T. Belman. I am all in for Cruz. A month ago he was interviewed by Caroline Glick and this is what he said of the PA/ Israel conflict:
I believe that nobody wants to see peace more than the Israeli people. The barrier to peace is not the government of Israel. The barrier to peace is Palestinians who refuse to renounce terrorism and refuse to even acknowledge Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.
As it regards to US policy, I think for far too long, American presidents have attempted to dictate the terms of a peace settlement. In my view, America has no appropriate role dictating the terms of a peace settlement.
If Israel chooses to negotiate and reach a settlement with the Palestinian Authority, that is Israel’s right as a sovereign state, and America can help provide a fair forum for negotiations.
But it is not the role of the American government to attempt to lecture the Israeli people or dictate terms of peace.
No one has a greater incentive to seek peace than the people of Israel, who have lived with the daily threat of rocket attacks or knifings or terrorist bombs.
Exactly what it should be.
A month ago I predicted a Cruz-Rubio ticket. Now that Cruz has overtaken Carson to run neck-and-neck with Trump in the Iowa Quinnipiac University poll, Cruz is looking a lot like a winner. Here are my top 10 reasons to back him.
10. He really knows economics–not the ideologically driven pablum dished out at universities, but the real battlefield of entrenched monopolies against entrepreneurial upstarts. As Asheesh Agarwal and John Delacourt reported in this space, he did a brilliant job at the Federal Trade Commission: “Cruz promoted economic liberty and fought government efforts to rig the marketplace in favor of special interests. Most notably, Cruz launched an initiative to study the government’s role in conspiring with established businesses to suppress e-commerce. This initiative ultimately led the U.S. Supreme Court to open up an entire industry to small e-tailers.” Anyone can propose tax cuts. It takes real know-how to cut through the regulatory kudzu that is strangling America enterprise.
9. He really knows foreign policy. He is a hardline defender of American interests, but wants to keep American politics out of the export business. That’s why neo-conservatives like Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post and Kimberly Strassel at the Wall Street Journal keep sliming him. The Bushies started attacking Cruz a year ago, when he stated the obvious about the Bush administration’s great adventure in “democratic globalism”: “I think we stayed too long, and we got far too involved in nation-building….We should not be trying to turn Iraq into Switzerland.” He’s not beholden to the bunglers of the Bush administration, unlike the hapless Marco Rubio.
8. He really knows the political system. As Texas solicitor general, he argued nine cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and won five of them. How many other lawyers in the United States have gone to the Supreme Court nine times on points of Constitutional law? The best write-up I’ve seen on his brilliance as a Constitutional lawyer came from the liberal New Yorker–grudging praise, but praise nevertheless. Some of his legal work was brilliant, displaying a refined understanding of separation of powers and federalism. If you want a president who knows the mechanism of American governance from the inside, there’s no-one else who comes close to Cruz.
7. He’s an outsider, and America needs an outsider. The public thinks that Washington is corrupt, and it IS corrupt. The banks are corrupt, the defense industries (with their $1.5 trillion budget for a new fighter plane that won’t fly) are corrupt, the tech companies (run by patent trolls rather than engineers) are corrupt, the public utilities are corrupt. The American people want a new broom. But it helps to put it in the hands of someone who knows his way around the broom closet.
6. Trump and Carson aren’t serious candidates. Carson is an endearing fellow who has no business running for president: apart from his medical specialty, his knowledge of the world is an autodidact’s jumble of fact and fantasy. Donald Trump inherited money and ran a family business: never in his life did he have to persuade shareholders, investors, directors, or anyone else to work with him. At best, he knew how to cajole and threaten. It’s been his way or the highway since he was a kid, and that’s the worst possible training for a U.S. president.
5. Cruz is in but not of the system. The distinguished conservative scholar Robert P. George mentored him at Princeton and the flamboyant (but effective) liberal Alan Dershowitz taught him at Harvard Law School. Both agree he was the smartest student they ever had. An Ivy League education isn’t important unless, of course, you don’t have one: to run the United States, it helps to have dwelt in the belly of the beast. Cruz came through the elite university mill with his principles intact, and a keen understanding of the liberal mentality.
4. He’s got real grit–call it fire in the belly, but Cruz wants to be president and wants us to want him to be president. Determination is a lot more important than charm, where Cruz won’t win first prize. When it comes down to it, Americans don’t want a charming president, but a smart, tough and decent one. Marco Rubio, the Establishment’s last hope after Jeb Bush’s belly-flop, is instantly recognizable as the tough-guy hero’s cute younger brother. Either Cruz or Fiorina would fill out the ticket.
3. He knows how to run a real campaign as opposed to a flash-in-the-pan media event. Cruz has boots on the ground, an organization of people who believe in him and raise money at twice the rate of Rubio–with an averge $66 donation.
2. He’s a true believer in the United States of America. His love for his country and belief in its prospects are impassioned and unfeigned. He’s ambitious, but his ambition stems from a desire to serve, where he believes that he is uniquely qualified to serve.
And the top reason to vote for Ted Cruz is:
He can beat Hillary Clinton. Not just beat her, but beat her by a landslide. Mrs. Clinton isn’t that smart. She looks sort of smart when the media toss her softballs, but in a series of one-to-one, nowhere-to-hide presidential debates, Cruz would shred her. Cruz was the top college debater in the country. He knows how to assemble facts, stay on message, anticipate his opponent’s moves and neutralize them. He’s a quarter-century younger than Mrs. Clinton, smarter, sharper, and better prepared. He’s also clean as a whistle in personal life and finances, while the Clintons could reasonably be understood to constitute a criminal enterprise.
Rubio is really strong on the issues.
