Thank goodness the Iowa caucus is over. The idea that a state with fewer people than Harris County has such an outsized influence on electing a president should be offensive to anyone in the political process. In fact, there are 17 Metropolitan areas in the U.S. with a larger population than Iowa. And that says nothing at all about the lack of diversity of the state in comparison to the rest of the U.S.
I mean seriously, the “record” turnout in last night’s Iowa caucus was less than the turnout for last year’s mayoral election in the City of Houston. By a wide margin. Heck, even the runoff election for the city blew away the “record” turnout in Iowa – 212,696 vs 186,874.
Thank goodness we’re moving on.
But the obnoxious #cruzcrew is touting his victory in the caucus as if Ted Cruz had already won the nomination. They conveniently ignore the fact that in terms of delegates needed to win the nomination, he is ahead by exactly one vote. That’s right, one vote. He now has eight delegates while Donald Trump and Marco Rubio have seven each.
As obnoxious as the #cruzcrew is, they get it straight from their leader. I was amused reading Erica Grieder’s column in Texas Monthly (The Field Guide to Ted Cruz) in which she tells the rest of us that she has figured Cruz out and gives us her magical map so that we can do the same. At one point, she even seems to take credit for giving Cruz the idea to run for president. The only point that she makes that is worthwhile is that Cruz is in this to win it. What she misses is that Cruz has always been in this to be president and he will do anything to achieve that goal. That is the only thing you need to know about Cruz in order to understand his behavior in the U.S. Senate.
Rand Paul and Marco Rubio touched on this point during the last debate:
Rubio took exception to that characterization. He referred to earlier comments from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who questioned Cruz’s “authenticity” while lamenting that other candidates were not as conservative as him.
“This is the lie that Ted’s campaign is built on, and Rand touched upon it. That he’s the most conservative guy and everyone else is a RINO,” Rubio said, using an acronym for “Republican in name only.”
“The truth is, Ted, throughout this campaign you’ve been willing to say and do anything to get votes,” he continued. That statement drew a smattering of boos in the crowd.
“Ted, you worked for George W. Bush’s campaign,” Rubio went on. “You helped design George W. Bush’s immigration plan. Now you want to trump Trump on immigration.”
Truth means nothing to Cruz – winning is everything. That’s why he put out the misleading mailer that was widely condemned:
Iowa’s secretary of state on Saturday blasted Ted Cruz’s campaign over a controversial mailer that aims to drive voters to the polls for Monday’s caucuses by claiming they have committed “violations.”
“Today I was shown a piece of literature from the Cruz for President campaign that misrepresents the role of my office, and worse, misrepresents Iowa election law,” Paul Pate, a Republican, said in a statement Saturday.
Cruz’s response?
“I will apologize to no one for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote,” he said.
Creepy privacy violations be damned, Cruz wants to win. And oh, by the way, those mailers were completely false:
Donna Holstein, who was listed on one of them, was upset to learn that she had been given a failing grade and that her neighbors might be told whether she participates in the caucus. She told me that she has voted consistently but that she can’t this time because of a disability.
“I’m crippled, so I can’t go to the caucus,” Holstein said. She was not happy about being shamed in front of her neighbors. “That’s what you call a bully,” she said about Cruz’s tactics. “I wish he would quit.”
Same thing happened during the caucus when his campaign directed their volunteers to tell voters at the caucus locations that Dr. Ben Carson had dropped out so they might as well vote for Cruz.
Sen. Ted Cruz apologized for potentially confusing Iowa Republican leaders by suggesting during Monday’s caucuses that rival Ben Carson was dropping out.
Cruz issued the mea culpa after Carson accused him of foul play.
“This was a mistake from our end, and for that I apologize to Dr. Carson,” Cruz said in a statement Tuesday.
Cruz won the Iowa caucuses; Carson came in distant fourth.
Can you say ‘ooopsie!’ Of course, what if those Carson voters had held their own and voted for their original choice? Would we be talking about Trump winning the Iowa caucus?
Cruz reminds me of Al Davis when he owned the Oakland Raiders – just win baby, just win. Cheating, lying, deceiving…who cares?
TrusTed? Seriously? As Cyndi Lauper says, Ted, I see your true colors.
From a progressive site, but to the point http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/ted-cruz-jerk-hated
As Will Rogers said, politics ain’t beanbag, and Harry Truman added, if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Dr. Ben Carson is a great man and a world-class surgeon, but leaving Iowa on the night of the caucuses, to get a new change of clothes at home in Florida, shows that he is not ready for prime time as an advocate for conservative principles.
I often say that I am glad Ted Cruz is a Christian because he is a killer. He is a Christian knight, and that is what we need – – an effective and reliable advocate for conservative principles, a champion as in a medieval tournament, a barrister at court arguing the conservative case.
David Dewhurst is a good man, but that is not his calling.
Christian civilization is an oxymoron, because Jesus himself said that his kingdom is not of this world. But Christian faith is not a suicide pact, and Jesus said to sell your cloak and buy a sword, when necessary to defend yourself. Augustine created the intellectual basis for Western Civilization – – adopt the civic virtue of the Romans, but with a Judeo-Christian perspective.
Cruz stands for three winning principles, Christianity, capitalism and America, more than the other Republican candidates, and he deserves our support, warts and all.
“Ted Cruz is a Christian because he is a killer”.
Alrighty then. Carpet bomb away!
Interesting job of misquoting. . . . . perhaps you should go into politics. . . .
