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Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

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Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

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You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / Cruz-ifiction / Open Thread: Your 2020 Republican God-King Presidential Candidate, America!

Open Thread: Your 2020 Republican God-King Presidential Candidate, America!

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Anybody with more than ten minutes’ exposure to Ted Cruz expected something terrible during his speech tonight, but HOLEE FARKING 1968, BATMAN!


Reader Interactions

327Comments

  1. 1.

    Yutsano

    I’m only watching on Twitter, but HOLY FUCKING HELL…

    EDIT: WHAT DA FUCK WAS THAT TRUMP-PENCE WEIRD KISS THING???

  4. 4.

    amk

    ted bundy was the official ‘spokesman’ for the religious kooks wing of the gop. can we take it that after tonight, they lost this reliable vote base too?

  5. 5.

    PsiFighter37

    @Yutsano: Give me a GIF so I can see what you’re disgusted about!

    I still can’t believe this. Trump aides whipped the boos…but if they knew that Failgunner Ted was going to do this, why did they even let him get up to the podium?!

    Absolutely insanity. No one is going to care about Pence’s milquetoast speech – all anyone will remember is Ted Cruz unzipping and pissing furiously into the punch bowl on national teevee.

  6. 6.

    lamh36

    As I said in previous thread…never thought I’d ever say this, and it’s likely to be the last time I’m sure, but…

    cheer’s to you, Ted Cruz

    ‏@DavidShuster 22m22 minutes ago
    RNC sources: @tedcruz “speech different than version he gave RNC in advance.” Officials + Cruz had to be physically separated after. #GOP

  7. 7.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    What we have here is a Cruz control system failure.

    That makes Trump campaign failure 3,296,89…. oh who can keep count.

  9. 9.

    NotMax

    Oh, to be a fly on the wall of Trump’s plane.

    “Who will rid me of this troublesome Ted?”

  10. 10.

    sigaba

    The overhead screens at #RNCinCLE and the “crawl” around the arena now both appear to have died. Weird. Started to flicker when Cruz spoke.

    Do you suppose someone at that moment was trying to hit the circuit breaker to the house amplifiers and got the wrong one? :)

  12. 12.

    scav

    Huh, Trump can just reuse a tweet

    Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump
    Good news is Melania Ted’s speech got more publicity than any in the history of politics especially if you believe that all press is good press!

  13. 13.

    hovercraft

    Reposted from downstairs
    Tweety is outraged at the Zodiac Killer’s sabotage mutiny. A rat deserting the ship hoping that it will sink.

  14. 14.

    gf120581

    If you’re a Democratic strategist, you’ve got to be thinking, “What did I do to make God love me so much?”

  15. 15.

    dmsilev

    @NotMax: He’s probably furiously rewriting his speech to include an additional 50 Lying Ted references.

    Nothing on his Twitter feed, sadly. Guess his kids managed to lock away his phone for the evening.

  17. 17.

    jl

    @PsiFighter37: Trump thought his sheer will and dominance would force Cruz to change his speech? Or that a promise of whipping boos would make Cruz chicken out?

    Trump is the guy who thought threatening to unseat a Senator who is not up for election would be an effective power move.

    We can see why prez Trump will get us great deals hear at home and all around the world.

  27. 27.

    Keith P.

    I actually like Ted Cruz a bit. His politics are polar opposite of mine, but he has pretty clear beliefs that seem relatively genuine. He doesn’t make many friends and tends to start trouble, but he handled the disgraceful Trump treatment pretty calmly. I really thought he was going to be the nominee until late when Trump didn’t flame out, as he ran a real good campaign. Seeing him smile as he was getting booed just made me like him more, like a good wrestling heel, like early Rock.

  30. 30.

    amk

    how incompetent you have to be to get rickrolled by ted fucking bundy? the msm is poutraged about ted’s knifing instead of skewering such a shitshow of a campaign?

  33. 33.

    Bill E Pilgrim

    Just read the text of Cruz’s remarks, I think he plagiarized large portions of Shakespeare’s Mark Antony “Friends, Romans, Countrymen” speech from Julius Caesar.

  35. 35.

    C Nelson Reilly

    Ted’s speech tonight will be forever known in political circles as “The Cleveland Steamer”

  44. 44.

    kindness

    I feel kinda queezy. I hate the idea that I might agree with Ted Cruz about anything.

  45. 45.

    hovercraft

    Chuckles says the headline is the convention is a mess. But also says that cruz may have succeeded in uniting the gop.

  47. 47.

    lamh36

    Oh…please Micheal…

    @palafo
    “I hate to be the buzz kill… But I think Trump is gonna win.” –Michael Moore on Bill Maher’s HBO show.

  52. 52.

    gf120581

    @lamh36: Someone’s still going through Bernie withdrawl.

    Anyone who’s been through the last few days and still thinks that needs their head examined.

  54. 54.

    MBunge

    I hesitate to assign this level of intelligence to the Trump campaign, but do people not see how this will only INCREASE support for Trump within the GOP establishment and GOP voters?

    Cruz has now branded himself in the minds of millions of voters as the guy who wanted Hillary Clinton to win instead of Trump. He’s ended his political career.

    Mike

  56. 56.

    RareSanity

    @Keith P.:

    Seeing him smile as he was getting booed just made me like him more, like a good wrestling heel, like early Rock.

    That statement is so spot on, that I instantly became a Cruz fan as quickly as it took me to read it.

