Yesterday, Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced he was running for the presidency, giving a speech that has already been fact-checked and unsurprisingly found to be lacking in truth.
Our favorite presidential election results predictor, FiveThirtyEight.com, says that “Cruz almost certainly has no shot at winning the nomination, according to every indicator that predicts success in presidential primaries”. He isn’t even very popular among Republicans. And if he gets past that hurdle, in matchups against Hillary Clinton, “Cruz has done the worst of any of the possible 2016 Republican nominees.”
Nevertheless, some people are comparing him to Barack Obama:
I’m obviously not the first person to compare these two ambitious, young, Ivy-educated freshmen senators who spent roughly 15 minutes in the U.S. Senate before deciding to run for president.
And like Obama, Cruz has already attracted his own birthers. Yesterday, Donald Trump told Fox News that he doubts that Cruz can legally run for president because he was born in Canada.
Unlike Obama, there is no doubt that Cruz was not born in the US, and he didn’t even give up his Canadian citizenship until last year, but he claims that he is eligible to be president because his mother was American (his father was Cuban). The constitution requires that the president be a “natural born citizen” but never defines what that means. Personally, I wouldn’t care if Cruz was born in Kenya. I’m more concerned about his allegiance to Goldman Sachs.
UPDATE: At least Cruz got some satirical support from The Onion:
Announcing his 2016 presidential bid before thousands of students at Liberty University, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) boldly declared Monday that the nation had done absolutely nothing to deserve a better candidate than himself. “I want you to take a good, hard look at me, America, because this is exactly what you’ve got coming,” said Cruz, adding that the country was kidding itself if it thought it was worthy of higher-quality leadership than exactly what he was prepared to offer. “Deep down, you know you’ve got no business supporting anyone else. I’m all you’re entitled to, so just give me your vote and watch what happens. You earned it.” Cruz went on to say that, in some ways, he might actually be a better candidate than the nation deserved.
The Onion fails to mention that attendance by Liberty University students was mandatory.
UPDATE 2: Cruz announces that he is going on Obamacare. Yes that’s right, the man who shut down the US government in a vain attempt to kill Obamacare. Previously, he got his health insurance through his wife, who works for Goldman Sachs, but she is going on leave for the duration of his campaign.
10 Comments
And then there’s this: His campaign forgot to buy up the tedcruz.com domain name. Oops.
I hate obamacare, but I enrolled this year to avoid penalties. Why is it being made that he loves it.
Just read cnn article, and Cruz points are excellent, that he is following the law even if he doesn’t like it. Unlike Obama who even does not follow his own passed laws.
Hassan, you preferred to go without health insurance? What did you do before you signed up? Go to the emergency room?
You say that the points made by Cruz are excellent, however, most of them have been fact checked and found to be false. Obamacare did not kill the individual market, it was dead a long time ago (I know, I suffered trying to get health insurance when I was starting companies). It is far easier now for individuals to get health insurance with Obamacare than it ever was before. Second, he says that millions of people were forced into part time work — this has been fact checked repeatedly and is false. Those are just two examples. There are more.
What is especially ironic is that Cruz was caught totally flatfooted by this. He seemingly had no idea that the media would find it interesting that he is going on Obamacare. He doesn’t seem to have any clue that his actions have consequences. In this case just political fallout, but there are plenty of other examples of that kind of narcissistic behavior from him throughout his life that have pissed off lots of people.
Read this article about him from WaPo — http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/national/2015/03/24/ted-cruz-principled-or-smug-know-it-all/
Iron Knee, I used to pay cash and did not go to emergency room for anything non-emergency. For few times that there was emergency, I went to the 24 hr emergency rooms (not with hospitals, but the standalone ones, not sure what they are called, and I paid cash there).
Secondly, the Obamacare, whose official name is Affordable care act, there is nothing affordable in it. It is causing me leg and arm to have it. I am not at least going negative, but I could surely save here, if there were cheaper emergency only plans, and then spend that money in other important areas of life, but unfortunately I cannot now.
Thirdly, Ted Cruz is definitely an asshole on many levels. So lets get that out of the way. Ofcourse where you and I disagree is that I hold similar opinions of Obama, which you do not. Obama is as narcissistic as Ted if not more.
Fourthly, the only part I was referring to is that Ted Cruz is following law by enrolling in Obamacare or paying penalty. I see nothing wrong here, as that is the law, and he is following. And as Ted was saying, that Obama disregards laws that he does not like, and in fact he violated his own law of not penalizing businesses for not enrolling in Obamacare for year 2014, while he penalized me as an individual.
How is delaying the enforcement of a law (for technical reasons) for other people equivalent to breaking a law? Where I live, the police don’t ticket people for driving over the speed limit unless they are going at least 5 to 10 mph too fast. Does that mean that all the police around here are breaking the law?
Somehow, I think you are just pissed off that he didn’t let you off the hook too. You must be livid that you have to pay for car insurance.
Oh, and I think you have to be somewhat narcissistic to run for federal office. At the very least, you have to be willing to endure endless fundraising and convincing donors and voters that you are better than your opponents. But Cruz’s ability to piss people off takes this to a whole new level. I think he just needs the attention.
Iron Knee, since you gave the example of police officer, so let us compare that with Obama action.
Is it possible for a police officer to announce that anyone who is driving a car and goes through stop sign, I will not give him a ticket, while those riding a bike will be penalized for sure?
Actually I am sure pissed, why is it unconstitutional to hate insurance companies?
I cannot argue defending Cruz, he is a genuine asshole.
Hassan, the answer is yes.
Years ago, I lived near a church. Once a month they had a big bingo game to raise money. I asked a policeman “Isn’t gambling illegal?” and he answered that it was, but the police would normally look the other way for church fundraisers, unless there was some other problem (like disturbing the peace). Police have wide discretion in enforcing the law. The president too.
Looking other way, and announcing to look other way as policy is something different. It is clear discrimination on a set criteria. Imagine (well actual reality) that cops look other way on crimes of whites, and yet apply it fully on blacks. No wonder they know they can get away with that, when top-down everyone is doing it. But still cops will not announce it as policy/publicly that we will punish one set of people for sure, while we will ignore other set of people. This is just sad state of affair.
Keep in mind, Cruz could have bought the private insurance that he and the Republicans have been fighting to save, namely high cost plans. This would comply w the law without “seeming complicit with jumping on the bandwagon”. Heck, I think it would have been the only way to minimize the hubbub.
While I agree in principle that the laws of the land should be followed, I don’t think I should get a ticket for working on a sunday, enjoy consentual fun time w my wife, or crossing the street at a non crosswalk.
Hassan, unfortunately cops have huge discretion regarding which laws they enforce. Ever watch them drive? They speed while not on duty, blip lights to go through reds, and some even actively harass the communities they oversee.
I find it ironic that the problem you seem to have with the aca is that it is not cheap enough at this point, which overall I can understand, but you do realize that for the rate of price increase in Healthcare costs are finally beginning to stabalize, that we’ve added millions to the ranks of insured who were never able to before, and that had Obama been able to do away w the private plans, we’d be another 1,000 miles down this road already?
while I agree that Ted is not qualified to open my mail, it worries me that in our country, people like him can even get into office to begin with. I feel that science furthers our understanding of reality, and my right to swing my arm ends at someone’s nose, pretty well sums up my politics.