How Ted Cruz Became the Fiery New Prince of the Religious Right

[rug]

By Grace Wyler
Politics Editor
February 7, 2016

It's easy to forget, but in the days leading up to the Iowa Caucuses, Ted Cruz, the man who would win them, looked like a candidate on the verge of drowning. The final pre-caucus Des Moines Register poll showed him trailing, once again, to Donald Trump. Other Republicans had turned their fire on Cruz, accusing the Texas senator of being a phony conservative and a generally unbearable human to be around. Trump, who used to call Cruz a "friend," had started referring to him as "the Canadian anchor baby." Nationally, the Texas Senator's approval rating had fallen by 16 points among Republicans.

Oh, and there was the matter of the deceptively official-looking mailers marked "VOTING VIOLATION," that scored voters and their neighbors in an attempt to shame Iowans into turning out for Monday's caucus. Cruz admitted his campaign was behind them, and seemed defiantly proud: "I apologize to nobody for using every tool we can to encourage Iowa voters to come out and vote," he told reporters in Sioux City two days before the caucuses.

As frustrating as it is for his many, many detractors, Cruz was right to be confident. He won Iowa with 27 percent of the vote to Trump's 24 percent, turning the real estate mogul self-proclaimed winner into a loser. How he did so is no secret: He earned the trust of Iowa's evangelical voters, who flooded the caucuses in record numbers, ultimately comprising about 64 percent of the GOP electorate, according to entrance polls. Cruz took the biggest chunk of that voting bloc, winning 34 percent of self-identified "born-again Christians," as well as four in ten voters who identified themselves as "very conservative."

Cruz had been pitching these devout Christians ever since he started making trips to Iowa two years ago, and in the days just before the caucuses he intensified his efforts, stopping in middle school auditoriums, rural Baptist churches, small-town plastics factories —anywhere with room for people to sit, Cruz would stand and deliver his message: I'm one of you, a true conservative.

http://www.vice.com/read/how-ted-cruz-became-the-fiery-new-prince-of-the-religious-right

[NCjack]

1. Ted Cruz got a big boost by tricking Ben Carson's supporters. The Cruz campaign

called Carson supporters and told them that Carson was ending his campaign and they should vote for Cruz. Apparently, a large percentage of them fell for this playful trick -- it gave Cruz a definitive win over Trump. The cost to Red Cruz: a simple apology to Ben Carson.

[rug]

2. Not that it was hard to do.

[NCjack]

7. Probably, if we had been flies on the wall in Cruz Campaign HQ, we would have

heard Ted say something like this, congratulating his staff for their quick action: "It was immoral to pass the opportunity to steal Ben's vote." (Spoken while laughing.) "Good job, everyone!"

[Cartoonist]

3. That is so religion

Who do the religious support? Someone who promises to fight for the poor like Jesus would, or the scurviest politician of our day?

If Judas were alive today and ran as a republican, he'd have won Iowa running away.

[Fumesucker]

4. Ever since I noticed this I haven't been able to unsee it

[rug]

5. Me either.

[Fumesucker]

6. One penguin leads to well... another

[nil desperandum]

8. Ted Cruz must not be clear

on some of the concepts his faith proclaims in the documentation....

Politifact has him at 31% true or mostly true, while the remaining 69% is mostly false, false or simply pants on fire liar false....

The devout christians he's been talking to must not understand the principles all that well either.

I must have missed the part in the bible about it being okay that almost seven out of ten statements one utters be mostly false or worse.

Maybe Teddy should re-read Peter: (I quote this version because I always preferred the KJV...but each to his own.) For he that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile:



Nice review of his mis-statements: http://www.politifact.com/personalities/ted-cruz/

[rug]

9. Thanks for that link. It's handy to have them all in one spot.