    Well played, Sir. Well played.

  57. 57.

    PsiFighter37

    @hovercraft: Chuck Todd is pretty worthless these days, so I don’t think his opinion counts for much.

    With that – time to hit the sack. Exercise time in 6.5 hours!

  58. 58.

    jl

    @hovercraft:

    ” Chuckles says the headline is the convention is a mess. But also says that cruz may have succeeded in uniting the gop. ”

    Really? Did Chucky have some reasoning behind that, or did he just toss it off to fill some time?

  61. 61.

    dmsilev

    So, let’s review:

    RNC Day 1: Melania and/or some random scapegoat plagiarise chunks of Michelle Obama’s 2008 DNC speech
    RNC Day 2: Fallout from 1, plus Chris Christie conducts a show trial that even Josef Stalin would regard as unfair and over the top
    RNC Day 3: Ted Cruz behaves like Ted Cruz.
    RNC Day 4: Who knows, but Donald Trump will be speaking. And will probably have written his speech himself.

  62. 62.

    amk

    @Bill E Pilgrim: but hacks like chuckles are desperately trying to spin it as a win for the derp ‘ cos PARTY UNITY !!!

    it’s the same up is down, war is peace msm bs.

  63. 63.

    hovercraft

    @Old Dan and Little Anne:
    He like Susan and Tim convinced themselves that Bernie was the last hope for America. Failure to nominate him has doomed us. His attitude had been that even if she wins there’s little difference.

  64. 64.

    Cacti

    Biggest Lie of the RNC so far?

    Melania with “I wrote my own speech”?

    Or Mike Pence with “JFK and Martin Luther King were my heroes”?

  68. 68.

    hovercraft

    Apparently the embargoed version that the media had of the speech was pretty much as delivered.
    EDIT: Trump came out while he was speaking specifically to draw attention away from the speech.

  69. 69.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @lamh36: Wow and Trump butting in to her tweet and Clinton just repeating “vote your conscious”

    I think Hilary just sold me she can do the job of president.

  70. 70.

    Mnemosyne

    Don’t forget, kids, if the Republican delegates do “vote their conscience,” the person who would benefit is the first runner-up: Rafael “Ted” Cruz.

    This is just as self-serving as any other action by a Republican.

  71. 71.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again. Her Twitter people are good.

    Is it good for Clinton to even be on Twitter, though? If you click on any one of those messages, the thread you see has one pro-Hillary message up on the top, and about a dozen hate-Hillary responses. Because the haters are always the top responses and completely swamp the supportive responses on the first page, it seems to me that every tweet from the campaign is effectively an advertisement against itself.

  72. 72.

    lamh36

    Per NBC…Donald Trump came out early, because Ted Cruz was only supposed to speak like 8-13min…instead he spoke for 23 minutes!

    Clusterfuck

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hovercraft: And this is the problem. Tweety and the his colleagues can’t seem to either bring themselves to discuss or just don’t seem to realize exactly what has happened this week so far. That the official GOP convention, and those in attendance, are now behaving the way that Yanukovych’s supporters did at his rallies in 2010 where the speakers led chants calling for the arrest of Yulia Tymoshenko. Even Yancey and the firebreathers of 1860 that I referenced yesterday never quite went this far. Nor did the contentious election fights between some of the Founders and Framers such as Adams and Jefferson. In the Anglo-American tradition you have to go back almost 400 years to see the lines crossed, the norms neutralized, and the drift into political deviancy.

  74. 74.

    jl

    @MBunge: The extreme Xtianist right voters are the ones in play here. What the sleazy GOP establishment incompetent hacks think won’t get them out to vote. Cruz signaled to his followers that it will be fine to sit this one out, just as some stayed home for Romney.

  75. 75.

    lamh36

    @stevebruskCNN
    Ted Cruz was turned away from entering Sheldon Adelson’s suite in the arena after the speech, @danabashCNN reports

  76. 76.

    Mary G

    @Omnes Omnibus: I agree. The second each speaker appeared, Hillary tweeted “five facts” they said they had prepared in case they were chosen as running mate, in English and Spanish. Really smart.

  79. 79.

    Emma

    @Adam L Silverman: Someone over at Josh Marshall’s comments characterized it thusly:

    It was sort of like “SIEG HEIiiiiii everybody. So GREAT to be here.” I think that’s called a demi-Hitler.

  83. 83.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Matt McIrvin: Who reads the thread? And what’s with your downer thing this election cycle? It soesn’t seem to mesh with my impression of you.

  84. 84.

    lamh36

    @hovercraft: right which is why Rachel was laughing…the Trump camp knew the speech didn’t include an endorsement, but they okay’ed anyway.

    The reporter also said Cruz was talking even slower than usual

  85. 85.

    Matt McIrvin

    @lamh36: Ah, yes, Michael Moore, the guy who told us that it wouldn’t be that bad if Bush got elected because we voted for Nader.

  86. 86.

    lamh36

    @peterbakernyt
    Trump camp not taking Cruz non-endorsement in stride — top aide says on CNN that Cruz just committed “political suicide.”

  87. 87.

    RareSanity

    @RareSanity:

    Just in case isn’t wasn’t clear, I sooner vote for The Rock than I would Ted Cruz.

    I’m just saying that I’ve always been a fan of a really good heel, not all of them, just the ones that are really good at it. He’s like J.R. Ewing…you’re supposed to hate them, but you end up loving them for how they just effortlessly trash the lives of the people around them, and derives such evil pleasure from doing it.

