Ted Cruz's Dazzling Announcement Speech Scared the Heck Out of the Left March 23, 2015
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, have you heard the news, folks? Have you heard the news? Some guy who has only been a senator for a short time, some guy without any real executive experience, some guy whose biggest qualification is he went to Harvard Law School, some guy with a foreign name and mixed ethnic background, some guy who has questions about his birth certificate, have you heard this guy's running for president? Isn't that crazy? And the Democrats are telling us this guy is not qualified, that he's dumb, that he's stupid, that he's incendiary, and that he doesn't have it right on global warming.
I'm talking about Ted Cruz. Did you ever stop and look at Ted Cruz that way? Some guy that's only been a senator for a short time, some guy with not any real executive experience, biggest qualification, went to Harvard Law School, foreign name, mixed ethnic background, questions about his birth certificate. Yeah, I saw it on CNN today. He may not be qualified. He might have been born in Canada. It is uncanny. Everything about Barack Obama that they said qualified him they are saying disqualifies Ted Cruz.
Greetings to you, my good friends, and welcome to the exciting Excellence in Broadcasting Network and El Rushbo here. Telephone number is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
So I'm watching this speech today and it is flat-out amazing. And I'm watching, as important to me, the Drive-By reaction afterwards. We've got the sound bites here. Just stand by. On CNN they went through the litany of things that I just rattled off as, why, he hasn't done anything. Why, he may have a strange birth certificate. And they were dead serious, that he doesn't have enough experience, everything I just read to you. But they were amazed, they were amazed that he did that whole speech without a prompter. They couldn't believe it.
You might think that's not that big a deal. I'm not talking about the speech without a prompter. I'm saying the reaction to it. The Drive-By reaction to that speech without a prompter, they could not help but be dazzled, and they were. They were dazzled. They were impressed. They were so dazzled they were worried the guy is superhuman. There's something not real about somebody who can do all of that without a prompter. So dependent on the teleprompter has become the inside-the-Beltway political culture that somebody who doesn't need one is looked at with suspicion.
I kid you not on this. They were admittedly dazzled by it, but you could also sense that they were very worried about it, and it wasn't normal. It's all part of the ingredients they chalk up to Ted Cruz. "It's just not normal, not what politicians do. That he knows all of that without stuttering, and without losing his place?" It was really, to me, probably a nonevent or no big deal to many people, but their reaction to that, to me, spoke volumes. (interruption) Well, I know, here's my point about this. Don't make this about me, Snerdley. You know, God bless you, I love you, but every time I talk about something on this program, Snerdley says, "You did it! You did it! You do it! You do it! What's the big deal?"
Yes, I used to do it, and I still do when I do it, hour and a half, two hours without a prompter, I understand that, but nobody else does that. But the point is, the people who do do it and can, like Cruz, you don't need a prompter because it's in your heart. You don't need notes because it's in your heart. Therefore, what we had out of Ted Cruz is what he really believes, it's what's really in his heart. He didn't need notes. He didn't need a teleprompter. He didn't need anybody speaking to him in his ear.
You know, Alan Dershowitz, who was his law professor at Harvard, said that he's probably smartest student he ever had. Smartest student he ever had, and best debater. Then of course then we had on Sunday, what was it, Meet the Press, "Moonbeam" Jerry Brown, saying he's stupid, he doesn't have any qualifications, he has no business running for office. He's absolutely unfit to be running for office, said Jerry Brown, because he's wrong on climate change.
Folks, this is how the Drive-Bys do it. They take a man who, in Ted Cruz, might really be the smartest man there. Ted Cruz might be the smartest man in Congress. He has argued many times before the Supreme Court. He was an Ivy League -- I mean, that's their training ground -- an Ivy League debate champion. Alan Dershowitz called him the smartest student he ever had.
The Drive-Bys go out, and with the help of Chuck Todd and Jerry Brown, tell the world over and over and over again that Ted Cruz is stupid. And the definition of stupidity is that he's conservative, and simply because he's conservative he's stupid. They have done this to every high profile Republican the past 50 years. And now they're sending Jerry Brown out to start the whole ball rolling on this yesterday on Meet the Depressed. That's what they're gonna try to make stick.
Now, I have also been studying in a limited amount of time here some reactions from people who may have seen Ted Cruz for the first time. Some people know who he is. Well, I'll give an example. Ed Rollins, who is, I think if he's still working, will be in the Jeb Bush camp. (interruption) You're nodding your head. Did you see this? Yeah, Fox. So they go to Ed Rollins and Joe Trippi as soon as Cruz was finished. And the first words out of Ed Rollins' mouth, quote, "Architect of the government shutdown in 2013," or whatever.
