Patterico's Pontifications

4/16/2016

Ted Cruz on Squawk Box

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:10 pm



Several commenters shared this video, and I watched all 46 minutes. For those interested in economics — which should be all of you — it is a fascinating video to watch.

Ted Cruz is head and shoulders the best candidate for the presidency since Ronald Reagan. Before him, the only worthy candidate in the last 100 years was Barry Goldwater. Smart, well-prepared, articulate, and always on message — if you don’t like him, it’s your fault, not his.

By the way, this guy swept Wyoming today. Commence your pathetic whining, Trumpeters.

That’s it for me today. I’m going back to reading my advance copy of Randy Barnett’s latest book. I hope to be able to blog about it soon. Great stuff.

I also have — and this is a first — a work of fiction I will be publishing here on April 19. The date is apropos. You’ll see.

52 Responses to “Ted Cruz on Squawk Box”

  1. Ding.

    Patterico (86c8ed)

  2. The man is head and shoulders above his competition. He needs ALL of our support.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  3. Would have zero issue voting for him. Simply do not see how he changes the Electoral College map.

    Bugg (3ae93d)

  4. It’s like listening to President Reagan. But Trump will build a walllll.

    Worc1 (0462e4)

  5. He looks good. Nice suit, and that’s the kind of shirt I like. I would have had some red in my tie, though. And don’t you think his hair should be a little bit closer to the head above the ears?

    I’m kidding, of course. I’m thinking of emailing the link to a very smart guy I know who is nonetheless very anti-Cruz. At the very least, he’ll know the caliber of the intellect of the person he is against.

    nk (dbc370)

  6. I find it crazy that smart friends of mine can’t stomach Cruz, but would agree with his content of this video. Oh and by the way – purchase New Balance sneakers. A company that loves America. And despises obama.

    mg (31009b)

  7. Only kind I’ve been wearing since college, mg. They’re already customized with my monogram. 😉

    nk (dbc370)

  8. I find it crazy that smart friends of mine can’t stomach Cruz, but would agree with his content of this video. Oh and by the way – purchase New Balance sneakers. A company that loves America. And despises obama.

    That’s all I have worn for years. Not because of politics. They just make the most comfortable sneakers for people like me with very, very wide feet.

    Patterico (86c8ed)

  9. Cool beans, nk. They have a new golf shoe line that I highly recommend.

    mg (31009b)

  10. The local New Balance store has my size on file: 11EE. I walk in before Christmas every year, when sales are in effect, and get a new pair.

    Patterico (86c8ed)

  11. My gunboats need the extra width as well, Mr. Patterico.
    yuuuge feet need the right balance.

    mg (31009b)

  12. A good friend and my partner in the Seagulls Fourball works for N.B. and told me today that it costs the company $8.00 / pair of shoes to have them made at home. multiplying that out one understands why no other athletic shoes are made here. He said basically 70% of each shoe is made in America.

    mg (31009b)

  13. 70% of each N.B. shoes were made in America.
    apologize for the confusion.

    mg (31009b)

  14. Nice, but if I understood everything they were talking about then it probably wasn’t in-depth enough for that network.

    BradnSA (2312b5)

  15. Nice, but if I understood everything they were talking about then it probably wasn’t in-depth enough for that network.

    BradnSA (2312b5) — 4/16/2016 @ 11:13 pm

    I didn’t understand every acronym tossed out there either, Brad. But I did like that Cruz was willing to calmly, rationally explain his position on taxes and it’s direct effects on the economy. It’s something Trump is too busy with complaining, tossing insults and threatening lawsuits to do.

    Bill H (dcdd7b)

  16. Ah yes!! PATTERICO has big feet. We’ve been thru the “BIG FEET MEANS….” meme already.
    What size shoe does Donald Trump wear?????? Bigger than yours loser!!!!!

    GUS (30b6bd)

  17. I know what the significance of April 19th is. Looking forward to the fiction piece.

    Pat* (de5a4c)

  18. there’s no such thing as a box of squawk

    happyfeet (831175)

  19. Reince Preibus has taken what was a resurgent GOP and let it turn into a sideshow.
    He is running a disaster.
    Right now, every time Cruz flips a delegate or wins a “voterless” caucus his fans all go wild, but the other 65% of the voters are more and more likely to feel like the RNC is putting the fix in.