  91. 91.

    amk

    @jl: yup, that’s my take too. the rethugs real base has been these religious wackos for years. they are not gonna like what happened tonight.

  92. 92.

    dmsilev

    @Mnemosyne: No, the roll call was this afternoon; Trump is already officially the nominee. Cruz did what he did to shiv Trump and pave the way for Cruz ’20.

  93. 93.

    lamh36

    @Keith P.:

    @TheStalwart
    Just watched the Cruz video. Has there ever been a politician who’s more in his comfort zone while being booed than him?

  94. 94.

    scav

    @hovercraft:

    Chuckles says the headline is the convention is a mess. But also says that cruz may have succeeded in uniting the gop.

    Rather depends on how one defines all those that pointedly did not come to the stadium — unless, the gop is now defined as the people on the floor of same stadium. and one ignores some other little bumpy events right at the beginning. but, possible, possible. . . could indeed get some very world-class synchronized shouting about extrajudicial summary politically motivated executions worked up (maybe they’ve been amateurs at it so far).

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch: I’ve just seen the full quote from the NY Times coverage of his rally earlier today. He made it clear he’d consider requests for aid after checking to see if the NATO member or members requesting American assistance had lived up to their obligations to the US. It is unclear whether he simply means the budgetary and manpower thresholds established by and for NATO members or if he means something else. And we’re back to Trump’s grand strategic vision is “Trump will be treated well, America will be treated well, you will all be Treated well, and only Trump can ensure that America and you will be treated well. Or else…”

  98. 98.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Cacti: And done in his house, so to speak, and to his face. That take’s a certain amount of courage.

  101. 101.

    hueyplong

    Good God, whores everywhere draw up defamation suit papers whenever Chuck Todd is called one.

    So he thinks Cruz united the party tonight? So what would he have said if Cruz had endorsed? Maybe, that Cruz unified the party. And if he had pulled out a gun and shot Trump right there in the Q? Todd: “He unified the party tonight.”

    I’ll be really disappointed if, three years from now, we are not quoting the line about Cruz unifying the party the way we currently declare GOP meltdowns “good news for John McCain.”

  102. 102.

    Chris

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Well, Vladimir Vladimirovich is getting his money’s worth, that’s for damn sure.

    Flexible people, the Russians. Undermining the West with communism didn’t work out, so they’re going to try undermining it with fascism. The initial signs are promising.

  103. 103.

    sigaba

    @hovercraft: This constant drumbeat of “this will unify the GOP” or “Trump is using Jedi Art of the Deal Mind Tricks that only look like horrible fuckups to you stupid libs” is beginning to feel a lot like “Good news for John McCain!”

  104. 104.

    jl

    @scav: Maybe the missing GOP pols, like the savvy pundits and news actors, will be horrified by Cruz’ breach of decorum and become raving Trumpists.

    On the other hand, the missing GOP pols do have to deal with reality on occasion. For example election day. So, they don’t have the same privileges enjoyed by the pampered fools in the media.

  106. 106.

    Peale

    @gf120581: based on what I’ve seen, Marlene Ricketts is probably the only one with enough actual courage and confidence in her punch to go at him.

  108. 108.

    lamh36

    Ted Cruz even tweeted “vote your conscience”

    @tedcruz
    To those listening, please don’t stay home in November. If you love our country, stand and speak and vote your conscience #RNCinCLE

  110. 110.

    Aleta

    I’m a christian first cheers
    our freedom cheers
    love of god cheers
    liberty and justice for all cheers
    vote your conscience boooo

  111. 111.

    Villago Delenda Est

    This is glorious. They’re going after each other like rabid weasels.

    Suffer, fascist scum. Suffer.

  112. 112.

    MBunge

    @jl:

    Those people weren’t enough to get Cruz the nomination this time and Cruz just ensured that EVERYONE in the Republican Party apparatus will hate him as much as his Senate colleagues.

    Mike

  113. 113.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    This is a reality TV show, and Cruz is the heel. The Trump campaign knew that Cruz wouldn’t endorse, whipped the boos from the New York delegation, because it makes for good TV.

    This was deliberate. The RNC is another season of “The Apprentice”.

  120. 120.

    lamh36

    @RichLowry
    It’s ludicrous to hear Trump hacks like Christie and Michael Cohen pretend that the pledge ever meant anything to Trump

  123. 123.

    scav

    @jl: The pols were already not there for a reason, and I’m not sure feeling sorry for little Donnie’s widdle feelings and the vision of politics as decorous pointy-pinkie tea-sipping legume-sac tossing is going to change that.

  128. 128.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: Everyone needs a hobby. Where do you find them and how do you catalog them? I wouldn’t have the patience, but I do wonder.

  129. 129.

    dmsilev

    @Grumpy Code Monkey: Why would they do that? I mean, the Trump campaign is hardly legendary for its competence and strategic insight, but going out of your way to orchestrate “GOP in chaos” at your own convention?

  130. 130.

    Aleta

    “It’s very important to put some showbiz into a convention, otherwise people are going to fall asleep,” he said

    DJ

  131. 131.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:
    And your prediction that they would literally be calling for her blood has also come to pass. The media is mildly critical of the tone, and allows the gop to brush it off saying that the DNC next week will be just as negative about Trump. Saying he is not qualified or a buffoon is not the same thing.