So they're clearly using that as a negative. CNN and all the other Drive-Bys, that was their first reaction, too. What's Cruz done? Why, he was the architect of the government shutdown. Because they have come to believe that their agenda, the left's agenda, they believe, is the agenda of the majority of thinking in this country, and I maintain to you that it isn't. I maintain to you that the whole business of a government shutdown is not a universal negative.
There are a lot of people to whom that's gonna be a positive. There are a lot of people to whom that's gonna say, "Okay, Ted, I'm not bothered that that happened." But one man can't shut down the government anyway, but that's what they want, because they believe that a majority of people in this country fear a government shutdown. And if they can portray Cruz as the guy who shut down the government, then that's all they have to do to disqualify him.
But this speech was something else. I'm not even gonna try to characterize it. I'm just gonna start with the audio sound bites for you, other than to say it was masterful, other than to say we finally now have, on display, someone who can cheerfully, confidently, happily articulate conservatism in a charismatic, positive way. Somebody who's not afraid of it. Somebody who's not ashamed of it. Somebody who doesn't see any need to qualify it or to make excuses for it.
He just came out smoking and ended up smoking. It was masterful. And over here is a guy, "Well, he hadn't been in the Senate long. He went to Harvard, but big whoop. Ah, no executive experience. He's wrong on global warming. He's unfit for office. He's dumb, he's stupid." But that's gonna fly in the face of everybody who watches Cruz. The one thing that you do not conclude after watching Ted Cruz is that he is stupid.
Here's a man who was unabashedly talking about his Christianity. He made an interesting point. Liberty University, he gave testimony of his faith in Jesus that you don't hear in public anymore. You simply do not hear in public people say what Ted Cruz said today. He gave his testimony of his faith in Jesus. He relates it to the founding of the country, in Christianity. You don't hear anybody doing this anymore.
Now, it's gonna scare the hell out of the left. They already are. It's gonna scare the heck out of the Drive-By Media. But here's the thing, and he pointed this out. Had it not been for a conversion to Christ by his father when Ted Cruz was three, Ted Cruz would have been raised by a divorced mother with no father, had it not been for his father converting to Christ when he was three.
Look, this guy is not an award-winning debater for nothing. Now, there are of course other things going on in the news today, and we will get to them, but I want to get right into these sound bites in case you didn't hear it. We have some of the highlights. Ted Cruz was in Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University, and the purpose today was to announce that he is running for the president of the United States.
CRUZ: I want ask each of you to imagine, imagine millions of courageous conservatives all across America rising up together to say in unison, "We demand our liberty." (Cheers and applause) Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren't voting. They're staying home. Imagine instead, millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values. (applause)
RUSH: Look, the applause was robust, and there are many applause lines. We've just edited here for the sake of time. When's the last time you heard this from a candidate running for the presidency? When is the last time you even heard them addressing born-again Christians, much less mentioning them, much less appealing to them? When born-again Christians happen to be mentioned in American politics today, it's usually derisively, and it's usually in connection with the fact that they're a bunch of pro-life hayseeds.
And here comes Ted Cruz saying: I'm one of you, and I know that you are an army out there waiting to be mobilized, and that nobody has asked you to join them in a number of years, and I'm here to do it today. He really believes that there are millions of Americans who do sit home and don't vote for any number of reasons that neither party is reaching. In fact, both parties may be alienating, but the Democrat Party especially, and he makes no bones about the fact of who he is.
He is not ashamed to shrift votes from Christians, born again or otherwise, he is eager to do so. And to relate Christianity to the founding of this country, you don't hear that done anymore. You simply do not hear it. Then he asked everybody to imagine essentially a world without Obamacare.
CRUZ: Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who've lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare. (cheers and applause) Imagine health care reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable?
RUSH: Yes. And again we've edited this applause profoundly because it just went on and on and on. And remember, all of this is spoken without a teleprompter. There were a lot of pauses. Ted Cruz speaks rather slowly, for impact. He'd not a rat-tat-tat machine gun type person. He's very thought out, very reasoned, and deliberate, and, again, none of this was written. Well, it may have been written at some point, it may have been written somewhere, but he did not have access to the written word. This is all from his heart. Next up he shredded Obama very simply, just by articulating all that Obama is not.
