Abrasive Cruz tries to use personality to his advantage

SCOTT BAUER, Associated Press


MECHANICSVILLE, Virginia (AP) — Ted Cruz's reputation as an arrogant, grating, in-your-face ideologue has dogged him throughout the Republican presidential race. But it hasn't stopped the Texas senator's rise.

Cruz is increasingly embracing his irascible persona, trying to turn what could be a liability into an asset.

"If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy," Cruz said at a recent Republican debate when asked to describe his biggest weakness. "But if you want someone to drive you home, I will get the job done and I will get you home."

Cruz and his supporters relish his outsider status, highlighting his conflicts with fellow Republican senators. Not one has endorsed him for president.

A group backing Cruz's candidacy sent out a fundraising email plea in December with the subject line "Washington hates Ted Cruz." Cruz frequently rails against the "Washington cartel," which he argues is scared that conservatives are uniting behind him, and says he's glad that "Washington elites" despise him.

While billionaire Donald Trump leads other Republican contenders in national polls, Cruz has jumped ahead in recent polls in Iowa, whose Feb. 1 caucuses kick off the state-by-state nominating contests. Cruz is relying on a strong get-out-the-vote operation and support from evangelicals, a key Republican voting bloc, to win the Iowa caucuses. He has benefited from the collapse in support for another outsider candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, and has refrained from attacking Trump to position himself to win over his followers should the real estate mogul's campaign implode.

Cruz supporters, including some who turned up for a large rally at an evangelical church near Richmond, Virginia, in December, are embracing the abrasiveness that's caused Cruz to clash with other Republicans.

Carter Cobb, 56, a Navy retiree from Mechanicsville, Virginia, praised Cruz as "a renegade" who "doesn't toe the party line."

To Cobb and others, Cruz is the only candidate willing to make anyone angry and stand up for what he believes in.

"It makes me like him all the more. I've always liked people who were on the outside," said Daniel Daehlin, 51, from Richfield, Minnesota. "Ronald Reagan never got along with the establishment. They hated him in 1976 and '80."

Cruz made his reputation in the Senate by refusing to compromise.

He took the Senate floor for 21 hours to speak against President Barack Obama's health care law. The confrontational strategy he championed resulted in a 16-day partial government shutdown and alienated Republican leaders.

Foreign Policy magazine once described Cruz as "the human equivalent of one of those flower-squirters that clowns wear on their lapels."

The national collegiate debating champion has shown his brusque side in the presidential debates, including the most recent one in Las Vegas when he refused to stop talking even as moderator Wolf Blitzer of CNN tried to shut him down.

Craig Mazin, who was Cruz's freshman roommate at Princeton, went so far as to tell the Daily Beast in a 2013 interview that he would be happier with anyone other than Cruz as president. "I would rather pick somebody from the phone book," Mazin said.

But Cruz has shown a lighter side that his campaign says demonstrates he's not as unlikable as his reputation suggests.

Cruz acted out scenes from the film "The Princess Bride" during a November interview at WMUR in New Hampshire, and that clip has been watched more than 250,000 times on YouTube. AfterTrump referred to Cruz as "a little bit of a maniac," the Cruz campaign tried to laugh it off by posting a video on Twitter of the song "Maniac" from the film "Flashdance."

Research shows that the importance of a candidates' likability may be overrated anyway, said David Redlawsk, a Rutgers University expert in Iowa electoral politics who is spending the fall at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

"Voters are looking for a whole range of things," Redlawsk said, "and likability is just one small part of that."

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-03

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My favorite thought regarding Ted Cruz was from an old college roommate of his. "Ted Crus is such an a---hole, that if he agreed with me on 100% of everything, I would like him 1% more" That pretty much sums up Ted Cruz. That said I am still pulling for a Trump/Cruz GOP ticket. That would be as good as it gets for the late night television.

My favorite thought regarding Ted Cruz was from an old college roommate of his. "Ted Crus is

such an a---hole, that if he agreed with me on 100% of everything, I would like him 1% more"

That pretty much sums up Ted Cruz. That said I am still pulling for a Trump/Cruz GOP ticket.

That would be as good as it gets for the late night television.

I'm sure all Democrats agree with you.

Of course, if elected, Cruz would happily feed at the same trough as the ' Washingon elite' .

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs that now owns his own hedge fund, courtesy of the Clinton connections.

Your point is?

He's a Harvard educated US Senator whose wife is a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs.

I don't see how anyone could call him an "outsider".

Outsider as in political outsider which is what the topic is about and not Wall Street.

Now for the they're one in the same chorus,,,,,,

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs that now owns his own hedge fund, courtesy of the Clinton connections.

Your point is?

I don't see how the Clintons being insiders make Cruz any less of an insider. Please explain

To Cobb and others, Cruz is the only candidate willing to make anyone angry and stand up for what he believes in.

And how the hell would would this guy, or anybody else know that? These guys are just pandering to the yokels, saying anything that gets cheers.

Of all the GOP hopefuls (Trump doesn't count) he is probably the worst as far as empty populist promises go, he targets the ignorant who don't know any better, like the guy quoted above. It is especially entertaining when he attacks his fellow GOP members for using his tactics. But hey, he'll make a great GOP nominee in the general election. Might even get as much as 35% of the vote!

Prior to the first GOP debate, when Fox was planning to stick him at the kiddie table pre-game show, he denounced as FN as part of the liberal media that is against him. I was hoping Ailes was going to sue for defamation on that one!

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs that now owns his own hedge fund, courtesy of the Clinton connections.

Your point is?

My point is that I stayed on topic.

But anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that Goldman Sachs is part of the globalist banker cabal that is seeking perpetual war to enrich the .001% as well as a new world order.

I could give two shits about that criminal pantsuit wearing skank or her kin.

You are off topic and your post should be removed.

Keep it civil or suspensions will be awarded.

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs that now owns his own hedge fund, courtesy of the Clinton connections.

Your point is?

I don't see how the Clintons being insiders make Cruz any less of an insider. Please explain

Neither are suitable to be president.

His wife works for Goldman Sachs. Need I say more?

And Hillary Clinton's son-in-law is a former investment banker with Goldman Sachs that now owns his own hedge fund, courtesy of the Clinton connections.

Your point is?

I don't see how the Clintons being insiders make Cruz any less of an insider. Please explain

Neither are suitable to be president.

I agree

Unless a third party candidate makes it's self available, the only suitable candidate is Bernie

Not my first choice, but at this time the only viable choice,

This is the man who said the President should be on his knees in the Oval office every morning. I think the US could do without the scandal.