  135. 135.

    amk

    ted’s probable reasoning was that if the roles were reversed, this lil fingered vulgarian fecker would be booing me from the sidelines via twitter, so yeah, fuck him and his rabid voters.

  139. 139.

    mike in dc

    What did Trump expect? He called a master ratfucker’s wife ugly and suggested his dad helped kill JFK. Payback was due.

  141. 141.

    jl

    @MBunge:

    ” the Republican Party apparatus ”

    So what? They need help to keep their BS election day coalition together, and Cruz just came to the RNC convention and told them in several ways of F off, to their faces. Cruz controls votes that could be the margin of victory in some states. Fact that he didn’t have enough to win the primary means nothing. The crummy and hapless GOP establishment will get Cruz fans out to vote with what army? And those fraudulent goofs will have their hands full making up for the incompetence of the Trump people already.

    The idea that Cruz’ little stunt will unify and strengthen the party seems like a very savvy flail and fail to me.

    Matthews probably feels personally insulted by it, for his own very odd reasons, so will froth away out of emotion.

  143. 143.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Quinerly: You’re welcome. Once we get through tomorrow night, I’ll have a post sometime Friday afternoon with my take on the shift we’ve seen happen this week.

  144. 144.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    @dmsilev: It’s not about winning. It’s about ratings. This is going to ensure maximum eyeballs tomorrow night.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus: I didn’t think people had an impression of me around here.

    Anyway, it’s just the intensity of the raw hate getting to me, also extended Facebook etc. exposure to some really worrying Bernie dead-enders who for a long time didn’t seem to understand the seriousness of what was going on. The stakes feel higher. I’ve felt for a long time that there’s a deeply Nazi undercurrent in white American culture, but some taboos that once overlaid it are falling away. It’s obviously a reaction to the gradual loss of political white supremacy. But there’s this bottleneck period we have to get through, in which a deranged supermajority of whites could still theoretically get control of the country, and the margins just aren’t big enough for comfort.

    I figure Sam Wang is about right, the chance of Trump actually winning is something like 15 or 20 percent. But this year, that feels a lot like being told you have to play Russian roulette, but don’t worry, your chances are pretty good because there’s only one bullet in the cylinder.

  146. 146.

    lamh36

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    aww….shucks…
    lol…it started when Facebook started allowing GIFs and so I’d post em in response along with some great memes.

    Where do I find them: mostly google what I want and add “gif” at the end and bam.

    But I have these entertainment blog rolls. Alot of them have gay posters, and I swear to you, they have the BEST gifs ever…so they were hilarious and that was all she wrote…

  147. 147.

    jl

    @Adam L Silverman:

    ” I don’t live in the land of the savvy. ”

    I am sorry to hear about your heavy karma. The land of the savvy is a God Realm, you will never suffer there. I promise.

  149. 149.

    Adam L Silverman

    @hovercraft: I saw Fournier’s furturist piece. What only got reported out in a few tweets was that when Christie was doing his call and response last night, one of the delegates in the Georgia delegation started chanting “execute her” or “hang her” or something similar. I will not be surprised if this isn’t the chant tomorrow night during Trump’s speech when he accuses her of murder by saying some people are concerned and saying she might be a murderer. The only question will be is what will the news media do if that actually happens? And what does the Secret Service do?

  150. 150.

    hovercraft

    @Adam L Silverman:
    I think it would involve doing a search to see if anyone in the country had ever said anything disparaging about him, and whether there were any commercial opportunities for the Trump Organization.

  156. 156.

    Central Planning

    I don’t think they were booing him. I think everyone was saying “Cruuuuuuuuz”

  157. 157.

    FlyingToaster

    @Matt McIrvin: You read the comments on a politician’s twitter feed?

    Silly, silly. Those are rotten mangoes, one does not get out of the boat.

    Most of the comments on the Trump feed are people telling him to fellate himself, or Olbermann abusing him.

    I don’t read comments on the Boston Globe or Boston Herald sites either; it’s all people just gettin’ on their hate.

    Balloon Juice is one of the few places I feel comfortable reading the comments. Even the trolls (well, absent that racist misogynist motherfucker) are tolerable.

  159. 159.

    catatonia

    Cruz didn’t demonize atheists or gays, actually went out of his way (according to his standards) to include them. I mean, he mentioned them in his speech without damning them to the Seventh Level.
    At times he sounded … dare I say it … moderate.
    He’s walking across the Grand Canyon blindfolded on a strand of pasta but damn it was entertaining to watch.
    He’s never to be trusted and is still a world-class p***k, but he is a political gamester of the first rank. And he made Christie sputter like Tom Buchanan talking about Gatsby.

  164. 164.

    Shalimar

    Seeing Trump come out near the end of Cruz’s speech reminded me of the WWE, where Trump has experience. Instead of a Cruz backstab, I wonder if Trump’s people approved of what Cruz was going to say, casting Cruz as the heel to Trump’s face in the production they were planning.

  166. 166.

    dmsilev

    Let’s all spare a brief moment to cherish the thought of Jeb Bush sitting at home watching this and thinking about what could have been.

    Ah, sweet sweet schadenfreude.

  167. 167.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @shomi: If you aren’t willing to invest the time, why should any of us help you out? You told us you think we are idiots, so go figure it out for yourself.