CRUZ: Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel. (cheers and applause) Instead of a president who seeks to go to the United Nations to end run Congress and the American people, imagine a president who says, "I will honor the Constitution and under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon." (Cheers and applause) Imagine a president who says, "We will stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism." (Cheers and applause) And we will call it by its name. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: And just this weekend, a government official, an Obama administration official refused to characterize ISIS as Islamic extremists. So Cruz -- and that's of course just a small partial list of the things that Obama is not. This next bite, this personally really resonated with me.
CRUZ: Imagine it's 1775, and you and I were sitting there in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry saying, "Give me liberty or give me death." Imagine it's 1776 and we were watching the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence stand together and pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to igniting the promise of America. Imagine it was 1777 and we were watching General Washington as he lost battle after battle after battle, in the freezing cold, as his soldiers with no shoes were dying, fighting for freedom against the most powerful army in the world. That, too, seemed unimaginable.
RUSH: Naturally I'm gonna gravitate to that because that's exactly the premise under which I'm writing these children's books, The Rush Revere series, taking the reader there. Imagine -- 'cause it's effective. And the point that he's making here is: Don't give up, don't think we've lost, don't think we can't overcome this. Because the people who founded this country overcame greater obstacles than you and I face today, and that's not to diminish the obstacles we face. That's not to say that we're overexaggerating or exaggerating at all our obstacles.
But the point is, there were people before us who had it much rougher, who faced challenges that were just as great and just as dire, and they lost and lost and lost, and they never gave up. And because of that there is the United States of America today. This is gonna resonate with people when they hear it. This is all about getting up. There's an army out there waiting to be mobilized by leadership that is absent on the right, in the Republican Party and so forth. So this is a great, great start.
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RUSH: Okay. Admit it. Some of you started scratching your heads and wondering, when I started making a big deal about the fact that the Drive-Bys made a big deal that Ted Cruz spoke without a teleprompter. I warned you. I told you this is a big deal to them for a number of reasons. A, it frightens them. Nobody is supposed to be able to speak in public like that without a teleprompter! It also frightens them because Obama, of course, can't go anywhere without a teleprompter.
The teleprompter has become a valid part of the Washington, DC, media and political culture, and therefore, the fact -- and I told you this. I said that over at CNN they were going nuts over this, that Ted Cruz spoke without a teleprompter. They couldn't believe it. It worried them, because people aren't supposed to be able to do that. To them, speaking without a prompter makes you not talented. It doesn't make you extraordinary.
It does not merit anything positive. It causes grave concern about, "What kind of person could do that? Are they so radical? Are they so extremist?" And, lo and behold, within ten minutes, I have a story here from TheHill.com. Headline: "No Teleprompter for Cruz." Why is that news? No teleprompter? Of all the things that happened at the Ted Cruz presidential candidacy announcement today, why is that news?
By the way, the fact that it was at Liberty University? That has 'em doing flips. Jerry Falwell's place, the Moral Majority headquarters? They are just going batty over this, folks. And note the young people in the audience that were standing up and cheering. In fact, the Democrat National Committee may have accidentally admitted that it's worried about all of this. They noted in an e-mail to supporters that this announcement sent shivers down their spines.
It's a fundraising appeal, and I don't blame them at all.
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RUSH: The Democrat National Committee sent out an e-mail. It's a fundraising e-mail, a series of tweets that Cruz announcement sent shivers down their spines. It says, "If you're like us, just reading that phrase probably sent shivers down your spine or produced a pretty serious roll of the eyes. But as if this moment, Ted Cruz officially running for president, and if we don't everything in our power to stop him, the possibility of a President Cruz could become a reality."
Of course, this just a fundraising thing. But I wonder if this "sent shivers" was a little bit of an admission they may not have wanted to make, meaning that it was actually somewhat honest rather than just a fundraising screech, if you will. A couple more sound bites from the speech itself. After asking us to imagine being with the Founders in Philadelphia as they were writing the Declaration debating the Constitution -- after asking us to imagine being with George Washington -- he then brought it forward to more recent history.
CRUZ: Imagine it's 1933 and we were listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tell America -- at a time of crushing depression, at a time of a gathering storm abroad -- that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Imagine it's 1979, and you and I were listening to Ronald Reagan (cheers) and he was telling us that we would cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% all the way down to 28%; that we would go from crushing stagnation to booming economic growth to millions being lifted out of poverty and into prosperity and abundance; that the very day he was sworn in, our hostages who were languishing in Iran would be released. And that within a decade, we would win the Cold War and tear the Berlin Wall to the ground. That would have seemed unimaginable, and yet, with the grace of God, that's exactly what happened. (applause)
RUSH: And then he said that God's not finished with us yet.