    New formula for a Clinton victory:
    If Cruz is the nominee then 1/2 of Trump supporters sit out the election
    If Trump is the nominee then 1/2 of Cruz supporters sit it out.
    If there is another nominee like Kasich or… Jeb! then 1/2 of Cruz’ sit out and likewise 1/2 of Trumps stay home

    This ensures that not only does the GOP lose the race for President, but with low Team R turnout the house flips back to D

    Way to squander the Tea Party momentum Priebus.
    I’d read over and over that the GOPe would rather lose the House and Presidency before they’d let these outsiders win again, but I did not believe it. Now I do.

    By the way, whoever is running Cruz’ ground game is very very good

    steveg (fed1c9)

  20. Steveg,

    If Trump wins the nomination and some of Cruz’s supporters stay home in November, they’ll do so because there’s only a choice between two liberals (Trump & Hillary).
    But if Cruz wins the nomination and some of Trump’s supporters stay home in November, they’ll do so even though there’s a CONSERVATIVE option to Hillary.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  21. lol harvardtrash isn’t winning the nomination he’s perverting it with sleazy goldy sacky shenanigans

    victories more pyrrhic aren’t even to be contemplated

    happyfeet (831175)

  22. For God sakes, if there were ever an election that people could afford to sit on their hands, this certainly isn’t one of them.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  23. @ steveg (#19), who wrote:

    By the way, whoever is running Cruz’ ground game is very very good.

    I agree, and I’ve been giving this quite a bit of thought and a little bit of extra attention lately.

    I wish I could give Ted Cruz all of the credit for this, because the smooth effectiveness of his campaign is indeed a strong indicator of Cruz’ executive ability. He’s at the top, he ultimately is responsible, and he presumably had the leading, and decisive, role in selecting the campaign staff who’s been implementing that ground game in all its various aspects (including delegate wooing).

    But I think a considerable amount of the credit goes to him only very indirectly: He seems to be attracting extraordinarily competent people all the way down to the lowest grass-roots level.

    Conservative Republicans at the national leadership level, in Congress and especially in the Senate, are still mostly refusing to endorse anyone. Cruz has now — finally, after months, and not until the elimination of all other alternatives (during the race, anyway) except for Kasich and Trumpm — probably attracted more overt and open support from establishment GOP figures than Trump has. (That this support hasn’t gone to Kasich, by the way, is a comment both on Cruz’ increasing support and Kasich’s quixotic impotence.)

    But at the local and state levels, Cruz has always done quite a bit better. He’s had very strong support and vocal support from state legislators, for example, whom his campaign has specifically and methodically cultivated (and continues to do so). And at the lower levels, all the way down to individual precincts, Cruz has attracted support from the people who in previous years have been part of GOP presidential campaigns going back all the way to Reagan. These are the people who long ago internalized Woody Allen’s maxim that 80% of life is showing up. They’ve showed up before for Reagan, Bush-41, the doomed Bob Dole, Bush-43, McCain, and Romney, so they quite literally know their way to the precinct meeting house, and what goes on when you get there in addition to casting one’s own a primary vote.

    Trump, by contrast, is most popular by far among the fringe and disaffected, among people who’ve never voted before, and among people who might have voted Republican (or against the Democrat) without any enthusiasm or loyalty for the rest of the GOP, its state and federal candidates, and its party platform. Those are exactly the people who, in the past, at the GOP grass-roots level, have never shown up before. So they’re the ones who — when Colorado drops its straw poll — can’t figure out that means they need to go to a precinct caucus instead.

    And then, with their candidate, they whine and cry “foul!” and “we wuz robbed!”

    So Cruz is not only running a superb campaign, with an excellent ground game, he’s been doing a far better job than Trump of attracting the people all the way down the chain who have this sort of experience. And those, ultimately, will be the people whose support gets Cruz to the second or third ballot — at which time Trump’s small plurality in pledged delegates will evaporate.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  24. omg Mr. Colonel this is the least important election ever

    the sleazy corrupt establishment is corrupt hello and they’ve sent every possible signal they can that they don’t give a crap which p.o.s. occupies failmerica’s rancid cowardtrash white house – they’re just gonna keep on keeping on

    happyfeet (831175)

  25. CS… Sanders and Clinton are known disasters-in-the-making. Trump has a history of funding liberal stuff, but is an unknown as far as how he’ll govern. I’m with those who will hold their noses and vote for him, if that’s what it comes down to.

    Colonel Haiku (2601c0)

  26. @ SarahW: Have you watched Trump’s new convention manager, Paul Manafort, on TV (e.g., on this morning’s Sunday talk shows)? He looks like an extra from the movie “Wise Guys” — always with the thick pinstripes and padded shoulders, plus the sort of bright mis-matched tie (today, light blue with huge black polkadots) that would be chosen by your average 10-year-old boy.

