I'm also for Trump ... but I thought this would come up given the post title. The reality is, anyone who has said Barack 'Hussein' Obama or has thought it should be included (as I do) is going to have a tough time convincing me that calling Ted 'Raphael' is a cheap shot. It's even less of a cheap shot because it's not his given name.
When anyone changes or hides their name, it's relevant. The reasons may or may not be indicative of anything bad, but it's relevant and fair game.
Maybe the question is (I actually don't know - but can probably guess right) ... why did he change it? Is it just what his buddies naturally called him in school or college? Was it for professional / political reasons? ...
If Ted has explained this ... and it really was his nickname or given name, and if everyone knows that - that he didn't consciously change it - then it's kind of a cheap shot.
Ok I guess I can be un-lazy and search Mr. Internets: Here's what quora says ... The diminutive of Rafael is Felito which is what he went by until he started getting teased at school.
“... The diminutive of Rafael is Felito which is what he went by until he started getting teased at school.”
Felito is a rough one, I can see how he could get teased for that.
Perform felatio on a Cheeto and you might get a Felito.
Cruz changed his name to Ted at the age of 13 due to bullying, “until I was thirteen, I was ‘Felito Cruz.’ The problem with that name was that it seemed to rhyme with every major corn chip on the market. Fritos, Cheetos, Doritos, and Tostitos — a fact that other young children were quite happy to point out.”
“‘Ted’ immediately felt like me,” he explained, “But my father was furious with the decision” and when his wife pointed to Ted Kennedy as a proper example, Cruz wrote, “my father was apoplectic. He had no love for liberals … to equate me to with Teddy Kennedy was too much. For about two years, he refused to utter my new name.”
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Amazingly enough, even Salon didn’t disgrace themselves by coming up with a sexual term to mock Ted’s old nickname, as one would expect from a conservative-despising entity.
Cruz is not hiding his name...
He grew up as Ted. Look in his yearbook from high school at what they called him.if he were ashamed of Raphael, wouldn’t he be just as ashamed of Cruz (following your logic)?
It is sophomoric to call him Raphael. Just more nasty spin from the nasty supporters of the nasty coward Trump.