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Ted Cruz Tag

Indiana votes today. The finally tallies could make or break Senator Cruz's 2016 White House aspirations. Prior to Hoosiers heading to the ballot box, Trump was ahead in the polls.

The Republican delegate situation:

Immediately after winning the primary, Trump tweeted:

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed the father of his rival Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) helped Lee Harvey Oswald kill President John F. Kennedy. "His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous," he told Fox News. "What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don't even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it."

The video below is meaningful at so many levels. At one level, it's for me another Ted Cruz moment, similar to when he confronted with facts and logic Code Pink protesters. A Ted Cruz moment for me:
Cruz could have reacted many ways. He could have shouted down the people shouting him down. He could have insulted them. He could have had security push them away. But instead, he engaged. That’s what was important to me. The confidence to engage rather than avoid. Standing face to face with hostile protesters was very Andrew Breitbart-like.
The video below is of Cruz "debating" a Trump supporter. Was this person a real supporter or, as Allahpundit puts it, a parody of a Trump supporter. The Trump supporter is rude and verbally abusive -- spewing the one-liners and insults he hears from Trump. Listen to the guy. Is there anything he or the crowd says that you couldn't image Trump saying himself and in the same manner?

This awkward little gem from Ted Cruz's Vice Presidential announcement is bouncing its merry way around the internet. It's like a train wreck -- you want to look away, but you can't:

Mike Pence's radio endorsement of Ted Cruz was watered down by praise also for Donald Trump. It was a weird endorsement -- he said all the right things about Cruz, but an endorsement is not the time for balance. Pence has an op-ed in The Indianapolis Star in which he repeats the endorsement, without the watering down:
... While I like and respect each of our candidates, I am voting for Ted Cruz on Tuesday. In making my decision to support Ted, I am guided by the principles best espoused by former President Ronald Reagan. I am a Reagan Republican; drawn to his vision of less taxes, less government, traditional values and a strong military. Ted articulates that same agenda with an unwavering devotion to our Constitution, the sanctity of life, and the freedoms enshrined in the Bill of Rights.

John Boehner appeared at Stanford University last night. The appearance is making news. It's revealing not just because of Boehner's vitriolic personal attack on Ted Cruz, but more important, the revelation that Boeher is friends with Donald Trump and they golf and text regularly. So tell me again how the GOP establishment supports Cruz and how Trump will shake them up and burn them down. The Stanford Daily reports, John Boehner talks election, time in office:
Much of the discussion – and laughs – focused on Boehner’s views on the current presidential candidates. Segueing into the topic, Kennedy asked Boehner to be frank given that the event was not being broadcasted, and the former Speaker responded in kind. When specifically asked his opinions on Ted Cruz, Boehner made a face, drawing laughter from the crowd.

It's not exactly "breaking news" anymore. Ted Cruz is announcing that should he get the nomination, his running mate will be Carly Fiorina.

Ted Cruz has a major announcement at 4 p.m. today. We will turn a video feed live at that time. Reports are emerging that he will announce that Carly Fiorina will be his running mate:
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz will announce on Wednesday afternoon that former presidential rival Carly Fiorina has agreed to be his running mate should he win the GOP presidential nomination. Sources confirmed to WMUR political director Josh McElveen and political reporter John DiStaso that Fiorina, who has been a supporter of Cruz for several weeks, will be the focus of the announcement that Cruz intends to make in Indiana Wednesday afternoon.... Should Cruz survive Indiana, California’s primary is key on June 7. Fiorina is viewed as a potential asset to Cruz in California, where she won a U.S. Senate primary in 2010 before losing to Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in the general election.

Last night was the night Mr. Donald J. Trump took a big step towards a first ballot win. As abhorrent at that result may be, there's no sense deluding ourselves. Trump still isn't there, however, and isn't yet on a trajectory to be there. But he's a lot closer as a result of small Republican electorates in northeast blue states which will vote Democrat in the general election. California will decide the fate of the Republican nomination process. Who could have predicted that? Perhaps recognizing what a Trump nomination means, RNC Chair Reince Priebus appealed last night for party unity. My response was to state the obvious, the Party is over. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/725161440257183744

Connecticut, Delaware, Pennsylvanie, Rhode Island, and Maryland vote today. All polls close at 8:00 PM EST. UPDATES (by WAJ): Issue is not whether Trump wins the 5 states, issue is whether he picks up more delegates than expected, which he will have to do to get on trajectory for first ballot win. https://twitter.com/ABC/status/725112239469006848

The anti-Cruz hype is that nobody likes him, everybody hates him, he has no friends. The anti-Republican hype is that they're racist bigots. Here's a story that could kill (or at least slightly injure) those two birds with one stone: the tale of Ted Cruz's best friend in college, law school, and beyond, David Panton.

In a radio interview with Senator Ted Cruz Tuesday, host Sean Hannity lost his cool. Hannity contended Republicans were most concerned about the current delegate count, to which Cruz disagreed. "Sean, with all respect -- that's not what people are concerned about. I'm campaigning everyday. People are concerned about bringing jobs back to America, people are concerned about raising wages, people are concerned about getting the federal government off the backs of small businesses and people are concerned about beating Hillary. The media loves to obsess about process and this process and this whining from the Trump campaign is all silly. It's very simple," said before Hannity interrupted. Hannity cited his Twitter account, radio and TV shows as evidence that he knows best what Republicans are concerned about and again asked Cruz to explain the delegate game.

Updates (by WAJ). No surprise, the second the polls closed Trump was projected the winner. What remains to be seen is how many delegates he gets. (added) As of 11:30 p.m., Trump has approximately 60% of the vote and is credited with 89 delegates, but that likely will go up a couple more as more final results come in. Kasich has 3, and Cruz none. So Trump did what he needed to do. But he's still on a trajectory to fall short of 1237 on the first ballot. A number of commenters on TV and Twitter also are pointing out the obvious -- the Republican electorate in NY State is small relative to Democrats, so there remains no reason to believe Trump could carry the state in a general election. Hillary v. Bernie currently not called, but "leaning" Hillary. Networks call it for Hillary. https://twitter.com/LegInsurrection/status/722600349379522561

Speaking at a Hillary Clinton rally in New York, Planned Parenthood President Cecil Richards compared women who vote for Senator Cruz to "chicken voting for Colonel Sanders." Colonel Sanders being Kentucky Fried Chicken's mascot or spokesman, or whatever.

It's not often that a Republican presidential primary in New York matters. This year it does. It's a time for choosing, to paraphrase Ronald Reagan. The choice is between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, though John Kasich is on the ballot too. The real race to the nomination has been Trump v. Cruz for at least several weeks and it is likely to remain that way. Faced with that choice, it's easy. Legal Insurrection started in October 2008 in anticipation of the Obama presidency. We were part of the Tea Party movement (though aligned with no specific group) since the beginning. We worked hard through Operation Counterweight and campaign coverage to find and elect candidates who would push the window towards conservatism. Sometimes we were disappointed once they took office, but the window opened wider.