Ted Cruz

The GOP Convention, Night Three — Ted Cruz plays the spoiler

Featured image Tonight’s Republican convention was strong in the 10:00 hour, thanks to solid speeches by Eric Trump (but hadn’t Trump already received enough praise from his kids?), Newt Gingrich (but was the intro by his wife necessary?), and Mike Pence. The speech of Trump’s running mate didn’t match those of Sarah Palin (2008) or Paul Ryan (2012), but these were both A grade speeches, in my view. I’d give the Hoosier »

Ted Cruz exposes administration’s willful blindness to jihad

Featured image On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz held a hearing of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Agency Action, Federal Rights and Federal Courts, which he chairs. The subject was the Obama administration’s willful blindness when it comes to radical Islamic terrorism. You can view the hearing below, and I encourage you to watch as much of it as you can. Sen. Cruz’s opening statement is here. Andy McCarthy’s testimony is here. Another of »

Tom Cotton on the revised leniency for drug felons bill

Featured image Senator Tom Cotton was instrumental in rallying Republican Senators against the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act late last year when momentum seemed to augur its passage. Thanks in large measure to the efforts of Senator Jeff Session and Senator Cotton, the bill was stopped in its tracks. Now Team Leniency for Drug Felons is trying again, with a revised version of the legislation. Relying on a lengthy analysis by Sen. »

Cruz a “Miserable Son of a Bitch”? Yes, and Proud Of It!

Featured image A few months ago I asked a Washington insider for the scoop on Ted Cruz. His first words were, “No one likes Ted.” Well, John Boehner certainly doesn’t: The longtime Ohio powerhouse had not been very outspoken on the race since retiring last year, but he held little back when asked about the Texas senator and underdog GOP presidential candidate during a forum at Stanford University. “I have Democrat friends »

Poll: Trump 37, Cruz 35 in Indiana

Featured image According to a survey by Clout Research, Donald Trump holds only a two point lead over Ted Cruz in Indiana. It’s Trump 37, Cruz 35, and Kasich 16. I’m not familiar with Clout Research. However, FiveThirtyEight, which obsesses over pollster reliability, gives good weight to Clout’s Indiana poll. In addition, my look at its polls during this election season did not indicate that Clout shouldn’t be taken seriously. For example, »

Trump vs. Clinton

Featured image I agree with Paul’s assessment of Ted Cruz announcing Carly Fiorina as his running mate. But I would go farther: the move is widely seen as one of desperation, and tends to cement the perception that Cruz’s chance of winning the nomination is slipping away. Fortune’s take was typical. The magazine first headlined, “A Desperate Ted Cruz Tosses a Hail Carly,” which was then softened–a little–to “A Fading Ted Cruz »

Cruz picks Fiorina

Featured image Ted Cruz has named Carly Fiorina as his running mate, should he buck the odds and receive the Republican presidential nomination. In my opinion, Fiorina was not the optimal choice either for purposes of halting Donald Trump or winning the general election. Marco Rubio and John Kasich strike me as the best bets for the first purpose. For the second, Rubio and Kasich would be better than Fiorina, as would »

Breaking: Cruz’s 4 pm Announcement

Featured image Ted Cruz is making a “major announcement” at 4 pm eastern time today in Indiana, and speculation is turning to whether he may name a running mate—perhaps Carly Fiorina. Possible, but more likely he’s finally borrowed a page from Trump’s playbook, and looking to shake things up after last night’s terrible showing the way Trump has made news the day after his middling showings (which haven’t happened for a while) »

Thoughts on the Cruz-Kasich non-aggression pact

Featured image Today came word that Ted Cruz and John Kasich have agreed to coordinate in future primary contests in an attempt to keep Donald Trump’s delegate count as low as possible. The two remaining Trump rivals reportedly agreed to stand aside in certain states where they do not pose a credible threat to the tycoon. Thus, Kasich wouldn’t actively seek votes in Indiana and Cruz wouldn’t actively seek them in Oregon »

Looking ahead to Indiana

Featured image Donald Trump will almost certainly have a big day this coming Tuesday. He’s expected to win the vast majority of the nearly 120 delegates at stake in the Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland primaries. That accomplishment would still leave Trump off pace in terms of getting to the magic number of 1,237 delegates via primaries, caucuses, and state conventions. However, it would create a sense of momentum, and »

Cruz’s Take on Hillary’s War Room [Updated by John]

Featured image This is an excellent, artful, humorous, and well-produced Cruz campaign video that skewers Trump and Hillary at the same time. I wonder if Zucker and Abrahams are behind this: »

Rubio finally indicates a preference for Cruz

Featured image I have criticized Marco Rubio for not endorsing Ted Cruz, given Rubio’s strong antipathy towards Donald Trump and Cruz’s status as the only serious alternative to the tycoon. I’m happy to report that on Tuesday, Rubio indicated that he does support Cruz. In an appearance with Mark Levin, Rubio said “I hope that [the GOP] will nominate a conservative” and that “the only one that fits that criteria is Ted »

A GOP loss in 2016 is one thing, a GOP disgrace is another

Featured image Michael Gerson takes up the question of whether, for Republicans, it is “better to lose with Cruz or Trump.” Gerson doesn’t answer the question except to say it’s too bad Republicans can’t lose with both. Gerson argues that losing with Cruz would discredit “tea party” purity. Losing with Trump would discredit “white lives matter nativism.” Both are outcomes he desires apparently about equally. I wonder whether Gerson is preoccupied with »

A Re-Run of 1976?

Featured image As Republicans head toward the possibility of a contested convention, a lot of people are looking back to the Reagan-Ford struggle ahead of the Kansas City convention that year, where the nomination hung in the balance right up to the week before the convention. Marc Thiessen recounts some of this drama in his Washington Post column yesterday. But there’s one gambit from that year that people have forgotten to mention. »

Ted Cruz and the GOP establishment: The New York Times’ take

Featured image Yesterday, I linked to and discussed an article in the Washington Post that found Ted Cruz struggling to win over the Republican establishment. But the New York Times, in an article by Nicholas Confessore and Matt Flegenheimer, contends that GOP donors are “learning to love Ted Cruz.” The two articles aren’t as inconsistent as one might suppose. The Post focused to a considerable extent on establishment politicians; the Times looks »

GOP establishment still standoffish over Cruz

Featured image Sean Sullivan and Paul Kane of the Washington Post report that Ted Cruz’s attempt to unify the Republican establishment behind his candidacy is encountering significant resistance. They note that backers of Marco Rubio are prominent among mainstream Republicans who aren’t supporting Cruz. And, of course, Rubio himself has not endorsed the Texas man. Some distinctions are in order. Let’s start with Cruz’s colleagues in the Senate. As I understand it, »

Trump’s trumpet

Featured image Paul Mirengoff quoted briefly from the statement issued by Donald Trump as the results in Wisconsin were reported last night in his rolling commentary here. The Washington Post’s Robert Costa obtained the statement from the Trump campaign. The statement hasn’t been posted on the Trump for President site. Costa’s tweet is the only place I can find the unabridged text (below). It’s worth a look. It’s kind of amazing but »