CRUZ: I believe God isn't done with America yet. (applause) I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is why today I am announcing that I'm running for president of the United States. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: And, of course, everybody knew that's what was happening. That's why they were all there. Everybody knew that's what was coming. It was the big applause line. It was the big finale. Everybody stood up. His wife and kids came out. You know, his wife is Harvard MBA as well. She's accomplished in her own right, and according to the media, as dumb and stupid as is Ted Cruz. This is exactly what they're gonna do.
This is how the Drive-Bys do it. They take a guy like this, Ted Cruz -- who may be the smartest man in Congress, who has argued many times before the Supreme Court and is an Ivy League debating champion. Alan Dershowitz, who teaches law at Harvard, called Ted Cruz the smartest student he ever had. And the Drive-Bys go out and they tell the world over and over and over again that Ted Cruz is stupid.
It's the modus operandi, the game plan for taking down every Republican there is. As I say, they got started with this on Cruz yesterday. They sent Jerry Brown out on Meet the Press to say he's unfit to be running for office. It's not even he's unfit to be in office. He's unfit to be running. He has no business being a candidate because he's so stupid, and the reason Ted Cruz is so stupid is because he doesn't have it right on climate change.
Jerry Brown says that Ted Cruz is entirely ignorant on climate change, and this means he is disqualified from even running for president, because he's such an idiot. When in fact, it's Moonbeam who is the idiot, as is so often the case when the left starts handing out these charges of stupidity and ignorance. It actually would be better placed if it were self-focused. Cruz is the exact opposite of all this. A little media sample here: Carol Costello on CNN. This is after the Cruz presidential announcement.
COSTELLO: There were questions about his birth certificate 'cause he was born in Canada. It certainly does sound like familiar criticism. Let's talk about independent voters, because one of the things Ted Cruz said during his speech is all rights come from God, not man, and if you headed to Twitter this morning, you'll find that some people weren't so pleased with that. You'll also find tweets that read, quote -- I'm gonna give you one. "Science? We don't need no stinking science." Here's another tweet: "I'll make government small enough to fit into your bedroom or a woman's uterus."
RUSH: You want to talk about stupidity? You want to know where the stupidity in this country is? It's on Democrat-sponsored Twitter. The stupidity and the sewer that parts of Twitter have become are uncanny.
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RUSH: I want to grab some calls on this because a lot of people want to weigh in on Ted Cruz today. We'll start with Darrell in Powhatan, Virginia. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, it's a privilege, 15-year-listener, first time I got through.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Glad you made it.
CALLER: Central Virginia master tradesman, PhD in common sense dittos, sir.
RUSH: I'm glad to have you. Thanks much.
CALLER: I want to take you back to the 2012 primary season when you and many others, but especially you, were lamenting the fact that there was no one that could articulate conservatism properly, that there seemed to be no voice of conservatism. And I would posit that Ted Cruz, 'cause I've watched him since 2012, he is that person. He doesn't need a teleprompter 'cause it's second nature. Natural as breathing. It comes to him because it's who he is. This is the guy that we were lamenting and wishing for in 2012.
RUSH: Well, not just 2012.
CALLER: Well, yeah. Yes. True.
RUSH: But I remember what you're talking about. And it wasn't so much -- well, it's actually two-pronged. Yeah, there was a shortage, no question, of Republican candidates who could. But there were some who could, who refused to do it all the way.
CALLER: Well, we wanted unapologetic conservatism, and arguably, I would say that's what Cruz's hashtag should be, #unapologeticconservatism.
RUSH: Well, that's just it. We always have -- whenever we do find a conservative, they're always issuing qualifiers like, "Well, you know, I'm a compassionate conservative," or some other thing that lets you know that they're very defensive about it and think they need to make excuses for it. And that, you're right, is one thing about Ted Cruz that will never be said. He does not think who he is or what he believes needs to be excused.
CALLER: Yeah, he makes no apologies, and he doesn't need safe talking points, either. He goes after the issues. He lays out specifics. He says exactly what he's gonna do, and people like me out here are starving for that.
RUSH: So you think there are a lot of you out there? A lot of people like you out there?
