Ted Cruz: Statesman

Texas’ Canadian-born Latino and immigrant-bashing Senator Ted Cruz has taken to the mighty pages of his MyFace page  to proclaim that he is (not yet) definitely not (yet) declaring himself a candidate in 2016. At least not yet.

Contrary to media reports this morning, Heidi and I have not made any decisions about political plans past the mid-term elections. Clearly we have an overzealous supporter out there making freelance comments, but to be clear, no decision has been made. Whoever this “anonymous advisor” was, he or she had no authority to speak, and doesn’t know what they’re talking about.

It is a time-honored tradition, of course, to kick-off your presidential campaign by the ceremonial throwing of an unnamed staffer under the bus for following instructions and leaking details of your plans, you know, on schedule.

But is Ted Cruz really in it to win it? Does he need plausible deniability about his plans for total global theocratic domination 2016? Perhaps the National Journal can shed some light:

According to sources close to the Texas senator, Cruz could be preparing for an end-of-year announcement and is now dedicating considerable time and effort to cultivating a foreign-policy foundation that might help his candidacy stand out in what is guaranteed to be a crowded field.

“At this point it’s 90/10 he’s in,” one Cruz adviser said. “And honestly, 90 is lowballing it.”

Ted Cruz as foreign policy statesman. That’s going to take some Kissinger-fu.

It is not as if Cruz is doing much to hide his aspirations, which mostly seems to take the form of poking Schroedinger’s Candidate Rand Paul:

“I will leave it to Rand Paul to characterize his own views,” he said. A moment later, he added: “In the Senate there is a wide spectrum of views on foreign policy. On one end of the spectrum you have Rand Paul; on a very different end of the spectrum you have John McCain. Both have been forceful about their views on foreign policy. I would characterize my position as a third point on the triangle.”

Cruz calls this “the sweet spot.” By his own calculation, Republican voters who soured on endless war in Iraq and Afghanistan drifted in recent years from McCain’s pole toward Paul’s but are suddenly reconsidering that move after seeing American journalists murdered by jihadists.

This is on the record. This is not some vague statement of ideals; Cruz’ “sweet spot” is a naked calculation that he can occupy that eye-level shelf position in the supermarket of wingnut ideas. Yes, it is cynical, but give Cruz some points here: there is no hiding his ambition.

Of course, what really is amusing is that the birther-favorite foreign-born Cruz seemingly is trying to position himself as the foreign-policy candidate. Sure, he’s shut down our own government, but what are his plans for other governments?

Cruz’s foreign policy profile captures this conflict. In one breath he says, “It is not the job of our military to occupy countries across the globe and try to turn them into Democratic utopias,” and in the next he calls the Islamic State “the face of evil” and argues they must be defeated with overwhelming military force. These principles are not inherently in conflict, but as many presidents have come to realize, they are often difficult to marry.

So the professed Christian Sen. Cruz wants to blow away the heathen Muslims and let the chips fall where they may because it’s not our job to pick up after ourselves? That sounds like a winning message for the would-be foreign policy candidate. But you know, given Cruz’ public piousness, we’re sure he means it in the most Christian way possible.

Bless his heart, as they say in Texas.

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