    I would bet a large amount of money that among his friends and colleagues (Putin, etc.), everyone calls Manafort “Slick Paulie.”

    Sad!

    Beldar (fa637a)

  27. #24 Mr happyfeet, on the one hand you guys like to argue that the “establishment” is pulling strings to get anti-establishment Ted Cruz elected, but on the other hand you say they don’t actually care who wins the White House.

    You sound like The Mr Donald taking five different positions on an issue.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  28. I’ll bet Manafort wears $2500 Italian loafers with those skinny grey silk socks. Maybe garters.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  29. where did i ever argue the establishment was pulling strings

    happyfeet (831175)

  30. good shoes last forever

    happyfeet (831175)

  31. Beginning about 41:20, Cruz provides an excellent rebuttal to the climate change illusion nonsense. He recapitulates the facts regarding the same group of propagandists using the same scientistic arguments re global cooling in the’70’s to advocate the same levels of government control being proposed today. The rebuttal is cogent, relatively concise and well suited to an electorate which is open to a non-hysterical view of natural phenomenon.

    I know Cruz can make a similar reasoned argument regarding the world wide failure of central bank QE/ZIRP policy to actually “stimulate” moribund economies and I understand his reluctance to risk raising turnout among subsidy recipients who vote for their living but his Laffer supported tax plan cannot generate 5% GDP growth with a workforce participation rate of 63% due to excessive subsidies providing too attractive an alternative to working. The US is not going to tiptoe out of economic paralysis and crushing debt through tax cuts.

    Rick Ballard (787e6d)

  32. Thanks for the link. I wouldn’t have seen this gem of an interview without the link.

    From the beginning, I’ve doubted that Cruz is as good as he comes across, this interview being no exception. I was sold on the idea that politicians will always disappoint. I’ve been waiting for the betrayals, but they haven’t come. Now I’m beginning to think they never will. You are so right, he is easily the best of the lot of post-Reagan contenders.

    How is it that Rubio’s remarkably banal comment that Ted is the only conservative left in the race can be treated as a newsworthy insight? I live in the SF Bay Area, where even my leftist friends see Trump as left-leaning (a buffoon, but left-leaning). For the life of me, I haven’t been able to figure out why any rational conservative wouldn’t be supporting Ted. The further into this we get, the more convinced I am that all RATIONAL conservatives are supporting Cruz.

    Finally, I’d like to comment that the hammering you have done on the deficiencies of Trump, primarily, but on the of the other presidential candidates, as well, has been time well spent. We have seen a moral and intellectual relativism take root that has cheapened political debate and undercuts democracy. I find it alarming. Skewering Trump and his acolytes for the candidate’s manifest deficiencies promotes accountability and is an investment in a better informed polity. It is also wonderfully validating. Thank you.

    ThOR (a52560)

  33. Cruz is the smartest, hardest working, most conservative, most efficient electoral candidate we’ve had in decades. This means a 100% chance the GOP will choose someone else who is “electable”. FFS, it’s enough to make a guy pull the pin. Dam. It.

    The D (b4d867)

  34. Ah yes!! PATTERICO has big feet. We’ve been thru the “BIG FEET MEANS….” meme already.
    What size shoe does Donald Trump wear?????? Bigger than yours loser!!!!!
    GUS (30b6bd) — 4/16/2016 @ 11:42 pm

    Trump was CLASSIFIED 4-F by the Army. Because of his FEET. HE says. What does that MEAN, GUS?

    nk (dbc370)

  35. My guess is that Trump is going to go nuclear if he is not nominated, and he’ll be on TV every night until the election trashing the GOP and its nominee. Priebus isn’t skillful enough to get Trump to pee outside the tent rather than into the tent.
    Be interesting to see if nominee Cruz or nominee(?) can manipulate the media well enough to stay on message if/when Trump starts pissing on everyone and everything

    steveg (fed1c9)

  36. #34
    He has bunions on his…?
    Or trench foot if I want to be mean

    steveg (fed1c9)

  37. Trump and Trumpkins argue that the GOP should bestow its nomination upon Trump even if he can’t get support from a majority of convention delegates. This is a calm, well-reasoned, robust, and historically grounded response to that argument. Key paragraphs:

    The “system” that the GOP has established is simple: To win the nomination, a candidate must amass 1,237 delegates, a majority. The party has decreed that a mere plurality isn’t enough to become the standard-bearer; Trump has won about 37 percent of the vote in the primary race thus far. The rules are in place to balance competing party interests (voters, grass-roots activists, local and state officials, members of Congress, national party leaders). They ensure that the party has reasonable backstops — that its nominee isn’t likely to become a general-election disaster, which is a legitimate concern for one of the nation’s two major parties. The GOP’s rules also pay considerable deference to states and localities, a bedrock principle of conservatism, which means that each state has different procedures for selecting delegates.