CALLER: Well, I won't mention 'em, but there's a blog that I frequent often where, you know, a lot of people are big Ted Cruz fans, and it's a mainstream blog that I think you've cited a couple times. But, you know, there's some other places where there are a lot of Ted Cruz fans. People like myself have actually been wondering where the conservative media has been, because -- well, I'm not gonna talk about specific other candidates, but we hear about a lot of other people, and it's like Cruz is the forgotten guy, yet here he is --
RUSH: Well, I'll tell you why. Even among conservative media, dare I say this, even among conservative media there are those who think he's an outlier, a second-tier candidate who does not have a snowball's chance of getting the nomination. And thus, that's how they portray him, and that's how they react to him. And don't misunderstand this. Please don't, 'cause I'm not saying anything here. It's just historically true. This is exactly how Reagan was reacted to.
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Daily Caller: Dershowitz: Ted Cruz One of Harvard Law's Smartest Students
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey, have you heard the news, folks? Have you heard the news? Some guy who has only been a senator for a short time, some guy without any real executive experience, some guy whose biggest qualification is he went to Harvard Law School, some guy with a foreign name and mixed ethnic background, some guy who has questions about his birth certificate, have you heard this guy's running for president? Isn't that crazy? And the Democrats are telling us this guy is not qualified, that he's dumb, that he's stupid, that he's incendiary, and that he doesn't have it right on global warming.
I'm talking about Ted Cruz. Did you ever stop and look at Ted Cruz that way? Some guy that's only been a senator for a short time, some guy with not any real executive experience, biggest qualification, went to Harvard Law School, foreign name, mixed ethnic background, questions about his birth certificate. Yeah, I saw it on CNN today. He may not be qualified. He might have been born in Canada. It is uncanny. Everything about Barack Obama that they said qualified him they are saying disqualifies Ted Cruz.
Greetings to you, my good friends, and welcome to the exciting Excellence in Broadcasting Network and El Rushbo here. Telephone number is 800-282-2882, and the e-mail address, ElRushbo@eibnet.com.
You might think that's not that big a deal. I'm not talking about the speech without a prompter. I'm saying the reaction to it. The Drive-By reaction to that speech without a prompter, they could not help but be dazzled, and they were. They were dazzled. They were impressed. They were so dazzled they were worried the guy is superhuman. There's something not real about somebody who can do all of that without a prompter. So dependent on the teleprompter has become the inside-the-Beltway political culture that somebody who doesn't need one is looked at with suspicion.
I kid you not on this. They were admittedly dazzled by it, but you could also sense that they were very worried about it, and it wasn't normal. It's all part of the ingredients they chalk up to Ted Cruz. "It's just not normal, not what politicians do. That he knows all of that without stuttering, and without losing his place?" It was really, to me, probably a nonevent or no big deal to many people, but their reaction to that, to me, spoke volumes. (interruption) Well, I know, here's my point about this. Don't make this about me, Snerdley. You know, God bless you, I love you, but every time I talk about something on this program, Snerdley says, "You did it! You did it! You do it! You do it! What's the big deal?"
Yes, I used to do it, and I still do when I do it, hour and a half, two hours without a prompter, I understand that, but nobody else does that. But the point is, the people who do do it and can, like Cruz, you don't need a prompter because it's in your heart. You don't need notes because it's in your heart. Therefore, what we had out of Ted Cruz is what he really believes, it's what's really in his heart. He didn't need notes. He didn't need a teleprompter. He didn't need anybody speaking to him in his ear.
You know, Alan Dershowitz, who was his law professor at Harvard, said that he's probably smartest student he ever had. Smartest student he ever had, and best debater. Then of course then we had on Sunday, what was it, Meet the Press, "Moonbeam" Jerry Brown, saying he's stupid, he doesn't have any qualifications, he has no business running for office. He's absolutely unfit to be running for office, said Jerry Brown, because he's wrong on climate change.
Folks, this is how the Drive-Bys do it. They take a man who, in Ted Cruz, might really be the smartest man there. Ted Cruz might be the smartest man in Congress. He has argued many times before the Supreme Court. He was an Ivy League -- I mean, that's their training ground -- an Ivy League debate champion. Alan Dershowitz called him the smartest student he ever had.
Now, I have also been studying in a limited amount of time here some reactions from people who may have seen Ted Cruz for the first time. Some people know who he is. Well, I'll give an example. Ed Rollins, who is, I think if he's still working, will be in the Jeb Bush camp. (interruption) You're nodding your head. Did you see this? Yeah, Fox. So they go to Ed Rollins and Joe Trippi as soon as Cruz was finished. And the first words out of Ed Rollins' mouth, quote, "Architect of the government shutdown in 2013," or whatever.
