How Far Can Ted Go?

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By now, if you don’t know that Ted Cruz is running for president, you should definitely check yourself in in an “information clinic”. What you may not know however is how much alike Ted is to Donald Trump. This is not a joke. I can easily picture those two as running mates for the presidency; they agree on almost everything. Scarily, they have similar emotions. Ted and Donald is a match made in heaven (or in hell) depending on your point of view. One doesn’t have to look far to begin listing the similarities both share; coincidentally, the latest few polls have put the two in close proximity in terms of rating. Should we read anything into this?

Well, we’ve already covered a great deal about Donald Trump. Let’s talk Ted now. Ted Cruz is a US Senator from Texas; you already know that of course. He served as Solicitor General of Texas under Governor Rick Perry. What you probably didn’t know is that Ted was born in Calgary, Alberta in Canada. Wait a minute! Don’t Republicans have a beef with Obama born outside the US presumably? Why isn’t anybody talking about Ted’s ineligibility to run for president? Let me guess, he wasn’t born in Africa. All jokes aside, as you might have already guessed, Ted’s birthplace which is outside the United States does not make him not American born; he is thus eligible to run for president – coincidentally, John McCain who ran against Obama in 2008 is in the same boat as Ted; he was born in Panama Canal zone which was under US control; you probably already came to the conclusion that the “Birthers” are completely ignorant when it comes to US citizenship – Now, back to Ted.

Like Rubio, Ted is a junior senator who ran for and defeated his opponents Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst (57% / 43%) in the July 2012 primaries and former state Representative Paul Sadler (56% / 41%) in the November 2012 general elections. Ted became the darling of the Tea Party, carrying the flag abandoned by Michele Bachmann due to extremely poor performance in her presidential bid for the 2012 elections cycle. Although all Tea Party leaders are known for their extreme views on almost all issues, Ted Cruz cranked it up a few more notches; in addition to signing a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act aka Obamacare over 50 times, accusing Obama of “openly desirous to destroy the Constitution and this Republic” and casting the president as “… the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism”, Ted Cruz is better known as the Senator who spent 24 hours straight on the senate floor speaking (gibberish, I am not kidding) in order to prove his “anti-Obamacare” sentiment and prevent a vote from being carried out.

Cruz’ wrath is not directed at the President alone or the Democrats, Ted had used harsh rhetoric against his fellow Republicans; he referred to Republicans who did not sufficiently resist proposals by the president a “surrender caucus”. Cruz was instrumental in the 2013 federal government shutdown. It is widely believed that John McCain dislikes Ted and referred to him (and others) in the past as “wacko birds”.

If a candidate were to be judged by his/her website, Ted Cruz would not make it far in the race. Maybe, he won’t. The site is uninviting; no structure, no format, no organization and very user “unfriendly”; one has the impression it was put together by someone who is learning how to build a website and is on his/her first assignment. Don’t let the unattractiveness fool you however; in addition to asking for donation and imploring you to join his campaign, the site doesn’t rob Ted of his personality, his characteristics and his vision for the country.

Ted could easily be confused for Marco Rubio on steroids, unhinged, derailed or Donald Trump’s younger brother (who is too happy to learn from big brother). Ted’s view on almost everything is a carbon copy of Donald’s and extreme from Marco’s. So, what are the chances for Ted to become the nominee? According to the latest tracking polls from RealClear Politics, Ted is ahead of Trump in Iowa, not by much however; Ted is at 30.3%, Trump is at 27.5% – Rubio at 12% and Carson at 9.3% – Trump is second to Ted in Iowa within margin of error. In other words, Ted has lost ground; just a few weeks ago, Ted was leading by as much as 15 percentage points over Trump. This is bad news for the Ted campaign; Iowa is the only state he seems to fare well, in par with Trump. In New Hampshire, Ted is currently clocked third at 11.5%; he shares that ranking with Christie, also at 11.5% but he is behind Rubio at 12.8% and of course Trump at 26.5% per the latest polls with data collected between December 6 and December 20. Ted fares somewhat better in South Carolina; he is second at 19.3% behind Trump who is at 33.7%. Rubio is also third in South Carolina at 12.7% followed by Carson at 11.3%.

My verdict: if Ted is not able to win Iowa with a big margin, he will slip further down in the polls giving others, mainly Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, an opportunity to go up. The immediate beneficiary however will be Marco Rubio, especially if he’s able to hold on to the current position (third in the polls) or do better. If Ted loses Iowa however, we should all brace ourselves for Ted unhinged; even Donald Trump may have to ask Ted to tone it down. Ultimately, still under the assumption that Ted loses Iowa, Ted may start sounding a little like Michele Bachmann; translation, Ted will continue to fall in the polls, forcing him to do the most unsurprising act, to endorse Donald Trump.

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