Posted on 03/29/2015 12:06:04 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Glenn Beck wants listeners to pray for him. Mark Levin says Fox News is out to get him. Hugh Hewitt calls him an “intellectual leader.” Rush Limbaugh thinks his campaign launch was “masterful.” Laura Ingraham hails him as “Reaganesque.” Erick Erickson considers him a “good friend.”
Ted Cruz may be trailing in the polls and strapped for cash, but the first declared candidate of the 2016 race is winning in at least one key contest — the conservative talk-show primary.
Tens of millions of listeners — and potential GOP primary voters — tune in each week to the biggest right-wing radio hosts, who hold forth on the merits and demerits of the various 2016 Republican hopefuls as keenly as they spit invective about Barack Obama and the Democrats. Many of them are big fans of the Texas senator, if not outright supporters. Most are holding their cards close, refusing to hug any candidate too tightly, be it in the spirit of equanimity or out of fear of alienating some listeners.
But nearly all the kings and queens of the conservative airwaves express admiration for a man almost universally despised by his Senate colleagues and dismissed by the mainstream media: Cruz. And they are equally clear about who they do not like: Mushy “progressives” like Jeb Bush and Chris Christie.
No question—in past elections, conservative radio hosts have struggled to translate their enthusiasm for a candidate into a winning presidential campaign. But the frequent encomiums to Cruz will provide him with a reliable supply of free media and powerful, sustained validation from some of the most important gatekeepers in the Republican sphere.
Cruz’s biggest booster may be Glenn Beck, who – though he declared this month that he is no longer a Republican and no longer supports the party – remains a powerful force on the right, with an estimated base of 7 million listeners.
In December 2013, Beck said Cruz “may be our Ronald Reagan because that guy does not take prisoners. That guy is a thousand times smarter than 99 percent of the politicians I have ever met.”
Cruz even called Beck the Friday before his campaign announcement to tell him about his plans and to talk about prayer, a move Beck said “means the world to me.” Beck urged his flock to “fast and pray like you have never fasted and prayed ever before because all the guns are coming out for this guy, all of the guns.”
On Monday, Beck was ebullient as Cruz declared his candidacy. “It’s morning in America again, especially if you’re in Lynchburg,” the site of Cruz’s announcement, Beck said. “The GOP is about to be radically surprised. I think the groundswell for someone like Ted Cruz is going to be enormous.”
“I don’t need to give any time to Jeb Bush, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, any of the progressives,” Beck said.
Then there’s Laura Ingraham, who claimed a scalp last year when her fervent attacks on immigration reform helped oust House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who lost a stunner to little-known economics professor Dave Brat.
On Monday, Ingraham, responding to an article in POLITICO Magazine, said that Bush has “a problem with America,” not a talk-radio problem, and contrasted the former Florida governor with Cruz, whom she hailed as a “Reagan-esque” traditional conservative.
Erick Erickson, the RedState founder and Atlanta-based radio host, is not ready to endorse just yet. “I’d prefer to stay out of it. I have no preference and think every one of them deserves a fair hearing, including Bush,” he wrote in an email.
But Erickson loves Cruz, calling him a “good friend” who “gets the seal of approval” for stopping “chaos from happening” and “freedom from eroding.” He’s been a reliable advocate for Cruz, banging the drum for his 2012 Senate campaign and frequently defending his scorched-earth tactics once in office.
“Ted Cruz has proven his commitment to stand with the people and reject the ‘rules’ of the Washington Establishment,” Erickson wrote last July. “Too often, in both overt actions and abject disregard, some of his colleagues we expect better from have chosen the institutions and establishment that have created the very mess we are in.”
“Remember how Ted Cruz cost us the Senate in 2014?” Erickson tweeted sarcastically during the budget showdown in December. “Now he’s costing us the Presidency in 2016. Or something.”
Rush Limbaugh, the number one conservative talk radio host, was initially a big Bobby Jindal booster, but in recent weeks his wandering eye has shifted to other potential candidates — retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whom he says scares the Democratic Party “to death,” and Cruz, a “fearless” leader.
Limbaugh called Cruz’s campaign announcement “masterful,” adding that Cruz’s opponents were so stunned by the speech they didn’t know how to respond. “They were dazzled. They were impressed. They were so dazzled they were worried the guy is superhuman,” he said on his show on Monday. Cruz “might be the smartest man in Congress,” Limbaugh said.
But Limbaugh talks most frequently these days about Walker, who early in the 2016 cycle has emerged as the top conservative alternative to Bush. “Scott Walker has the blueprint for winning and winning consistently and winning big in a blue state with conservative principles that are offered with absolutely no excuses,” he said in a typical on-air comment in January.
Limbaugh, who maintains he isn’t yet endorsing anyone, recently noted that part of his emphasis on Walker is to help him get more attention as he competes with politicians with more national exposure. Donors “all know who Mitt Romney is, and they all know who Jeb Bush is, and they know who Ted Cruz is,” he said earlier this month. “They don’t know Scott Walker yet.”
Levin — a former Reagan administration official dubbed “The Great One” by Hannity — is a strict constitutionalist, a fierce supporter of Israel and a harsh critic of immigration compromise. On those key issues, he has found a major ally in Cruz, whom Levin has called a conservative in the Reagan mold. Levin has also repeatedly argued against the idea that the GOP needs to nominate a governor in 2016.
On Monday, Levin railed against Fox News for supposedly “trashing” Cruz. “These people are neophytes. Neophytes. They have never fought in Republican primaries for conservative candidates,” he said. Levin then said, “I am convinced if Reagan were alive today and Gerald Ford were alive today and we were doing a re-run of 1975, ‘76, Reagan would be trashed all over our favorite cable channel.”
