Lynchburg, Virginia (CNN)It's an audacious gambit, opening a presidential campaign after merely a brief stop in the U.S. Senate. But if it worked for a freshman senator from Illinois, could it work for one from Texas?
Barack Obama and Ted Cruz both have Ivy League credentials, with degrees from Harvard Law School. They both have two young daughters. They both served in the Senate for only two years before defying conventional wisdom and declaring their lofty White House ambitions.
The similarities may well stop there for Obama and Cruz, who at 44 is just one year younger than Obama when he launched his improbable presidential bid eight years ago. But the success of Obama -- at the ballot box, at least, in 2008 and 2012 -- is helping to fuel the aspirations of Cruz and other Republican hopefuls in the opening chapter of this campaign.
If Obama could overtake the mighty Hillary Clinton back then, could Cruz compete with the powerful establishment behind Jeb Bush's anticipated candidacy?
One things for sure. We can look at Cruz's transcript.
ReplyDeleteCruz and Paul will bring a strong conservative-libertarian perspective to the upcoming debates.
This is an attempt at serious discussion William. Regardless of whether people think Obama is a piece of crap empty suit, the fact remains that he convinced a non gerrymandered majority to vote for him twice. I think I can understand why Cruz has your attention, but I would like to hear from, as objectively as possible, why you think he could have any sort of main stream appeal. Why I hear him talk, he sounds kinda whiny, nothing like Rand Paul.
DeleteI like Cruz's directness and honesty, on the other hand I think he is too conservative to have any chance at the nomination, He has also angered the Republican leadership by some of his rash actions. I know people's appearances shouldn't influence our votes but when I see and hear him speak he reminds me a lot of Joe McCarthy which I find to be quite distracting. William, students transcripts are private documents by law and they shouldn't influence us too much. After all Albert Einstein failed high school algebra.
DeleteEinstein also couldn't tell his right hand from his left. Employers often ask for transcripts. I'm sure Obama got straight "A's"
DeleteWe all know Jeb will be well funded. HRC will be well funded. The money will be there for whoever comes out of the pack.
Where are the birthers ?. Seems Cruz's citizenship status is more questionable then Obama's ever was. Of course all the sudden to the tea partiers, where you are born and what experience you have no long matters. Hypocrites.
DeleteThe United States Constitution grants American citizenship to anyone born to at least one parent who is also a citizen, so long as that parent spent five years inside the country and two of those years came after the parent's 14th birthday. Cruz's mom is from Delaware, and there's no question she meets all those requirements. That means Cruz is a citizen.
DeleteHRC was the original birther having brought up the issue in her failed 2008 campaign for president.
DeleteWilliam, still waiting for an answer to the question.
DeleteMick,
If he reminds you of McCarthy, is it not possible that maybe that's just who he is? There is a principled case to be made for self reliance, limited government and so on. What seems to pass for conservatism, however, is mostly just bitching about how bad Obama sucks and how we will all be enslaved because of his spending. It would be nice if someone, anyone, who is running could make a case for their beliefs. Instead, we get hucksters like Cruz who be just the latest Johnny come lately to whine about the media, liberals, and the death of incentive for hard work because of the nanny state.
Max, in 1978 Ronald Reagan was said to have little chance against the DC insiders either. Much like the late 70's people are tired of having their late 20 something kids living with them in an inside out economy.
DeleteI await the debates with relish. And your reference along with Mick about McCarthy is pure rubbish. Nice try lefty.
Meh, you have nothing to say. I'll just wait for you to cut and paste the words of others when they write them about Cruz. It's what you do.
DeleteThe birther argument centered around what is meant by "natural born citizen". Not that Obama was not a citizen by law. The lawyer Orly Taits made a fortune pressing law suits to oust Obama on that point. What is an un-natural born citizen? Caesarian section? William, politicians will try anything to gain an advantage, never expect honesty from any of them.
ReplyDeleteI know that some politicians are not corrupt. You on the other hand believe all is lost. I just want to get rid of the bad ones. You just want to give up.
DeleteNope, hope springs eternal. All is not lost. However one should be very careful when reading politician's statements as they often lie, or at least stretch the truth if an advantage is seen for their campaign. Is that corruption, no, that's human nature. My favorite philosopher, Jiddu Ramakrishna said "Doubt everything, only then will you be truly free". So I doubt everything a politician says until it can be examined and it's truth verified, or disproven.
ReplyDeleteOver and over on these boards you have said that all politicians are crooked. Spin is spin, but there remains right and wrong.
DeleteThis just in:
ReplyDeleteWASHINGTON (MarketWatch) — One of Obamacare’s harshest critics will soon be a customer.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who on Monday became the first major candidate to announce a 2016 White House bid, said Tuesday he’ll sign up for health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act.
“We’ll be getting new health insurance, and we’ll presumably do it through my job with the Senate, and so we’ll be on the federal exchange with millions of others on the federal exchange,” the Republican told CNN.
Cruz is losing the health coverage he now has through his wife’s employer, Goldman Sachs GS, +0.15% Heidi Cruz is a managing director in the company’s Houston office and has taken unpaid leave for as long as her husband runs for president.
Cruz has been one of the health-care act’s most persistent detractors. Announcing his candidacy on Monday, he pledged to repeal “every word” of President Obama’s signature legislative achievement. In 2013, Cruz gave an anti-Obamacare speech that lasted more than 21 hours.
Like most states, Texas does not have its own health-insurance exchange.
Thirteen months after Cruz's 21 hour speech the GOP won an historic election margin.
DeleteThe question you have to ask yourself, why would he use the exchange?
DeleteHe can find a better p[policy outside the exchange at the same or lower price?
Is he setting up yet another crusade against the ACA?
Those that care already know the ACA is a rip off for those paying full price.
(Reuters) Under President Barack Obama's signature Affordable Care Act, members of Congress seeking insurance must sign up through an exchange.
Delete"Well, it is written in the law that members will be on the exchanges without subsidies just like millions of Americans," Cruz told the Register, adding: "I think the same rules should apply to all of us. Members of Congress should not be exempt."
Obama's mother was from Kansas and Hawaii, there is no question that she meets all the requirments, so even if Obama was born in Kenya he is a citizen by your reckoning lou.
DeletePay real close attention, Obama is on his last gasp.
DeleteI could care less about where he was born only that he goes away. I would give good money for him to take early retirement anywhere but here.
p.s. What difference does it make. We are a borderless country where every one can enter without a problem and zero liability of law.
In an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) fired back at claims that he lacks sufficient experience to be commander-in-chief.
ReplyDeleteBash attempted to draw comparisons between Cruz and 2008 presidential candidate Barack Obama, but the Texas Republican was having none of it, saying:
“In [Barack Obama’s] time in the Senate he had basically been a backbencher; he had not been leading on any issues of any significance. In my time in the Senate you can accuse me of being a lot of things but a backbencher is not one of them.”
Cruz continued to point out the stark contrasts between himself and then-candidate Obama:
“‘Unlike Barack Obama, I was not a community organizer before I was elected to the Senate,’ adding, ‘I spent five-and-a-half years as the solicitor general of Texas.
I supervised and led every appeal for the state of Texas in a 4,000-person agency with over 700 lawyers. Over the course of five-and-a-half years, over and over again Texas led the nation defending conservative principles and winning.'”
Cruz announced his candidacy last week, making him the first high-profile Republican to officially jump in to the 2016 race.