Just the opposite, if anything. The really smart people I know don't go around telling people they're smart or condescending to other people.

The the few thousand followers of his who are barely literate I guess.

The entire government spun its wheels needlessly because of Cruz.

I imagine there is a substantial amount of resentment for the one who caused all that.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

Of course he's smart, but intelligence has nothing to do with empathy or doing the right thing.

Cruz doesn't have any 'common sense'.

He is all about himself, particularly getting more power for himself.

He knows exactly the kind of persona and positions and strategy to sell himself as the conservative savior to the far right of his party and he is completely willing to throw the entire rest of his party, the economy of his country, the economy of the world, etc., under the bus to get there.

So, yes, unfortunately, he is a genius. The 21 hour pseudo-filibuster farce was him acting and playing a role he thought the tea party wing of the GOP would buy and he was right.

The shutdown was another gambit of his. And that also worked for his purposes.

The few somewhat normal members of the GOP right now are trying to figure out if there is a way they can put him down. They recognize what he is now, it just may be too late to do anything about it.

He honestly scares the beegeebers out of me.

I watched him campaign for Senate and he did not make a mistake. He dictated and diverted all conversations back to his platform and his beliefs. As I recall, Dewhurst was a lock for the seat then along came Cruz. He said all the right things and the right couldn't get enough.

He still has the base so fired up that they would crown him as king in the name of "freedom."

I still haven't figured out where his end game is. I don't think that President is it. There is not enough money in it. I am leaning toward Governor of Texas, (hear me out .) He wouldn't have to address any "natural born citizen" issues. He wouldn't have any term limits. And a couple of well placed, "Secede's" or "Build a Wall" comments and he could be governor for ever. Heck, we've had Slick Rick for 13 years and he is stepping down on his own.

I think he crosses his fingers and hopes for a strong democratic showing in Texas in 2014, then when his Senate Term is over he slides into the Governor's Mansion promising to Save Texas from the Democrats.

Or he get's convicted of ethics violations.

nm

He's incapable of learning from his mistakes. Exactly the kind of opponent we'd love to see in 2016.

He almost wrecked the US and global economy these last few weeks. If Cantor is the speaker instead of Boehner, we might be looking at Cruz pushing Cantor into causing a financial meltdown.

moment and had been agitating for it all summer. He and Lee just got themselves in front of the camera.

...the great unhinged are a "movement" in great need of an authoritarian figure. They've tried a whole bunch in the clown car demolition derby of '12...even Trump...and none fit. Cruz (along with Paulbot Jr.) saw the void and is playing up to the suckers and playing them like a fiddle. Whether he's "smart" or not doesn't matter...it's his ability to bullshit and bully that makes him the latest "great white hope".

One hope that he flames out from his own arrogance (like his idol Tailgunner Joe did) or gets shunned into irrelevance, but he has a constituency and a fulltime PR department in faux noise and hate radio that he can and will use to fleece the flock...

Reid isn't coddling Cruz, he's openly mocking him and baiting him.

who's a complete idiot proclaimed to be some sort of genius "policy wonk", which is why Reid is doing the same to Crudz...

Successful criminals are often smart but not necessarily book smart. Many could be real smart book smart if they chose to but they don't want that. They have this ability to read people and tell them what they want to hear and sound smart while doing it. It gets them what they want.

They know how to use people. Cruz is a genius at using people. Just like any con artist.

Cruz is a great con artist nothing more.

and a pile of "sheepskins" but if they "ain't got no Common Sense--they ain't got shit".

I love it.

Feed more Harry.

Reid is a damn fine politician and hate he gets here is so undeserved.

When you get recruited to play Division 1 football, all of a sudden it's like playing on an all-star team. The talent level of every player is significantly greater that what you were previously used to.

*Everyone* is huge, *everyone* is fast, *everyone* is strong.


If you get drafted into the NFL, the talent level of the players changes yet again...but exponentially so.

EVERYONE is better than you.

ALL the players are physically enormous, massively strong, stupendously fast. There are few playing at that level who are not the absolute best at what they do.




Cruz is finding out that Harry Reid, among others, has played Pro Ball longer than Cruz has been alive.

More like empty-headed narcissist.

Doesn't this sh!t fer brains know you have to put on a "salt of the earth" facade to win as a Republican?

He may be intelligent, but he is clearly not smart.

He's one of the LEAST self-aware people I've ever seen.

He absolutely has no idea how he comes off to other people and why that's such a bad thing.

I really have doubts about his intelligence.

He is, however, a schemer... But a very poor one at that.

They are suckers.

Their leaders may not be suckers and may be clever, but that doesn't make them thinkers or self-aware.

Lack of self-awareness correlates with lack of empathy.

Thanks for putting your finger on a key point.

see him for what he is. But the Tea Party, i.e. the lowest common denominator in the GOP?

They are totally fooled and in thrall.

They are his intended audience. He is banking on them getting him the nomination in 2016 and he is willing to sacrifice anyone, anything, everything to get there.

Can he pull it off? Right now I put the odds at better than 50-50 of him getting the GOP nomination.

What he is, is cunning, and greedy, and opportunistic. But he's in a profession where that kind of thing will fail, ultimately. It might be a long road because he can use those qualities to hoodwink people. But the idea that people are sheep will get you butted in the end ( )

I listened to his rambling speech it is a gold mine into who he really is and reveals much about his inferiority. I started to take notes but quit. Ted has a facade he is vulnerable and I suspect rather dangerous.

Ted is going it alone he is not smarter than the consultants and psychologist available to a major American political party.

because he thinks he can manipulate them. Do not believe he has any core values other than self promotion and the need for power. I also suspect he is "rather dangerous" re the continuation of our democracy/republic. Many years ago they used to write of people who left communism and became very conservative Catholics. Once an authoritarian always an authoritarian. I see evangelicals falling on the authoritarian side of the scale in religion and politics. Cruz would be a natural candidate for them.

Psychopaths have that trait. and are very intelligent.

So smart that he could not grasp the moral of the story from a children's book?

Humans are smart.

Rats are clever.

Cruz is neither, he is just an obvious troll.

smart and edumacation are often unrelated.

Sid

all things Harry has in abundance and Cruz sorely lacks. All Cruz has in abundance is his sense of self-importance.

it really doesn't matter how smart a sociopath is--and they are often very smart. They still don't get it. They aren't gods, and it's not their right to reject and kill people they think are useless or sinful. They don't speak for God or Jesus. They just think they are so superior that He won't mind when they do.

Why do so many on the right share this belief? There's a whole lotta crazy there. And it's vicious as snakes.
They even say Jesus told them it was ok to abandon and hate those they judge to be lazy and undeserving.

gawd these people make me nauseous.