“They know who they want. They want Jeb Bush,” he said. “I don’t know why they just don’t say it.”
But if Fox News is marching in lockstep behind Bush, nobody seems to have told Sean Hannity, who gave the Texas Republican senator a rousing introduction last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference (with Cruz, he said, “we can fundamentally transform America”) and hosted him both on his radio and Fox News show – for an hour-long special — the night of his campaign announcement.
“To underestimate Ted Cruz is beyond foolish,” Hannity said on his radio show, before lobbing softballs about Cruz’s family history.
Though he has said he’s far from making an endorsement, and with the promise that every candidate will get the same amount of time on his shows as Cruz, Hannity has said he’s looking for someone who can “articulate conservative principles in an inspired way.”
Even California host Hewitt, a constitutional law professor who rates among the more thoughtful conservative radio personalities, is high on Cruz. Hewitt urged his listeners to get out the vote for Cruz in his 2012 Senate campaign, and said a year later that the Texas freshman “could dance to the nomination on a combination of principled channeling of the tea party, incredible smarts, and the rhetorical gifts that suit him to the age.”
Hewitt has said Cruz “may be the smartest senator” and likened him to Reagan – “the same kind of charisma, easy affability and smart, smart, smart.” Now, he sees five “intellectual leaders in the Republican Party,” all of whom are likely or declared candidates: Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
A passionate Mitt Romney supporter in both 2008 and 2012, Hewitt was the first to break the news in January that the former Massachusetts governor wouldn’t be running a third time. This time around, Hewitt won’t be endorsing because he’s participating in CNN’s second primary debate in September, and hosting a Q&A with the candidates after the formal debate.
“I don’t have a favorite. I want to try very hard to maintain I make that right through any participation [with the debates]. I don’t want to anyone to walk in thinking they’re not getting a fair shake from me or that I’ll have a particularly hard set of questions for one candidate or softballs for another,” Hewitt told POLITICO last week. “So I’m following a steady diet of foreign policy and national security questions for everyone that comes across from me.”
The one major outlier on the right is Michael Savage, who boasts more than 5 million listeners and broadcasts from the liberal stronghold of San Francisco. The leader of Savage Nation is hard on everyone. But he’s been tougher on Cruz than almost any other host.
On Feb. 5, he endorsed Cruz and Paul. Four days later, he retracted his Cruz endorsement, decrying him as a “warmonger.” As for Paul, Savage had previously said he “never trusted him,” that he “looks more and more like a Democrat” who would be trounced by Hillary Clinton. He also observed that Paul’s too short to be president.
Last month, after a caller asked about 2016, Savage dismissed a whole slew of top names. “Do I want Bush, Carson, Christie, Cruz, [Mike] Huckabee, Palin, Paul, Perry, Rubio, [Rick] Santorum, [Donald] Trump or Walker? I’ll take — none of the above.”
Then on Monday, Savage dismissed the sudden enthusiasm on the right for Cruz, despite saying he’d vote for him over any Democrat. “I have no desire to talk about Ted Cruz, and I won’t do it. Leave it to the others, the cheerleaders,” he said. “I can’t win. Talk about it now? I’m going to start now like a lunatic with Ted Cruz? Why? I’m not going to do what everyone else is.”
Strapped for cash? He just raised over $2 million in 3 days? Who else is doing that?
Pray America is waking
Trail in polls my rear end.
You always see the lightning before the thunder.
“Hugh Hewitt calls him an “intellectual leader.””
Ha!
Hugh Hewitt is not for Ted Cruz, Nor is Cruz a Hewitt favorite.
Salem is decidedly anti-Cruz, anti-Palin and pro GOPe.
A serious candidate for president will have to raise at least $1 million per day between now and election day 2016.
Thanks 2ndDivisionVet.
‘My problem with Cruz is that he’s very, very smart’
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/gop/3273548/posts
Ted Cruz is going to beat them like a Persian Carpet at Spring cleaning.
/johnny
And they are afraid.
The fear is palpable.
Especially because there are those among the left who know they have been deceived by the democrats and will cross over to vote for Ted Cruz.
It keeps the others awake at night.
And fills their dreams with silent screams.
I feel...happy...
Wasn’t Cruz polling at just 3% early on in his Senate race against Dewhurst?
The tortoise and the hare.....Cruz won that race, which is something these naysayers in the GOPe and the dems should worry about.
Wasn’t Reagan behind something like 10 points before he won?
Has there been any time in politics where the polls were correct?
It’s not a rule by any stretch. Money comes in much bigger chunks once a candidate shows early strength. It’s the sobering reality of unlimited government. Based on rising costs and 2012, a presidential candidate might have to raise up to $1 billion in the next 500-600 days.
"Republicans lost the White House in 2008
and again in 2012, because Sen. John McCain and Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
failed to ignite conservative passions."
Hugh Hewitt is not for Ted Cruz, Nor is Cruz a Hewitt favorite.
++++
I haven’t listened to Hugh Hewitt in ages but I instinctively agree with your assessment. HH is just your basic GOPe masquerading as a real conservative. Real conservatives are going to support Ted Cruz. He will get Hewitt’s support only if he wins the GOP nomination.
Ted is the front runner...pay no attention to polls or establishment circle jerks pointing to Zogby.
Cruz is taking so much heat because he has ignited a fire that is spreading fast.
Rush has really been pathetic about pro-amnesty Walker.
I bet Rush walks back quickly on his Walkergasms...he seems to be already shifting to Cruz more
Let’s hope so!
(And since when is he openly admitting to crafting his programming for the GOP donor class?
I voted for Cruz in the Senate primary and general elections, and I have been pleased with his rhetoric and tactics since assuming office. I am, however, wary of the fact - which I just recently learned - that his wife works for Goldman Sachs. Does this concern anyone else?
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