    In addition, the rules determine who is eligible to vote in each state’s contests, when and how the votes will take place, how the delegates will be apportioned and whether delegates are restricted from voting a certain way in a multiple-ballot contest.

    ….

    [T]he rules mean that candidates must create top-notch campaign organizations and navigate a complex series of state and national interests, which could be seen as a test of the organizational skills required to run the federal government effectively. It’s fair to ask whether, if Trump has zero interest in organizing to win support in state caucuses and conventions, he will be capable of organizing a White House staff to guide the vast federal bureaucracy.

    For most of our country’s history, representative democracy was the only conceivable means to provide any democracy at all. Now, by contrast, if we wanted to, in theory we could replace Congress with an electronic data system: Every registered voter could vote directly on everything via smartphone. Maybe that’s what sort of “electoral reforms” a President Trump would try to force through.

    But for this cycle, we’re still a representative democracy, a democratic republic — and that’s reflected not only in our institutions of government, but also in the political parties who compete to hold office in those institutions. Maybe Trump thinks it’s a dog of a system; I disagree about that, but it’s certainly obvious that Trump has already screwed this pooch: Wise rules or foolish, Trump can’t manage to follow them.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  38. Hewitt, on today’s “Meet the Press,” proposed a Cruz-Trump unity ticket — except that the “Trump” part isn’t the Donald, it’s Ivanka. Heh.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  39. Mr. Trump has extraordinary feet

    whereas Mr. Cruz can only “win” if Team R has a failed convention fiasco

    I definitely applaud harvardtrash Ted’s enthusiasm for destroying the Republican party but i don’t see the logics in it if he wants to be president someday.

    He’s a weird duck, that one.

    happyfeet (831175)

  40. Ah yes!! PATTERICO has big feet. We’ve been thru the “BIG FEET MEANS….” meme already.
    What size shoe does Donald Trump wear?????? Bigger than yours loser!!!!!

    Um, OK. Anyway, New Balance is good for people with wide feet. My problem is that my feet have absolutely no arch. When I get out of the pool I leave the whole footprint. I’ve never found a shoe as comfortable.

    Patterico (86c8ed)

  41. Patterico,

    I have the same issue finding sneakers. In addition to New Balance, Skechers and Reebok are pretty good for people with wide feet, too.
    Adidas and Nike are awful. How can anyone fit their foot into a pair of Adidas?

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  42. In Georgia yesterday, not enough Trumpkins showed up to vote for pro-Trump delegates, and as a direct consequence the Trump campaign once again simply forfeited an opportunity to shore up second- and later-ballot support:

    Yesterday was a bloodbath for Trump and his supporters in Georgia, as Trump got about one third of the delegates up for grabs at conventions around the state, with the rest going to Ted Cruz. Once again, Trump will get all the votes to which he is entitled as long as these delegates are bound, but afterwards it looks like he will continue to slide on subsequent votes.

    Things got especially testy in Georgia’s 7th Congressional district when Trump supporters bizarrely stole the American flag that was posted there and walked out.

    There’s a short video, which both Trump and Cruz supporters will surely enjoy watching: Trumpkins because they’ll claim it’s symbolic and proud and appropriate; Cruzers because it’s hard to imagine a more ridiculous example of a sore loser making a fool of himself.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  43. “Is he stealing the flag?” asks an incredulous voice in that video. “Yup,” a Cruzer would say. “Taking it back!” a Trumpkin would insist.

    Except: Ya know, that particular flag didn’t actually belong to that fellow what took it. He literally stole it.

    (I suspect it will find its way back, but even if it doesn’t, I doubt charges will be filed; they ought not be, since that would just reward the publicity stunt.)