So they're clearly using that as a negative. CNN and all the other Drive-Bys, that was their first reaction, too. What's Cruz done? Why, he was the architect of the government shutdown. Because they have come to believe that their agenda, the left's agenda, they believe, is the agenda of the majority of thinking in this country, and I maintain to you that it isn't. I maintain to you that the whole business of a government shutdown is not a universal negative.
There are a lot of people to whom that's gonna be a positive. There are a lot of people to whom that's gonna say, "Okay, Ted, I'm not bothered that that happened." But one man can't shut down the government anyway, but that's what they want, because they believe that a majority of people in this country fear a government shutdown. And if they can portray Cruz as the guy who shut down the government, then that's all they have to do to disqualify him.
But this speech was something else. I'm not even gonna try to characterize it. I'm just gonna start with the audio sound bites for you, other than to say it was masterful, other than to say we finally now have, on display, someone who can cheerfully, confidently, happily articulate conservatism in a charismatic, positive way. Somebody who's not afraid of it. Somebody who's not ashamed of it. Somebody who doesn't see any need to qualify it or to make excuses for it.
Here's a man who was unabashedly talking about his Christianity. He made an interesting point. Liberty University, he gave testimony of his faith in Jesus that you don't hear in public anymore. You simply do not hear in public people say what Ted Cruz said today. He gave his testimony of his faith in Jesus. He relates it to the founding of the country, in Christianity. You don't hear anybody doing this anymore.
Now, it's gonna scare the hell out of the left. They already are. It's gonna scare the heck out of the Drive-By Media. But here's the thing, and he pointed this out. Had it not been for a conversion to Christ by his father when Ted Cruz was three, Ted Cruz would have been raised by a divorced mother with no father, had it not been for his father converting to Christ when he was three.
Look, this guy is not an award-winning debater for nothing. Now, there are of course other things going on in the news today, and we will get to them, but I want to get right into these sound bites in case you didn't hear it. We have some of the highlights. Ted Cruz was in Lynchburg, Virginia, at Liberty University, and the purpose today was to announce that he is running for the president of the United States.
CRUZ: I want ask each of you to imagine, imagine millions of courageous conservatives all across America rising up together to say in unison, "We demand our liberty." (Cheers and applause) Today, roughly half of born-again Christians aren't voting. They're staying home. Imagine instead, millions of people of faith all across America coming out to the polls and voting our values. (applause)
RUSH: Look, the applause was robust, and there are many applause lines. We've just edited here for the sake of time. When's the last time you heard this from a candidate running for the presidency? When is the last time you even heard them addressing born-again Christians, much less mentioning them, much less appealing to them? When born-again Christians happen to be mentioned in American politics today, it's usually derisively, and it's usually in connection with the fact that they're a bunch of pro-life hayseeds.
And here comes Ted Cruz saying: I'm one of you, and I know that you are an army out there waiting to be mobilized, and that nobody has asked you to join them in a number of years, and I'm here to do it today. He really believes that there are millions of Americans who do sit home and don't vote for any number of reasons that neither party is reaching. In fact, both parties may be alienating, but the Democrat Party especially, and he makes no bones about the fact of who he is.
He is not ashamed to shrift votes from Christians, born again or otherwise, he is eager to do so. And to relate Christianity to the founding of this country, you don't hear that done anymore. You simply do not hear it. Then he asked everybody to imagine essentially a world without Obamacare.
CRUZ: Instead of the joblessness, instead of the millions forced into part-time work, instead of the millions who've lost their health insurance, lost their doctors, have faced skyrocketing health insurance premiums, imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of Obamacare. (cheers and applause) Imagine health care reform that keeps government out of the way between you and your doctor and that makes health insurance personal and portable?
RUSH: Yes. And again we've edited this applause profoundly because it just went on and on and on. And remember, all of this is spoken without a teleprompter. There were a lot of pauses. Ted Cruz speaks rather slowly, for impact. He'd not a rat-tat-tat machine gun type person. He's very thought out, very reasoned, and deliberate, and, again, none of this was written. Well, it may have been written at some point, it may have been written somewhere, but he did not have access to the written word. This is all from his heart. Next up he shredded Obama very simply, just by articulating all that Obama is not.