@ ArnoldHarris:
Trump could win nomination but if he does it will be a Hillbilly as POSTUS.
Hillary’s best chance to be President is to run against Trump. He will not win Florida with the all the Latinos (unless they no show). That means he would have to win both Ohio and Pennsylvania. He would probably lose in a Barry Goldwater style land slide if he gets the nomination.
The latest Reuters Polling Explorer for November 26, 2015 shows:
Trump……..38.0%
Carson……..11.4%
Cruz………….11.4%
Rubio…….……8.5%
Bush…………..5.5%
Each of the rest of the GOP herd scores less than 5%. and a couple of them are less than 1%.
Trump has been the consistent leader in the Republican nomination race right from the start. Notions that Trump’s extraordinary campaign will implode are nothing more substantive than wishful thinking on the part of the Republican establishment that so strongly — and correctly — fears in regard to their control over such nominations.
So forget about it.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Trump has been on both sides of amnesty/Obamacare/gun control/abortion/Hillary. His presidency would be fun, but high risk.
You claim Trump says what he means, but he has been for and against Obamacare/amnesty/abortion/drug legalization/tax increases/gun control/privatizing Social Security. He has also been for and against Hillary. This guy has more positions than Jenna Jameson, whomever she might be.
A Trump presidency would be fun, but no one knows what he would do. Even he probably doesn’t know.
I’m for Trump all the way. Most of the polls here show him far ahead of Cruz, Rubio, Carson, and all the others.
Trump says exactly what he means, and means exactly what he says.
He will round up all persons in this country illegally, expelling them and keeping them out unless and until they get a proper visa to enter this country.
He will put the Moslems of this country and their organizations under federal and local police surveillance.
He will renegotiate foreign trade agreements and other policies that will re-industrialize the United States, supplying meaningful and well-paying employment to scores of millions of Americans.
He will kill off everything that passes for political correctness as government policy.
When he speaks to multitudes of Americans in cities all around this country, he needs no prepared speeches or teleprompters.
He is not a slave of any political party, or of the news media, and he needs no funding from the rich wire-pullers who control the rest of the Republican candidates.
He will bring out for the first time vast numbers of people who have gotten turned off my the rotten and corrupt politics this country has put up with for so many years.
The fact is, I have not had as much enthusiasm for a presidential candidate since Harry S Truman left the White House.
Will he beat Hilary Clinton? The latest polls show his strength is growing, and that most voters on both sides of the political fence regard Clinton as dishonest, untrustworthy, and incompetent.
Go ahead and put this comment under scrutiny for moderation. I too write and say exactly that’s on my mind.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Rubio polls by far the best against the Democrats and is the Republican In Name Only with the best chance to win the general election.
Cruz would be the most conservative president since Calvin Coolidge, who actually reduced the size of the federal government. He is a passionate supporter of Israel.
Rafael Cruz is a Born Again Christian who fled Marxist Cuba. By any chance, ppksky, did your Thanksgiving feast consist of fermented beverages?
@ ppksky:
Rubio polls by far the best against the Democrats and is the Republican with the best chance to win the general election.
@ woolymammoth:
Fiorina will not be a VP; but I do see a place for her in a Cruz cabinet, perhaps at Treasury or Commerce.
There are two (minority) women, both governors, that he is likely to pick – Susana Martinez of New Mexico or Nikki Haley (married name, she is actually Indian) of South Carolina. My money is on Haley; I think Asian Americans, given their wealth, family values and entrepenurship, should be Republicans – the fact that they are not is largely because they live in leftwing states and are largely indoctrinated by the media and public school system (and increasingly, their Jewish spouses and in-laws)
I enjoyed reading Ted’s comments. I could not possibly agree more. It is delightful, really, that we will have the option to choose Senator Ted Cruz for President of The U.S. He has made it clear where his priorities are, going so far as to outline his first day in office. One of the first orders of business that day, will be moving the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. He insists that unlike so many worn paper mâché politicians who have promised the same, he will actually do it. He plans to undo The tremendous damage caused by the present administration, no small job.
I doubt he would choose Rubio as his VP. Ms. Fiorina, in my view, would be a much more plausible option for several reasons.
None of the other candidates can compete with Cruz, on any criteria of importance. With fears of terrorism at home, given Clinton’s record, taking for granted Ted performs as expected, he will be very difficult to beat. My belief is that he will exceed expectations and will dazzle.
Cruz’s time has arrived, he has planned well and is ready for what is shaping up to be a very interesting election campaign.
Cruz will win the nomination. Living in the USA and being a staunch Republican, one thing that has stood out with the whole Trump thing is that Cruz has not attacked Trump, and Trump has not attacked Cruz. I suspect that Trump is really acting as a stalking horse for him. Now that Ben Carson is fading, most of that support is going to Cruz.
Whether he can beat Hillary is another question. She has changing demographics working for her — growing Hispanic and Asian populations that vote mostly Democrat (it is a mystery to me why the latter group does so), and the migration of leftist voters to conservative states (after f**king up their original home states) and turning them leftist.
The other thing she has going for her is her backing of 90% of the news media, which won’t hesitate to out-and-out lie to drag her across the finish line. Cruz is the only candidate with the smarts and wit to defeat the media, which is the real enemy of the GOP.
Ted Cruz is a Republican Obama. But whereas Obama’s Marxist father was not a citizen, not only was Cruz’s Marxist father not a citizen, Cruz himself was not born in the US.
If Cruz and Rubio win the Republican nomination, they might as well hand the presidency to the Democrats.
I myself will vote for absolutely anyone running against this ticket, unless they have the same problem.
By the way, immigration is now easily recognized as a global problem. How do the two latinos weigh in on immgration?