There is no way to hide my utter disdain for Ted Cruz who worked to undermine government operations so to boost his own public stature. His slide to failure with his bid for the White House is the tonic this nation needs to see after the Capital Hill antics Cruz used to make a name for himself. It is no wonder I think him very much akin to another disgraced senator, Joe McCarthy.
I still think Cruz might very well perform better on caucus night than some are projecting–due to evangelicals and what I predict will be a lower number of voters as opposed to rally supporters who show up for Donald Trump–but when it comes to the national bid for the White House this sick puppy is about to be sent packing. There is every reason for a sensible observer of politics to smile this morning as Cruz is being brought to his knees by the Republican Party.
Without Trump onstage Thursday night, Cruz had his worst debate of the cycle. On Friday, he awoke to a blistering headline on the state’s largest newspaper—Rough Night for Cruz, blared the Des Moines Register—and fresh provocations from Trump, who has taken to calling “Canadian Ted” an “anchor baby.” The lead Cruz enjoyed in the polls in December and January has evaporated. With just three days until the first votes in the presidential campaign are cast, a campaign that observers once saw as the prohibitive Iowa favorite is suddenly limping toward the finish line.
Out on the trail, the mojo is gone. Cruz spent much of Friday dropping in on remote villages in rural northwest Iowa, home to few caucus-goers and even fewer undecided voters. He began the day in Ringsted, a hamlet of 409 near the Minnesota border, where he had to fend off questions about his controversial ethanol position in a bar with cinder-block walls and Chivas Regal on tap.
At his next stop in Fenton, pop. 279, a van plastered with “Ted Cruz Can’t Be Trusted” parked outside his retail stop in a local restaurant. Cruz campaigns gamely, offering selfies for grandparents and fist-bumps for gradeschoolers. While supportive, his crowds were modest and restrained, more befitting a summer flirtation than a surging favorite.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 