CRUZ: Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel. (cheers and applause) Instead of a president who seeks to go to the United Nations to end run Congress and the American people, imagine a president who says, "I will honor the Constitution and under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon." (Cheers and applause) Imagine a president who says, "We will stand up and defeat radical Islamic terrorism." (Cheers and applause) And we will call it by its name. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: And just this weekend, a government official, an Obama administration official refused to characterize ISIS as Islamic extremists. So Cruz -- and that's of course just a small partial list of the things that Obama is not. This next bite, this personally really resonated with me.
CRUZ: Imagine it's 1775, and you and I were sitting there in Richmond listening to Patrick Henry saying, "Give me liberty or give me death." Imagine it's 1776 and we were watching the 54 signers of the Declaration of Independence stand together and pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to igniting the promise of America. Imagine it was 1777 and we were watching General Washington as he lost battle after battle after battle, in the freezing cold, as his soldiers with no shoes were dying, fighting for freedom against the most powerful army in the world. That, too, seemed unimaginable.
RUSH: Naturally I'm gonna gravitate to that because that's exactly the premise under which I'm writing these children's books, The Rush Revere series, taking the reader there. Imagine -- 'cause it's effective. And the point that he's making here is: Don't give up, don't think we've lost, don't think we can't overcome this. Because the people who founded this country overcame greater obstacles than you and I face today, and that's not to diminish the obstacles we face. That's not to say that we're overexaggerating or exaggerating at all our obstacles.
But the point is, there were people before us who had it much rougher, who faced challenges that were just as great and just as dire, and they lost and lost and lost, and they never gave up. And because of that there is the United States of America today. This is gonna resonate with people when they hear it. This is all about getting up. There's an army out there waiting to be mobilized by leadership that is absent on the right, in the Republican Party and so forth. So this is a great, great start.
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RUSH: Okay. Admit it. Some of you started scratching your heads and wondering, when I started making a big deal about the fact that the Drive-Bys made a big deal that Ted Cruz spoke without a teleprompter. I warned you. I told you this is a big deal to them for a number of reasons. A, it frightens them. Nobody is supposed to be able to speak in public like that without a teleprompter! It also frightens them because Obama, of course, can't go anywhere without a teleprompter.
It does not merit anything positive. It causes grave concern about, "What kind of person could do that? Are they so radical? Are they so extremist?" And, lo and behold, within ten minutes, I have a story here from TheHill.com. Headline: "No Teleprompter for Cruz." Why is that news? No teleprompter? Of all the things that happened at the Ted Cruz presidential candidacy announcement today, why is that news?
By the way, the fact that it was at Liberty University? That has 'em doing flips. Jerry Falwell's place, the Moral Majority headquarters? They are just going batty over this, folks. And note the young people in the audience that were standing up and cheering. In fact, the Democrat National Committee may have accidentally admitted that it's worried about all of this. They noted in an e-mail to supporters that this announcement sent shivers down their spines.
It's a fundraising appeal, and I don't blame them at all.
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RUSH: The Democrat National Committee sent out an e-mail. It's a fundraising e-mail, a series of tweets that Cruz announcement sent shivers down their spines. It says, "If you're like us, just reading that phrase probably sent shivers down your spine or produced a pretty serious roll of the eyes. But as if this moment, Ted Cruz officially running for president, and if we don't everything in our power to stop him, the possibility of a President Cruz could become a reality."
CRUZ: Imagine it's 1933 and we were listening to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt tell America -- at a time of crushing depression, at a time of a gathering storm abroad -- that we have nothing to fear but fear itself. Imagine it's 1979, and you and I were listening to Ronald Reagan (cheers) and he was telling us that we would cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% all the way down to 28%; that we would go from crushing stagnation to booming economic growth to millions being lifted out of poverty and into prosperity and abundance; that the very day he was sworn in, our hostages who were languishing in Iran would be released. And that within a decade, we would win the Cold War and tear the Berlin Wall to the ground. That would have seemed unimaginable, and yet, with the grace of God, that's exactly what happened. (applause)
RUSH: And then he said that God's not finished with us yet.
CRUZ: I believe God isn't done with America yet. (applause) I believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of America. And that is why today I am announcing that I'm running for president of the United States. (cheers and applause)
RUSH: And, of course, everybody knew that's what was happening. That's why they were all there. Everybody knew that's what was coming. It was the big applause line. It was the big finale. Everybody stood up. His wife and kids came out. You know, his wife is Harvard MBA as well. She's accomplished in her own right, and according to the media, as dumb and stupid as is Ted Cruz. This is exactly what they're gonna do.
