as the un-Barack. It is a posture that affords satisfactions; so it also poses real dangers.

At a political convention, depending on the issues at stake, the word can get around: We can do this thing. Sacred fire is lighted on the mountaintops. To the barricades! The Democrats had their turn in 2008, with Obama-Biden. Here now, in reply, come the thundering elephants.

We shall judge their direction and tactics in due course. Meantime, a little caution in characterizing their prospects seems in order. The Cruz phenomenon has its poignant aspects on account of the comparisons it should elicit. A one-term senator comes surging out of nowhere, sword in hand, promising to make everything bright and wonderful after years of darkness and despair. When did we see this show most recently? Was it 2008? Did not the American people that year buy and ship off to the White House the biggest pig-in-a-poke anyone ever saw -- untested, uninspected, but sure loud in praise of his own talents and qualities?

And did the porker, once sworn in as president, make things as bright and wonderful as we seemed to think he would? Had Obama achieved even a portion of all he promised, Texas' preferred candidate for president might be occupying a quiet House seat, submissive to the leadership of those he has presently marked out as his obstructers.

Inoculation against self-anointed saviors is a health measure that today's voters might be assumed to have acquired a while back. Which is nothing necessarily against Ted Cruz, for all the rashness and futility of his maiden attempt at leadership, namely, the filibuster he undertook as a political beginner, trying to cut off spending for Obamacare. My senator -- I am his constituent -- may be the real McCoy, or he may be just an expert hand with microphones. It's too soon to tell. He hasn't, frankly, been around very long. He hasn't done enough to allow a verdict on his native capacities.

Why now all the premature acts of fealty to the president-in-waiting from Texas? We can't remember what happens when voters accept a candidate's self-appraisal without efforts to untie the sack and peer within? What happens -- I hate to say it -- is that voters sometimes get what they didn't know they were voting for.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Politics/Elections
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1 posted on 06/10/2014 2:04:03 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
We shall judge their direction and tactics in due course. Meantime, a little caution in characterizing their prospects seems in order. The Cruz phenomenon has its poignant aspects on account of the comparisons it should elicit. A one-term senator comes surging out of nowhere, sword in hand, promising to make everything bright and wonderful after years of darkness and despair. When did we see this show most recently? Was it 2008? Did not the American people that year buy and ship off to the White House the biggest pig-in-a-poke anyone ever saw -- untested, uninspected, but sure loud in praise of his own talents and qualities?

Beware wolves in sheep's clothing trying to convince you of something by comparing a Marxist against a true-blue conservative.
2 posted on 06/10/2014 2:14:41 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: Kaslin

Barack Obama is exactly the kind of president that many predicted, based on his life before the presidency.

I would love to see that from Senator Cruz, we look at him and his life of competence and conservatism, and a man dedicated to hard work, and we think “heck yeah”.


3 posted on 06/10/2014 2:25:24 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Ted Cruz and Mike Lee-both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Comm as Ginsberg's importance fades)
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To: Kaslin
Like George W. Bush, running as the un-Clinton, Cruz seems ready to run for president as the un-Barack. It is a posture that affords satisfactions; so it also poses real dangers.

Oh boy. More flop sweat by the gOpE. Murchison makes his lame attempt at providing Rove & Co. some sort of credible narrative with which to beat Ted Cruz with. Shame that BillyM has to twist himself in such a knot to do it!

First, Cruz is the un-Barack. Good start. True. Satisfication! Yes, indeed. But ... danger?!

Ah, so to twist Ted Cruz into a 'danger', the un-Barack must become the neo-Barack, a one-term senator comes surging out of nowhere, sword in hand, promising to make everything bright and wonderful after years of darkness and despair. Oh, how the squishy moderates wring their hands and say ... "Oh no, Ted. We're scared. We can't do it. We must continue the status quo of go along, to get along. We must keep our D.C. 'prestige'.

Complete rubbish. The big difference, Billy, is that the Jr. Senator from Illinois came promising to fundamentally transform America, while the Jr. Senator from Texas merely pledges to restore it to its former beauty.

Viva Ted Cruz!!!

4 posted on 06/10/2014 2:35:32 PM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: C. Edmund Wright; Lakeshark; xzins; nathanbedford

ping to the latest, and lamest, attack on Ted Cruz from the Rovian geriatric wing of the party ...


5 posted on 06/10/2014 2:38:03 PM PDT by Servant of the Cross (the Truth will set you free)
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To: SoConPubbie; KC_Lion; Norm Lenhart
Why now all the premature acts of fealty to the president-in-waiting from Texas? We can't remember what happens when voters accept a candidate's self-appraisal without efforts to untie the sack and peer within? What happens -- I hate to say it -- is that voters sometimes get what they didn't know they were voting for.

