Posted on 01/29/2016 5:00:11 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Don't choose your candidate based on who you'd prefer to have a beer with, but whom you trust most to remain aligned with your principles. For me, that's Ted Cruz.
Earlier in the primary season, when the frontrunners were just beginning to emerge, I expressed concern that Cruz was untrustworthy. It wasn't just my vaguely bitter recollection of Cruz's actions in the government shutdown fiasco, but something about his personality--the inflection of his voice, the way he too often lowered it to a whisper, the way he paced back and forth across the stage like a fired-up Baptist preacher going off his sermon notes, except I knew that he carefully chose every talking point, every word.
Although I knew Cruz has one of the highest-rated conservative records in the race (98 percent lifetime average from the Heritage Foundation), I was convinced he'd be unable to build the necessary coalitions to "get things done," much less win the election, because he wasn't a team player. Not only that, I thought I couldn't trust him.
Cruz Is Unlikable, But Principled
My beliefs about Cruz' methods and personality began to change after reading two articles. The first was from National Review editor Rich Lowry, who contended that Cruz was being compared to the wrong twentieth-century presidential candidate. Lowry says Cruz isn't destined to lose in a landslide like Goldwater, but that he is much more like Richard Nixon, minus the paranoia, plus a more heavily defined ideology.
The two are similar in personality: "Cruz is cut from roughly similar cloth. He wears his ambition on his sleeve and isn't highly charismatic or relatable. In high school, he could've been voted most likely to be seen walking on the beach in his dress shoes....
(Excerpt) Read more at thefederalist.com ...
FR THREAD: Megyn Kelly to Ted Cruz: "The record supports you."
.....Their interview ended this way:
Megyn Kelly: "The record supports you." [Cruz: "Anyone here illegally is permanently ineligible for citizenship."]
"It was a poison pill."
"You do have a consistent record on that; I will give you that; we did look back on it."
I understand folks are desperate for a Conservative POTUS to repair all the damage inflicted by Barry Soetoro.
But the ends never justify the means.
Cruz has proffered one piece of ID, a Canada birth certificate, to support his claim to US Citizenship(???)
Really!
Have we seen any US documents concerning Cruz? Why is no one pressing the question?
Would folks be okay if a Saudi Prince launched a run for POTUS, and just laughed off speculation he was not a US Natural Born Citizen?
Cruz’s problem is no one likes him. Except for the evangelicals. If he was running for Preacher he would be a lock in. As president....he got nothing
Cruz’s problem is no one likes him. Except for the evangelicals. If he was running for Preacher he would be a lock in. As president....he got nothing
I like him just fine.
I met him, I like him, he’d be a great president.
Interesting case. I like how it just accepts as fact that Ted isn’t a likable guy, LOL. His personality does rub me the wrong way a lot of the time. I’ll still vote for him in the general, though.
I think this author (as well as some others) gets one assumption wrong. The personal dislike of Cruz isn’t because he’s not “the guy you want to have a beer with”. After all, Ronald Reagan wasn’t a guy you’d want to have a beer with, but everyone loved him.
No, with Ted, I think his demeanor can be boiled down to one word: smarmy.
A secondary trait I’m not a fan of, is that he seems to be completely humorless, by any normal standard. Much like Yeb! or Mitt Romney, when Cruz is telling a joke, he’s just mouthing some words that his instincts (or focus groups) tell him should be a good approximation of what “the normal people” would find funny. It almost never works. On the flipside, there are guys like Trump and Christie, or Reagan or Gingrich in the past, who can just pop stuff off on the spot with no rehearsal and get a good laugh out of the room.
I like Ted, he’s a fantastic conservative
he is how ever unelectable as president
When Trump beats Cruz in Iowa it will be the end of the road for Cruz’s presidential campaign. Good.
“I met him, I like him, he’d be a great president.”
Illegal presidents by definition cannot be great presidents. Making Ted Cruz POTUS is an illegal act, given the fact Ted Cruz is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
I like Cruz. To beat the Dems in November, though, we need a charismatic fighter, somebody who can get the base enthused enough to SHOW UP and VOTE in November. Currently, that seems to be Trump.
Super Tuesday is in less than four weeks. I expect that, if there is a clear winner there, the winner WILL be the nominee.
The situation is too grim for Ted to project his fun side. Unlike DT, Ted is personally distraught by the SOTU. He’s impatient to correct all that’s killing us.
Is the author admitting Cruz is nasty?
If you think Trump is “beating” Cruz in Iowa, you know very little about the caucuses. Could it happen? Sure, just like you or I could win the Powerball. Will it? Not very likely, unless 2016 is unlike every year since 1972.
LOL! That can't be the same Ted Cruz who got busted for having a case beer in his car!
Prayers and votes for Cruz, the faithful slave of Jesus Christ.
Romans 9:16
So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
Oops...”case of beer”
Sounds a bit like Asperger syndrome.
Or, Smart Man’s disease....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.