  171. 171.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    Okay, the new SNL Weekend Update guys on MSNBC suck. I knew SNL had gone even further downhill, but damn.

  174. 174.

    danielx

    @jl:

    Maybe the missing GOP pols, like the savvy pundits and news actors, will be horrified by Cruz’ breach of decorum and become raving Trumpists.

    And pigs might have wings….more likely they’ll say, hey, my man Ted only said what he thinks, which you say is the reason why you plummet to your knees at the awesomeness of Lord Short Fingers.

  179. 179.

    Lizzy L

    @catatonia: This. I loathe Ted Cruz and believe him to be just as much a danger to the country as Trump, but he made himself a presence in the enemy’s camp, and kept some dignity, unlike Christie, Sessions, Turtlehead, Ernst, and most of the other professional politicians.

  182. 182.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @lamh36: Okay then. I wouldn’t know where to find a gif unless I stole it. And even then flipping from twitter to some other……..

  183. 183.

    Grumpy Code Monkey

    And what the holy fuck is MSNBC doing by including an SNL skit in their RNC coverage?! That’s beyond FOX-level inappropriate.

  192. 192.

    Emma

    @Lizzy L: I know, right? If nothing else, he proved he might be a monster but not a coward.

    I’m getting whiplash from the dissonance.

  196. 196.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    Now I’m wondering if Cruz gave the approved speech to the RNC for the TelePrompTer and the real speech to the press on the assumption that nobody was going to cross-check it.

  197. 197.

    hueyplong

    Seems like Cruz basically said, “You can fit Christie for a collar, but I ain’t wearing one.”

    His path was made somewhat easier by the fact that he seems to bask in the intense disapproval of others.

    He made it ok for self-righteous, social conservative pr1cks to speak ill of Trump aloud among others of their ilk. That can’t possibly be bad.

  198. 198.

    MBunge

    @jl:

    Cruz doesn’t control anyone. Trump was routinely splitting the Evangelical vote with Cruz if not winning it outright.

    Look, Trump is terrifyingly ignorant on public policy but he’s not stupid. As of right now, the anti-Trumpers in the GOP are no longer personified by Jeb Bush. Ted Cruz is now the loathsome face of that sentiment. If you are an anti-Trump Republican, you are no longer a “reasonable moderate” like John Kasich. You are Ted Cruz.

    If Cruz is knowingly destroying himself just to screw with Trump, that I respect. But I think he stupidly believes this is somehow going to benefit him.

    Mike

  200. 200.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Well, I thought so too, but that GIF shows her turning that into a wave to the rest of the convention basketball arena.

    It is a basketball arena, not a convention center. I wonder how the Philadelphia hall will do as a convention center. I went to a rock fest in the old Philly Convention Center, by the Penn campus, and it was clearly for more than sports events. I recall seeing TV coverage of a political convention there… I think, as a kid. Nope, looked it up, must have been photos of the conventions in 1948 – all of them were there. All three of them!

  201. 201.

    BoringOldGuy

    Long time reader, first time commenter. Some have speculated The Donald wanted the Cruz dumpster fire for publicity. I don’t believe it. Have you seen the photo of Donald and his spawn watching this? There is no way he expected Cruz to p*ss in his punch bowl. No way.

  202. 202.

    Lizzy L

    Comment posted on DailyKos: (Paraphrase) If Trump is elected the country will be run just like this convention.

  205. 205.

    Adam L Silverman

    @J R in WV: I think turning it into a wave is whats going to provide the deniability. “Well I was reaching to point to someone’s sign and then decided to just turn and wave”.

  206. 206.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Mnemosyne: Of course he did. Or something quite like it. The speech he actually gave was not vetted. Cruz is a very good debater and a very good appellate lawyer. Memorizing an alternative text is well within his skill set.

  207. 207.

    The Thin Black Duke

    Jesus, I hate myself for saying this, but fuck, ya did good, Teddy. He’s a repellent shitbag of a human being, but he’s very intelligent. Ted Cruz is playing the long game because he knows the odds are good that Trump is going to lose badly (thereby proving he’s smarter than Michael Moore) so he’s positioning himself as the only honorable Republican left and planting the seeds for a presidential run in 2020. Well played, you smarmy bastard.

  212. 212.

    hovercraft

    SNL asshole from Staten Island says that liberals can’t laugh at themselves, unlike republicans who have a sense of humor. I guess that answers Tweety’s question about whether he’s a republican.

  213. 213.

    ? Martin

    Wonder if Trump regrets calling Cruz’s wife ugly?

    But good on Cruz. He lied through his teeth through that speech but I can now claim he did at least one noble thing in his life. Wake me if he does another.

  216. 216.

    marc

    Ted Cruz wasted a opportunity. He should have said, “Donald Trump is the kindest, bravest, warmest, most wonderful human being I’ve ever known in my life.”

  217. 217.

    The Sheriff's A Ni-

    @Grumpy Code Monkey: The ratings aren’t there to begin with, viewers don’t turn in to watch a shitshow.

    No, this was Tailgunner Ted with zero fucks to give. He gets a hyuuuuge jump on Kasich and Haley in the “We Fucking Told You So” lane for 2020, and he gets one last shiv on the douche who insulted his wife and dad.

  220. 220.

    Chris

    @David ?▶️Hillary/Harley Quinn 2016▶️? Koch:

    That’s actually not the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We have ties to the Turks and the Kurds, and in the middle of the war with Daesh, we’re certainly not going to try to piss off either one of them – being an honest broker and trying to encourage negotiated settlements is about the only helpful thing we can do.

