Well, that Cruz / Fiorina ticket lasted about as long as a Hillary Clinton coughing spell, didn’t it? I have to say I’m not surprised, for it was actually breathtaking to watch how quickly the sense of desperation crept into the Cruz campaign following Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in New York last month.
First you had that awkward “joining of forces” with the Kasich campaign – a brilliant move! said the political pundits and hacks on the cable networks. Then you had him picking Carly Fiorina as his VP – a move akin to a baseball manager whose team is down three games to none in the playoffs announcing his seventh game starter. That was bad enough. But then to see Ted on the Sunday cable shows clearly beginning to lose it, and then lose it all together with his blistering ad hominem attack on Trump yesterday, Glenn Beck (whose 15 minutes of fame were up long ago) begging his fans to fast – fast, I tell ya! – for Ted, the once-great Mark Levin losing it all together, and conservative blogs like National Review, Hot Air, Red State, and Powerline all in the various stages of hissy fits, well, you just knew that they knew that Trump was going to romp the field in Indiana and beat the most recent polls by a wide margin.
I don’t feel bad for Ted Cruz whatsoever. At first I thought he was a bright and passionate spokesman for the conservative movement. But then came the debates and his churlish behavior and blatant disregard for his fellow competitors by repeatedly ignoring the time bell. Tracey was the first one to detect a very unlikeable quality about Cruz, and as the campaign went on his act became increasingly tiresome. As a candidate, he didn’t wear going negative well, and I honestly believe that had he stayed positive and simply laid out his platform against Trump’s he would have had better success. But Cruz wore his smarmy, know-it-all arrogance like a cheap suit, and he was in the end revealed for the just-another-Washington political-insider that he and wife Heidi (a Beltway insider if there ever was one) always were. As a result, Cruz was never able to make that personal connection, that “I’m one of you” connection with Republicans, independents, and centrist Democrats that Trump, even with all his billions, was able to make seemingly and easily from the beginning, and it cost Cruz in the end.
Hasta la vista, Rafael.
I despise politics/politicians in all their forms. Ted Cruz has a sliminess akin to a lizard slithering out of some primeval ooze. Kinda like Jabba the Hut. Creepy creepy creepy. Trump is a complete Narcissistic personality disorder (my professional opinion)and by his own statement he needs a politician as his VP to deal with the big stuff. Hillary, well, I don’t like her either.
I would just as soon vote for one of my cats as any of the potential options forced upon the voting public.
Comment by Jana — May 5, 2016 @ 5:00 am
What bothers me is the celebratory nature of Trump supporters when something negative helps their guy.
And then they just keep kicking the former opponents when they are down.
It’s the classless response we’ve come to expect from everything surrounding the Donald and his supporters. Hint: You can’t make America great again if you insult and denigrate the 50+% of people who don’t like your candidate.
Comment by Dave Richard — May 5, 2016 @ 5:33 am
It’s the nature of the game, bro. Like the Red Sox and the Yankees and their supporters. Politics is a blood sport, it ain’t no bean bag, as they say. I don’t wish harm on anyone, but Jana is right – Cruz is the sleaziest of sleaze balls – see the way he treated his wife the other night after he accidentally punched her? And how he couldn’t have cared less when Carly Fiorina accidentally fell off the stage? Trump may be a narcissist, but he has some inherent characteristics in his psych make-up that Cruz doesn’t, which is why Cruz could never make a personal connection with people.
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 5, 2016 @ 9:56 pm
Nice deflection to the other guy, Doug, but this is about Trump and his supporters – not the other guys.
That it’s “the nature of the game” is a cop-out of the highest order. It’s not the way it was, but it’s the way the classless Trump supporters make it, and doing so doesn’t make it right.
You can’t (and won’t) make America great again if your modus operandi is to denigrate the over 50% of people who do not support you.
Comment by Dave Richard — May 6, 2016 @ 6:31 am
Bro, you really ought to check conservative blogs like Red State, National Review, Hot Air, and Power Line and see the posts and comments to those posts by anti-Trump people. We’ve been called everything from racists to idiots and everything in between. It cuts both ways, and anyone who can’t see that is either misinformed or daft. (With all due respect, of course! :-))
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 6, 2016 @ 10:17 am
Again, deflecting to other people is a cop-out. And you’re also talking about bloggers and commentators who make a living being jerks, NOT the candidate or his supporters.
Bottom-line, this guy is one of two people left standing who have a shot at being President of the United States.
Get some class. Respect those who also tried to attain what your guy has done. At least they put it out there instead of sitting behind some keyboard or attending some rally.
Comment by Dave Richard — May 7, 2016 @ 6:17 am
Sorry, bro – you’re completely off base here. As someone who was in politics you know damned well it ain’t beanbag. Anyone who thinks any political candidate for office is only in it for the “good of the people” is beyond daft. There may be some altruistic aspect of it for sure, but it’s all about ego and all about winning. You can go back to the earliest days of the Republic and there are no saints. The Cruz people are just as bad, if not worse, hoisting their candidate up as something akin to the Son of God. Screw them. Me? I’ll take my chances on a billionaire who knows how to win and can beat the likes of Hillary Clinton like a rented mule. John McCain and Mitt Romney tried to play the nice guy and ended up losers. Me? I’m tired of backing losers. I want someone who knows how to play the game, enjoys playing the game, and wins playing the game. It’s OK if you find it all a bit unsettling, but you can always sit this one out as I’m guessing you will.
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 7, 2016 @ 11:50 pm
You bet I will sit this one out, as I hope everybody does.
We have two candidates (three if you still count Bernie) who are the worst examples of what ignorant voters can do.
This election in November will go down as the biggest embarrassment for America in it’s history, with record low turnout and a guaranteed loser for a winner. The only good news about this is that no matter who wins, they’re a one-term wonder, because each will be such a disaster that no one in their right minds will re-elect either of these stooges.
Your boy has brought out the lowest common denominator in his supporters, and it’s a damned shame that you and others have bought into his crass, low-life tactics.
America is better than this.
So are you.
Comment by Dave Richard — May 8, 2016 @ 4:56 am
So now you’re getting personal. That’s too bad. I don’t hold anything against anyone. If you want to hold my support for The Donald against me as a person that’s your problem, not mine.
Comment by The Great White Shank — May 8, 2016 @ 11:01 am
Personal is what your guy does. Personal is what Obama does. The whole “if you’re not with us you’re against us” routine.
This is a professional political disagreement by someone whose only passion is upholding the Constitution and the rights it protects; someone who will never be taken in by snake-oil salesmen or professional politicians who would try to by my vote with government programs or inflammatory rhetoric designed to play to our fears.
At the end of the day I’ll be one of the majority of American voters who can truthfully say, “Don’t blame me; I didn’t vote for either of them”.
Comment by Dave Richard — May 10, 2016 @ 3:59 am