    Beldar (fa637a)

  44. The Trump County campaign manager had brought the American flag on display in the hall and took it with him after this undercutting of democracy

    http://www.bizpacreview.com/2016/04/17/trump-delegates-walk-georgias-7th-district-gop-convention-take-american-flag-329891#ixzz467Otag5w

    experts agree second-ballot harvardtrash is not a wholesome snack for your children

    happyfeet (831175)

  45. Ah. An old-fashioned Fisking is in order here, so let’s examine what hatefulfeet just linked (#45):

    There’s been no shortage of shenanigans this election, but few have been weirder or more blatant than what just happened in Georgia’s 7th Congressional district, where a Cruz-Rubio alliance effectively worked to disenfranchise voters in Saturday’s district GOP convention.

    In the Trumpkin language (and not coincidentally, in Democratese as well), everyone who’s been outvoted by their peers is “disenfranchised.” Continuing:

    Their job was to elect three delegates and three alternates to represent the district at the national convention. Per the actual election results, two of those delegates were supposed to be Trump supporters, with the one remaining going to Senator Marco Rubio. Somehow, even though Senator Cruz finished third and was slotted to receive no delegates, the hall was filled with Cruz supporters.

    “Supposed to be.” Now there’s your entitlement on full display!

    The voters who voted in Georgia’s primary will get exactly what they were told they’d get: A delegation comprising delegates, of whom forty-two will be bound to Trump on the first ballot.

    But if Georgia Republican voters wanted to have a say in picking the individual delegates who will be so bound — and to have any voice at all in picking delegates who are likely to stick with any particular candidate do on second- and subsequent ballots — simply showing up to vote at the primary isn’t enough. They had to continue the processes all the way up to and through this state delegate selection elections, and then on through the convention.

    Those Cruz supporters managed to knock the Trump delegation down to one spot after the first ballot, then on the second ballot they took the remaining spot from Trump supporter Debbie Dooley on the grounds that the Trump delegate would “embarrass” the district.

    In the Trumpkin language, the Cruzers outvoting the Trumpkins on the first ballot is known as “knocking down” the entitled, and the Cruzers then outvoting the Trumpkins again on the second ballot, from among the top finishers on the first ballot, is known as “[taking] the remaining slot.” Note that Debbie Dooley is entitled, in Trumpkin logic, to be a delegate because she made it to the final round of voting. This is, at least, consistent with Trumpkin logic as to why he is already the “presumptive nominee.” Continuing (after skipping some generalized whining):

    Although certain delegates will be bound to vote for Trump on the first ballot, by installing delegates who do not actually support Trump the GOP establishment seems to be laying the groundwork for a second ballot backstabbing of the front-runner.

    Again, note the entitlement: The delegates who might turn to Cruz on a second ballot are labeled “backstabbers” even though they’ve never affiliated themselves personally to Trump or his campaign. They will be “betraying” Trump, in Trumpkin logic, by failing to give him the support he’s never made any effective effort to try to win, and by instead preferring some other candidate over him.

    In all these states where Trump’s going to end up with pledged delegates bearing him no personal loyalty, Trump simply quit. He defaulted. His campaign literally closed down their shops and fired their staffers. So here again, he didn’t get enough people at these Georgia delegate selection elections because he’s an amateur, and he’s surrounded by amateurs, and he doesn’t have enough grass-roots people in the field who know what they’re doing to make up for his and his campaign’s incompetence.

    Finally: If, as this source claims, the flag was indeed brought to the meeting by a Trumpkin, then yes, he’s certainly entitled to take it home with him, even if it was bad manners to interrupt the meeting.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  46. “hatefulfeet” you shall be to me henceforward, at least until some weeks have gone by without your making another vile attack on Cruz’ family.

    Beldar (fa637a)

  47. Beldar (fa637a) — 4/17/2016 @ 10:32 am

    Rope stripes and I amuse you like a clown tie notwithstanding, I have never seen Paul Manafort not look like a gangster who will be completely legitimate in five years I swear.

    SarahW (67599f)

  48. omg i can’t belieber you said that Mr. Beldar

    that’s so divisive

    heidi is justly controversial as is any spoosal unit what gets a big fat sweet juicy luscious goldy sacky promotion two weeks after their spoose becomes a senator

    it’s dodgy

    it’s sketchy

    i don’t care if your name is m’chelle obama

    it don’t smell good

    happyfeet (831175)

  49. Cruz does a good interview but the liberal bias (excepting Joe Kiernan) reminds me why I stopped watching CNBC years ago.

    otto maddox (e44ab9)

  50. Is Cruz deliberately choosing to highlight the grey temples? I felt like he was trying to troll Donny with the grey temples, orangy-dye job and lots of rouge on the face during his “hell no, I wont be Trump’s VP” appearance on GMA. He might have unwittingly been skunked by a last-minute/ or house/studio hairdresser.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)


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