    If only I though Trump and whoever he appointed to run State had the temperament for that or any interest in it.

  222. 222.

    ? Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: That was really bizarre. There’s no way it wasn’t a salute, but to what end? Are we really needing to turn out the white supremacist vote that badly? Why risk it?

    It clearly wasn’t a point since she pointed 4 more times in the same motion, all with one finger, not her whole hand.

  224. 224.

    different-church-lady

    @dmsilev: GOP OPERATIVES: “Please, Mr. Trump, please, just for a moment consider writing out your speech ahead of time. Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?”

  226. 226.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: I honestly have no idea. But its out there. The question is will the political media, of which she’s a part, cover it, ignore it, make excuses for it, ask her about it? I do no know.

  227. 227.

    Greg

    It was certainly a gamble on Cruz’s part to tell a room full of people without conscience to vote their conscience.

  228. 228.

    Quinerly

    @hovercraft:
    I switched over to CNN, which I normally despise. Good panel discussing Cruz and Trump’s interview about NATO….including Axelrod on the panel.

  229. 229.

    Adam L Silverman

    @different-church-lady: If he does a teleprompter speech, which he isn’t good at and doesn’t get into, he’s going to lose the room. In order to really go big(ly) he has to do one of his rally speeches. It’ll be interesting to see which way he goes.

  230. 230.

    scav

    There’s a certain joy in reading all the praise for Trumpy maybe not being polite and not being PC and saying what he means blah blah blah mixed in with shouts for executions and then poof! Cruz was indecorous in a political arena! Man the couches! Party united in shocked sympathy!

  231. 231.

    hovercraft

    @Omnes Omnibus:
    And settling scores along the way, I’ll give you an assasination, you wanna see ugly, you want to see lyin, that’s not the speech I’m giving.

  232. 232.

    SFAW

    @Turgidson:

    I assume Moore is just a pouting BernieOrBuster.

    I realize I’m tempting fate by asking this but:

    I was out/away for a bit last week and the week before — did the resident BernBros (Becnel and Mantle) just give up? Or did they get banned. I don’t miss either one, but their absence seems (to me) slightly conspicuous. (which may be an oxymoron)

  235. 235.

    sigaba

    Trump and Manafort told Mark Halperin and Time before the day that they knew Ted was going to diss them.

    Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin tweeted early in the evening that Trump convention czar Paul Manafort, no stranger to political power struggles, “owns the floor” and advised viewers to closely watch the crowd’s reaction to Cruz’s speech.

    .@PaulManafort owns the floor. Will be key at several moments tonight. Watch what @tedcruz says & the reaction.

    — Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) July 21, 2016

    Citing two anonymous sources, Time magazine reported the Trump campaign actively whipped the loud boos that washed over Cruz as he completed his address

    So basically they intentionally set up Cruz as a Beer Hall heckler.

  236. 236.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Armed Pinkerton (or Blackwater*) guards will drag Cruz out to kiss the ring.

    Ratings bonanza!

    *Know full well they’ve changed the name multiple times, but can never remember what the latest incarnation is.

  239. 239.

    ? Martin

    @Adam L Silverman: Is there a betting pool on whether and which gender slur he drops on Clinton? I’m figuring between tomorrow and the debates he’s going to drop one. Might be a bit early. Though we have seen a nazi salute and calls for political assassination, so hard to say…

  240. 240.

    Lizzy L

    @scav: Yeah, because leading a call-and-response chant about the other party’s nominee in which your supporters get to yell “Lock her up!” is so — decorous.

    It’s going to be interesting to watch the MSM try to play the Both Sides Do It record during the Democratic convention. Quoting the more insane bits in Donald Trump’s speeches is JUST like yelling “Kill the bitch!” They’ll try, but that turntable ain’t gonna spin.

    Compared to the Republicans, I expect that the Democrats are going to look organized and united.

  241. 241.

    hovercraft

    So Micheal Steele thinks that Trump was playing eleventy dimension chess and set Cruz up to use him to make him look bad and get the delegates to turn on him and rally around Trump.

  242. 242.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Blackwater is Xe now. And Eriki Prince is no longer affiliated with them. He’s currently being bankrolled by a Chinese company that’s backstopped by the Chinese government and his company is called Frontier Services.

  243. 243.

    ? Martin

    @sigaba: I’d say they failed then. Instead of making it look like a party rallying around Trump, it made him look incompetent at running an event.

  244. 244.

    different-church-lady

    @danielx:

    I must disagree, “The Apprentice” was a much better managed production.

    Because the show runners were probably smart enough not to let Trump actually run the thing.

  245. 245.

    Adam L Silverman

    @? Martin: I expect there’s a decent chance we will get “kill the bitch” or “hang the bitch” as the call and response or chant during his speech. It might be the slightly tamer “hang Hillary”, but if either happen I won’t be surprised.

  246. 246.

    SFAW

    @? Martin:

    but I can now claim he did at least one noble thing in his life. Wake me if he does another.

    Well, unless you’re 13 or so, it seems unlikely that will happen during your lifetime.

  250. 250.

    amk

    @Quinerly: even john effing king made the point how deadbeat’s donnie and his minions are whining about ‘honoring the pledge’ while donnie himself came out and said how he wasn’t gonna honor nato treaty.

    also. too. why are they all wearing those ridiculous headsets?

