A good magic trick is all about distraction — whipping out some eye-catching bouquet of flowers or dazzling with jazz hands in order to keep anyone from noticing the card tucked in the sleeve.
And while it's fun to laugh about Ben Carson's pyramid scheme or holler about Donald Trump's crazy-uncling, Ted Cruz is bouncing along to the nomination. There are still two months before the 2016 campaigns really take shape, but it's starting to look like he'll be the guy we need to worry about once election season really gets going.
Ugh.
Cruz is about even with Donald Trump in Iowa polling right now — 25% for Trump, 23% for Cruz. That's not bad for Cruz, considering Trump is the only person anyone's paying attention to. It's twice what Cruz was polling at last month.
You might be tempted to think, "oh, good, someone who's not as bad as Trump," but oh dear. Cruz is certainly just as bad, he's just more boring about his badness.
"There is a religious philosophy in Islamism that encourages them to lie to carry out jihad," Cruz told Fox News last week. He went to a kill-the-gays conference. He repeats lies about climate change and about Planned Parenthood. He had a fabulous time at a college that banned interracial dating. "I thought it was the job of a military chaplain to be insensitive to atheists," he said. His relationship with the truth is just as loose as Trump's — he just keeps his voice down, so he seems comparatively reasonable.
Make no mistake: Cruz is a bad guy. Not just a villain; but as guys in general go, he is a bad one.
So how'd Cruz manage to sneak his way into voters' minds? Well, the money certainly helps. He's raised a ton of cash and hired a ton of staff. He also earned some solid endorsements from other crazy Iowa people, like Rep Steve King, who just told CNN that no one from the Middle East has ever successfully assimilated into "Americanism."
Okay, so King is terrible, and Cruz is terrible too.
But he's also defeatable, maybe. He may be good at running a long con, but as politicians go, Cruz is fairly lousy at actual politics: he's only been in the Senate for three years, and he's never had one of his bills pass — not one. He's generally rumored to be hated by everyone in Washington, Democrats and Republicans, which is probably why he's always making a face like he's one of the crying hobo clowns painted on velvet.
If anything, that unlikeable reputation might be his greatest vulnerability. People just don't like the guy — he's calculating and creepy and insincere. But the question is, will voters notice? If Republicans don't care that their candidates are lying racists, will they care that they're condescending jerks?