Dave, Dave, Dave! There you go again. Spouting half-truths and un-truths and even worse, statement that have been proven to be false. Nice try but your entitled to your views. Rock on, dude!
Please let me know about these alleged “half-truths”. Okay?
With the exception of acclaiming incumbent Presidents running for re-election essentially unopposed, the Iowa GOP does a magnificent job identifying an individual who will never be President of the USA much less the standard barer in the general election.
Well, Dave, now that you’ve told us who you don’t like – how about a clue as to whom you ARE endorsing?
Come on now Dave. Who’s it gonna be? Gang of 8 member Rubio? Mr. “I’m for universal health care and the Kelo decision” Trump? John “I’m for big government, but it’ll be a Republican big government” Kasich? Rand Paul’s dropping out, Dr. Carson is gone, who’s left?
Or (perhaps we should whisper here) are you a closet follower of Jeb Bush? Has Karl Rove cast his evil spell on you? Inquiring minds want to know!!
On a different point, I totally agree about the ridiculousness of the outsized attention placed on Iowa and New Hampshire. It’s absurd.
I guess I missed something.
Everyone who votes in the United States does so knowing that the fact that they voted is a public record.
I don’t see how telling folks that they and their neighbors voted in sixty percent of the elections is a “creepy invasion of privacy.”
I will agree that the mailer from the Cruz campaign was stupid
Voter turnout is usually so abysmally low, that getting half of the people who actually bothered to register is considered monumental.
I’ve worked on enough campaigns to know that a “3R” is about the best you are going to find in any given precinct. (For the uninitiated, a 3R is someone who has voted in three Republican primaries in the last five election cycles). Never mind that there are folks like me, who would qualify as “10R’S” if they counted that high – five primaries and five primary runoffs in 10 years.
As for the campaign telling folks that Ben Carson had dropped out, they should be scolded for listening to a station like CNN, a liberal organization that depends on unreliable sources like campaign spokesmen
I like Dr. Carson, and if he is the nominee, I will support him more enthusiastically than he does himself.
As of the current count, Cruz has 8 of the 1237 delegates he needs for the nomination.
I’m Tom Zakes and I approve this message.
What you fail to acknowledge Tom is that the Cruz mailer was FALSE.
Why should I say something is false when it is not? Even your article only says it is misleading. It doesn’t claim to be from the Secretary of State. You and I can split hairs all week.
btw, keep it up with the negative articles on Cruz. We all saw how effective Dewhurst’s ads against him were in 2012.
I’m Tom Zakes and I approve this message.
No Tom, if you bother to read it, it says the mailer was false. Fiction. Lies, Whatever word you want to use.
The Cruz team made up false “grades” for everyone. You might have voted in most elections and the Cruz team gives you a 55 (F). Same for your neighbor.
False, Tom.
Oh, and Tom, I have no illusion that Cruz won’t win Texas. Cruzbots refuse to look at his lack of record and focus on his rhetoric.
But a few of us will look elsewhere for a candidate.
David, respectfully ( and nice to see you back writing ), Ted Cruz’s true colors did show Monday night.
Unbelievable work ethic, meticulous planning and execution, what seems to be by far the best managed campaign, and his ability to inspire an army of volunteers to show up for weeks in winter in Iowa to work for Ted’s cause.. This long National rRview article traces the year long Cruz team effort that resulted in Monday nights landmark win.
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430666/ted-cruz-iowa-win-inside-story
“My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them and who, God’s truth! was greatest not as a sufferer but as a fighter. In boundless love as a Christian and as a man I read through the passage which tells us how the Lord at last rose in His might and seized the scourge to drive out of the Temple the brood of vipers and adders. How terrific was His fight for the world against the poison that effects our country. To-day, after two thousand years, with deepest emotion I recognize more profoundly than ever before the fact that it was for this that He had to shed His blood upon the Cross. As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice… And if there is anything which could demonstrate that we are acting rightly it is the distress that daily grows. For as a Christian I have also a duty to my own people.
I only removed one word and added three words The words above could be spoken by Ted Cruz, but the quote belongs to another. I see very little difference between the persons or the persons that follow them.
“but the quote belongs to another”
Care to elucidate?
I am midway through a book called The Victory Lab by Sasha Issenberg. Written in 2012 it is a dissection of the innovated and much applauded tools used by the democrats to smashing success since 2008. The first 10 pages tell how Democrat consultants and Organizing for America have been using these “shaming letters” to great success since 2010.
http://www.thevictorylab.com/
Oh my stars, that dastardly Ted Cruz. reading how to win election books and putting what he learned into practice.
The rules for politics are the same as the rules of war, with the exception of the killing. In some countries that is also included in the art of politics. It has been used by politicians for thousands of years it did not begin with the Democrats or Republicans.
Hmm, I wonder which Cruz supporter will be the first to complain when another candidate picks the bar up off the ground and knocks Cruz’s head off with it?
Who in the Presidential race has a prayer support group? Who stood against the establishment of both parties, and stood for we the people? Have you personally checked the record of each one or do you listen to all the comments of others? Our country is at a crossroads!!! Back in 2008 change was promised, And we didn’t check what change was promised. Look at what we got!! We don’t need another mistake!! WE cannot have as president a hothead who is going to do it his way period. A BIG mistake would be TRUMP. The answer is to turn to God. This country was great and a leader when we trusted God. The man of the Hour and the one that will defend the whole constitution and conservative ideas is none other than TED CRUZ!!!!!!!