  254. 254.

    hovercraft

    Steele wants to know what the Clintons are going to do when Donald gives them the treatment he gave Cruz. Apparently he doesn’t think Trump has begun to campaign against Hillary, and she isn’t prepared for what’s coming. What the fuck is he smoking? And how are the three jokers sitting with him not challenging him.

  255. 255.

    different-church-lady

    In the meantime, Hillary walks into her convention with the endorsement already made.

  257. 257.

    Adam L Silverman

    @NotMax: Yep, I think Academi was its ultimate evolution, but Prince had moved on and out of the country by then.

  259. 259.

    Mnemosyne

    @? Martin:

    I’m betting there will be some cutesy “rhymes with” reference rather than saying the word flat out. Doesn’t mean that there won’t be any audience members filling in the blank and shouting it out like it’s “Wheel of Fortune.”

  263. 263.

    NotMax

    @Adam L. Silverman

    Aware of Prince’s leaving and vaguely aware of his now being joined at the hip with the Chinese.

    AFAIK, still hasn’t raised the scratch for his proposed private Air Force.

    The many, many South African mercenary thugs he once relied upon must be getting long in the tooth by now.

  264. 264.

    SFAW

    @hovercraft:

    What the fuck is he smoking?

    Nothing.

    He realizes that the number of lies the Trump campaign can make up/tell about Hillary is near-infinite, and a willing/compliant MSM will find some way to excuse it. The MSM may not try the “But Dems compared Bush to Hitler 10 skillion times” bullshit, but they’ll find some way to minimize the damage to Rethugs.

    Oooh, wait! I used the word “thug”! I must be doing that dogwhistle thing. OMFGAJOTHS!

  267. 267.

    Fair Economist

    @? Martin:

    And Texas lost their voter ID case. Seems a consensus is forming.

    In the Fifth Circuit, no less – possibly the most conservative circuit in the country.

  268. 268.

    Quinerly

    @amk:
    Look, I hate CNN. Haven’t watched in years. I flipped out of desperation b/c I couldn’t take what MSNBC was doing anymore. Saw a friendly face…Axelrod…actually discussing substance. I’m discouraged as how this shitshow has been covered. MSNBC has mainstreamed Trump. The average person still gets the bulk of his/her news from the tv. Not everyone is down in the weeds on all of this. Average people are just tuning in.

  270. 270.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Shalimar:
    Possible, but only because Trump is an absolute dumbass who thinks all publicity is good publicity. All he got out of this was another night where the message was ‘Trump is incompetent and can’t even organize a convention to praise him.’ Nobody is going to unite behind Trump because of this. Republicans hate weakness, and getting spit on, on his own stage, to his face, at his own party, looks weak.

    @MBunge:

    Trump is terrifyingly ignorant on public policy but he’s not stupid.

    Yes, he is stupid. At this point, I would think the evidence is obvious. He’s managed to fuck up his response to terrorist attacks, for Celestia’s sake, the gold mine of all Republican election hopes. He got this far because Republican primary voters love dumb, angry, racist assholes like themselves. He has a few specific skills useful in staying afloat by scamming others in business, and other than that he’s utterly incompetent.

  272. 272.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Fair Economist: And they explicitly stated it violated the Voting Rights Act and have ordered the District Court to develop a mitigation solution for the upcoming election and then work out the long term fix.

  275. 275.

    Mnemosyne

    @Quinerly:

    I remember in 2012 several people of my acquaintance tuning in to the Republican Convention and being like, OMFG, these people are insane!

    I have a feeling that of the people tuning in (and there are already fewer of them than in 2012), a lot of them are going to have that same OMFG! reaction.

  276. 276.

    MBunge

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    If Trump is incompetent, what does that make all of the people who said he’d never get this far? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that group includes both Hillary and Obama.

    Mike

  278. 278.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @MBunge:

    ‘Cause I’m pretty sure that group includes both Hillary and Obama.

    Citation, please, and THEN I’ll weigh in on whatever they said. Personally, I saw Trump winning the nomination from the moment he showed he could translate his poll numbers into votes in Iowa.

  281. 281.

    Origuy

    I have several friends who are going to Estonia next month for the World Masters Orienteering Championships; I had hoped to go myself. I think they are going to be asked about Trump’s statement about defending the Baltics. Could be awkward.

  282. 282.

    pseudonymous in nc

    Maybe it’s part kayfabe, but this isn’t the WWE. Hardcore WWE enthusiasts have a pretty keen sense of narrative and meta-narrative, in some ways more sophisticated than the average voter or even the average pundit. I can’t see Cruz showing up tomorrow and Ivanka hitting him with a chair until he endorses her daddy.

  283. 283.

    sigaba

    @? Martin: Dunno. I expect political conventions to be organized and the people involved to be sober and reliable. Some people just want a good show with lots of ‘splosions.

  286. 286.

    Gian

    @Cacti:

    Pence skipped part of that line. It’s supposed to be “the assassins of” before JFK and MLK and then “were my heroes”

  289. 289.

    Matt McIrvin

    @pseudonymous in nc: I remember when the rumors leaked that Bernie Sanders was going to endorse Hillary Clinton, somebody on LGM said they’d actually be OK with him not endorsing her as long as he did it as a wrestling face-heel turn.

    Of course it was the Republicans who actually did it.

  290. 290.