You know, he shouldn't talk about the Bushes like that.

6 posted on 06/10/2014 2:42:17 PM PDT by TADSLOS (The Event Horizon has come and gone. Buckle up and hang on.)
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To: SoConPubbie
Beware wolves in sheep's clothing trying to convince you of something by comparing a Marxist against a true-blue conservative.

Okay, let's beware, but saying, for example, that governors might make better presidents than senators or that a candidate with more political or administrative experience would make a better president than one with less political or administrative experience is only common sense. And comparing (what people always do) isn't the same thing as equating.

7 posted on 06/10/2014 2:51:15 PM PDT by x
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To: Kaslin

!


8 posted on 06/10/2014 2:52:38 PM PDT by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Bathhouse/"Rustler" Reid? d8-)
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To: ansel12
Barack Obama is exactly the kind of president that many predicted, based on his life before the presidency.

Not so much. People predicted that he'd be a lousy president but then convinced themselves after the fact that they'd put their finger on the reasons for that lousiness.

9 posted on 06/10/2014 2:53:15 PM PDT by x
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To: x
Okay, let's beware, but saying, for example, that governors might make better presidents than senators or that a candidate with more political or administrative experience would make a better president than one with less political or administrative experience is only common sense. And comparing (what people always do) isn't the same thing as equating.

It is valid when the one doing it is being objective and not trying to undermine someone they see as a threat.

Furthermore, there have been just as many BAD Presidents that have been Governors, Senators, etc. as there have been GOOD Presidents.

Trying to compare a Marxist Community Organizer with someone who has the varied and stellar accomplishments of a sincere, effective conservative leader is like trying to compare a Turd to a truffle, besides possibly the color, there is no comparison.
10 posted on 06/10/2014 3:02:27 PM PDT by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency)
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To: Kaslin

TRUE.. Cruz COULD do what Obama said he wanted to do but didn’t.. Change things..

Change America back into a functioning country..

BUT THEN: Once you have allowed the givernment to tax anything you OWN you are just paying THEM RENT..
IF you think you OWN something you are delusional..
Shuuuish.. the givernment even OWNS yer KIDS...

YOU know like republicans allowed to happen.. ON PURPOSE..
Many many progressives ARE republicans..

Cruz will not do that..... change the people that have brain washed into socialism for many decades..
Cannot happen quickly... -OR- probably at all..

ONLY revoution can do that.. thats WHY? we have the 2nd amendment..
BUT THEN again; the people generally have been brain washed..
Patriots have become traitors, and traitors, patriots..

But bodies do sometimes quiver after death..
I know you can’t get the words out of yer mouth..
Progressives are very successful, conservatives are apathic cowards.. all talk..
So few... they are not worth mentioning..
Hard to face.... but true indeed..

ELSE; the revolt would have ALREADY happened..


11 posted on 06/10/2014 3:04:01 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Servant of the Cross

what an idiot this author is…..just too stupid for words!~!!


12 posted on 06/10/2014 3:09:47 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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To: hosepipe
ELSE; the revolt would have ALREADY happened..

Ping!

13 posted on 06/10/2014 3:11:59 PM PDT by itsahoot (Voting for a Progressive RINO is the same as voting for any other Tyrant.)
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To: x

You can speak for your many, my many keep looking at Obama and knowing that he is the Obama we knew from looking at his life before he was elected. Barack Obama is exactly the kind of president that many predicted, based on his life before the presidency.


14 posted on 06/10/2014 3:13:25 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Ted Cruz and Mike Lee-both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Comm as Ginsberg's importance fades)
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To: x

Go Ted Cruz.


15 posted on 06/10/2014 3:14:36 PM PDT by ansel12 ((Ted Cruz and Mike Lee-both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Comm as Ginsberg's importance fades)
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To: Norm Lenhart

And we were just talking about where all the PDS deceivers went.

They’re sooooooo concerned. Touching, really. What did we ever do without their tender and loving concern?


16 posted on 06/10/2014 3:26:06 PM PDT by RKBA Democrat (Be a part of the American freedom migration: freestateproject.org)
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To: C. Edmund Wright; Servant of the Cross; xzins
This is one of the worst, most intellectually vapid articles I've read in a while.

The author is in another parallel universe to reality, comparing a genuinely brilliant, accomplished man with one who had no accomplishments other than the capacity to read a teleprompter.

I'm not certain anything he said has relevance or much truth to it.

17 posted on 06/10/2014 4:26:12 PM PDT by Lakeshark
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To: Lakeshark

well said, I agree 100%


18 posted on 06/10/2014 4:52:40 PM PDT by C. Edmund Wright (www.FireKarlRove.com NOW)
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