Just starting to Cruz
EDITOR’S NOTE Sen. Ted Cruz withdrew from the race for the Republican presidential nomination late Tuesday. This column was written prior to Cruz’s decision. Regardless, we offer Bret Kofford’s viewpoint and voice on the former candidate.
The worry among many Republicans was that if he didn’t get the Republican presidential nomination, Donald Trump would run for president as an independent or third-party candidate.
Now that Trump appears to have the Republican nomination wrapped up, one of his rivals for the Republican nomination instead seems to be positioning himself for a third-party/ independent run.
Yes, if I were a betting man, I would bet Ted Cruz, he of the gargantuan ego and on what he believes is a mission from God, will be running for president — but not as a Republican — within a few months.
Cruz even has picked a would-be vice president, former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina, to run with him. We can assume he will keep her on his ticket when he makes his independent/third-party run, although Cruz is so ruthless in his presidential quest that he would dump Fiorina in a heartbeat if he thought another running mate would bring more votes.
Cruz is sticking to the delusion, publicly anyway, that he will be the Republican nominee and is still frantically working to be taken seriously. He recently struck a deal with fellow Republican candidate John Kasich to not campaign in Oregon and New Mexico if Kasich wouldn’t campaign in Indiana, where Cruz is making a last stand. That deal fell apart within days, if not hours.
Campaigning in Indiana, Cruz last week went to the gym where “Hoosiers” was filmed and cast himself as an underdog who would overcome, as the Hickory High team did in the renowned film. Unfortunately for Cruz, being the nerd he admits he is, he referred to the basketball hoop, or rim,” as a basketball “ring,” coming across as an utter alien in basketball-crazed Indiana.
Then, campaigning in Central California, Cruz fearlessly took on the Delta smelt, a 3-inch endangered fish at the center of California’s water-conservation controversy and a rallying point for Central Valley conservatives. Yes, his designated opponent in California is a 3-inch fishy.
Basically, Cruz is coming across as a pathetic, desperate man.
It appears that Cruz’s stupendous ego won’t let him admit defeat, so he’s going to keep running for president even after Trump gets the Republican nomination in June. Cruz has been aiming his entire life at our nation’s presidency since he was in high school, and he deeply feels Ted Cruz being president and rescuing America from itself is as much God’s idea as Ted Cruz’s.
If you’ve listened to Cruz recently, you can hear him positioning himself to run against Trump and presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election. He now regularly says he and “Carly,” as Cruz always calls Fiorina, are running against both Trump and Clinton, as if Trump and Clinton are on the same ticket that he and Fiorina are battling.
I believe Cruz thinks he can cobble together a coalition of hardcore, anti-homosexual evangelicals, hardcore anti-government folks, the 17 people who voted for Fiorina in the primaries and dweebs who say basketball “ring” instead of “hoop” or “rim” and manage to get 40 percent of the vote and win in a threeway race with Trump and Clinton.
Cruz, like Trump and all the other Republican contenders, pledged months ago to not run for president if he didn’t get the Republican nomination. Cruz will justify breaking that promise and making his independent/ third-party presidential bid by citing his love for the country and not wanting to see his beloved homeland — he won’t be referring to Canada — run into oblivion by Trump or Clinton.
Those now speculating Ted Cruz’s campaign for president will be over in a couple weeks will then see it’s just starting.