Slate - "Ted Cruz Wins 317 Votes in a Straw Poll" at Value Voters Summit

[TomCADem]

I guess this just underscores why Republicans act crazy. Because their crazy base rewards them the crazier they sound.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2013/10/12/ted_cruz_wins_317_votes_in_a_straw_poll_becomes_likely_next_president.html

Ted Cruz was heckled* by DREAM Act activists when he spoke to the Values Voter Summit on Friday. Dr. Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon-turned-pundit, called Obamacare "the worst thing that has happened in this country since slavery." The lamestream media covered both of these instances as damaging, in some way. But the fairly low-participation straw poll taken during the conference gave Cruz and Carson the wins. Cruz led for president; Carson led for vice president.

On the way out of that room, I ran into Vernon Robinson, the black conservative and sometimes North Carolina Republican candidate who manned the "Run Ben Run" booth at the conference. He was understandably overjoyed; we shared a fist-bump. The popularity of both men grew out of the certitude that Republicans could "win" the government shutdown, if they only held fast, a sentiment held on both ends of the city today. I heard it expressed best at the Glenn Beck/FreedomWorks clean-up event in the morning, when a Frederick, Maryland activist named Regis Campbell told me that Republicans could shut down the government "for two years" if it was the only way to stop the health care law. Pragmatism can wait for 2015.

*To be fair, all they said was "Sen. Cruz, why won't you support a path to citizenship?"

[kairos12]

1. It was a true Carnival Cruz

[graywarrior]

2. .

[melody]

3. Wow, he's the world's smartest cretin

His mother must be so proud.

[djnicadress]

4. I hope the tea party doesn't destroy themselves until after 2016

I hope the tea party sticks around until at least 2016 If they I don't fear chris christiie wil get the l nomination and he will most likely win especially if NJ. goes for him.

[Coyotl]

5. Go Canada!

Who gets to drive this time?

[JHB]

6. They have plenty of straw, but if they only had...

[Cha]

7. Of course, he did.. consider the those grasping at straws.

[King_Klonopin]

8. Last ethnic group in: close the door behind you and lock it tight!

Evidently, Ted is unaware he is, himself, Hispanic and that his
Cuban father came here seeking a better life (i.e. to escape
communist revolutionaries) So, empathy won't stop him from
closing the door on those who are in line behind him.

[davidpdx]

9. I didn't know it was legal to have that many cockroaches in the same room

A live shot from the Value Voters Summitt

[TxDemChem]

10. Lol too funny

[polichick]

11. How big is this Republican "base?"