This is how the Drive-Bys do it. They take a guy like this, Ted Cruz -- who may be the smartest man in Congress, who has argued many times before the Supreme Court and is an Ivy League debating champion. Alan Dershowitz, who teaches law at Harvard, called Ted Cruz the smartest student he ever had. And the Drive-Bys go out and they tell the world over and over and over again that Ted Cruz is stupid.
It's the modus operandi, the game plan for taking down every Republican there is. As I say, they got started with this on Cruz yesterday. They sent Jerry Brown out on Meet the Press to say he's unfit to be running for office. It's not even he's unfit to be in office. He's unfit to be running. He has no business being a candidate because he's so stupid, and the reason Ted Cruz is so stupid is because he doesn't have it right on climate change.
Jerry Brown says that Ted Cruz is entirely ignorant on climate change, and this means he is disqualified from even running for president, because he's such an idiot. When in fact, it's Moonbeam who is the idiot, as is so often the case when the left starts handing out these charges of stupidity and ignorance. It actually would be better placed if it were self-focused. Cruz is the exact opposite of all this. A little media sample here: Carol Costello on CNN. This is after the Cruz presidential announcement.
COSTELLO: There were questions about his birth certificate 'cause he was born in Canada. It certainly does sound like familiar criticism. Let's talk about independent voters, because one of the things Ted Cruz said during his speech is all rights come from God, not man, and if you headed to Twitter this morning, you'll find that some people weren't so pleased with that. You'll also find tweets that read, quote -- I'm gonna give you one. "Science? We don't need no stinking science." Here's another tweet: "I'll make government small enough to fit into your bedroom or a woman's uterus."
RUSH: You want to talk about stupidity? You want to know where the stupidity in this country is? It's on Democrat-sponsored Twitter. The stupidity and the sewer that parts of Twitter have become are uncanny.
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RUSH: I want to grab some calls on this because a lot of people want to weigh in on Ted Cruz today. We'll start with Darrell in Powhatan, Virginia. Great to have you on the EIB Network. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, it's a privilege, 15-year-listener, first time I got through.
RUSH: Thank you, sir. Glad you made it.
CALLER: Central Virginia master tradesman, PhD in common sense dittos, sir.
RUSH: I'm glad to have you. Thanks much.
CALLER: I want to take you back to the 2012 primary season when you and many others, but especially you, were lamenting the fact that there was no one that could articulate conservatism properly, that there seemed to be no voice of conservatism. And I would posit that Ted Cruz, 'cause I've watched him since 2012, he is that person. He doesn't need a teleprompter 'cause it's second nature. Natural as breathing. It comes to him because it's who he is. This is the guy that we were lamenting and wishing for in 2012.
CALLER: Well, yeah. Yes. True.
RUSH: But I remember what you're talking about. And it wasn't so much -- well, it's actually two-pronged. Yeah, there was a shortage, no question, of Republican candidates who could. But there were some who could, who refused to do it all the way.
CALLER: Well, we wanted unapologetic conservatism, and arguably, I would say that's what Cruz's hashtag should be, #unapologeticconservatism.
RUSH: Well, that's just it. We always have -- whenever we do find a conservative, they're always issuing qualifiers like, "Well, you know, I'm a compassionate conservative," or some other thing that lets you know that they're very defensive about it and think they need to make excuses for it. And that, you're right, is one thing about Ted Cruz that will never be said. He does not think who he is or what he believes needs to be excused.
CALLER: Yeah, he makes no apologies, and he doesn't need safe talking points, either. He goes after the issues. He lays out specifics. He says exactly what he's gonna do, and people like me out here are starving for that.
RUSH: So you think there are a lot of you out there? A lot of people like you out there?
CALLER: Well, I won't mention 'em, but there's a blog that I frequent often where, you know, a lot of people are big Ted Cruz fans, and it's a mainstream blog that I think you've cited a couple times. But, you know, there's some other places where there are a lot of Ted Cruz fans. People like myself have actually been wondering where the conservative media has been, because -- well, I'm not gonna talk about specific other candidates, but we hear about a lot of other people, and it's like Cruz is the forgotten guy, yet here he is --
RUSH: Well, I'll tell you why. Even among conservative media, dare I say this, even among conservative media there are those who think he's an outlier, a second-tier candidate who does not have a snowball's chance of getting the nomination. And thus, that's how they portray him, and that's how they react to him. And don't misunderstand this. Please don't, 'cause I'm not saying anything here. It's just historically true. This is exactly how Reagan was reacted to.
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