    BR

    @pseudonymous in nc:

    This is what I want someone to explain to me. It’s clear Trump’s campaign knew this would happen. And sure, they’re versed in the drama of WWE and reality TV and whatever.

    But what I don’t get is this: how does this help them? I can see it unifying the Trump die-hards, but that doesn’t expand his base in a useful way. Cruz may be an outcast for those folks now, but that doesn’t matter — Cruz is also rallied the anti-Trump folks (small as they are), and it doesn’t seem like this will help bring independents into the fold because it looks like an intraparty fight.

  291. 291.

    TriassicSands

    I think Trump’s negotiating skills were in full view at tonight’s convention. He gave Cruz a prime time slot to speak and in return Cruz delivered — a ringing endorsement to not vote for Trump. Too slimy to come right out and say it, Cruz, instead, played word games by telling people to vote their consciences in November. Well, anyone with a conscience would never vote for Trump (or Cruz or any Republican, for that matter).

    The Art of the Misdeal. Well done, Donnie!

  293. 293.

    Quinerly

    CNN is telling me that Adelson is very upset over Cruz’s disrespect. Wallet might open for Trump? Trump made his way to Adelson and his “donor suite.” Thumbs up pic posted. Sickening.

  294. 294.

    Quinerly

    @hovercraft:
    For Trump, it’s over as far as Pence is concerned. “Morning after” air kiss. “I got what I wanted out of you.” Pence is Trump’s slut now.

  295. 295.

    hovercraft

    @BR:
    According to the very smart people by anticipating that he would go rouge, they had arranged the boos ahead of time and had people on the floor to whip them, and they had Trump come out during the speech to step on him, all of which somehow unified the party against Cruz. Donald wanted to humiliate him in public. Heidi had to be escorted out for her safety, Ted was almost physically by a donor. He came into a convention where almost half the convention was more enthusiastic about him than Trump, and left as the goat. He managed to make Trump a sympathetic figure to the base by taking a dump in the punch bowl.

  296. 296.

    Quinerly

    Time to leave CNN. Ok, I learned my lesson. The interesting previous panel changed. I have a Ballwin brother lecturing. I don’t know them very well…not Alec. This one is kinda skinny.

  297. 297.

    hovercraft

    @Quinerly:
    Yeah they said Cruz tried to enter his box after the speech and was barred. Cruz has released a statement, they just teased it.
    EDIT: I’m not sure about opening his wallet, I don’t think he’s a big Putin fan, NY times piece may not go over to well.

  300. 300.

    BR

    @hovercraft:

    Yeah, but I guess I don’t see what that buys. I don’t see how this won Trump support of any Cruz dead-enders. The ones who were going to support him already probably already support him. And it seems like an intraparty fight, so it’s not clear how this appeals outside of the GOP base.

    I mean, maybe it’s that simple — Trump and Cruz wanted to humiliate one another, and they did it in their own ways, and each thinks they got something out of it. But I don’t see what Trump gets out of it for the general.

  301. 301.

    TriassicSands

    @Adam L Silverman:

    He’ll probably do both. He can’t stay on topic for more that a few minutes at most and then it’s off on some grandiose tangent about his own sublime greatness. I’m wondering if he’ll be able to pass up the opportunity to tell people something they’ve probably never heard from him before — he’s really, really, really rich.

  303. 303.

    Gian

    @BR:

    trump probably has the unskewed polls and knows he’s got a tough run ahead. This gives him a scapegoat when he loses, and was probably political suicide for Cruz. The spin is that Trump gave him a prime slot as a gracious winner and Ted showed up full of disrespect to Trump and support for Hillary (who really should be crucified)

    I am as afraid of a Trump Presidency as any other sane person, but he set Cruz up to fuck this up all on his own.

    Ask yourself how a crowd prepped to boo Cruz reacts if Cruz endorses Trump?
    The die-hard Cruz fans will stick with him, the rest? When it comes time to raise money in Texas they’ll talk about St Raygun and the 11th commandment about not saying anything bad about a republican

  304. 304.

    Quinerly

    Tweety wants Trump to be Kevin Spacey. FSM help us. Yes, I’m back to desperation, drinking cheap Spanish wine and back on MSNBC. Tweety is giving speech advice while tongue bathing Trump. Take a breath, come up for air, Chris.

  306. 306.

    hovercraft

    @BR:
    You put your finger on the problem with the entire convention, nothing this week has been aimed at anyone who isn’t already voting for him. The anti Hillary chants and the shitting all over America is not the way to win votes. The media told me that the first two nights of bashing were a reward for the delegates, but the last two nights would be for the general electorate. Trump’s son was just as negative as the speakers yesterday as were Noot and Cruz and Pence. They are preaching to the choir which I guess is good for our side. Trump is all about settling scores not about building bridges.

  307. 307.

    Quinerly

    @BR:
    I see nothing that Trump got out of it. Poor management of a convention, poor vetting of yet another speech…upstaged by an almost immigrant with obviously bigger hands.

  308. 308.

    hovercraft

    @TriassicSands:
    I agree he’ll begin on the prompter, but it will be boring so he” begin to ad lib, and then the crowd will get into it and it’ll degenerate into his usual stream of incoherent consciousness.

  309. 309.

    Anne Laurie

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Is it good for Clinton to even be on Twitter, though? If you click on any one of those messages, the thread you see has one pro-Hillary message up on the top, and about a dozen hate-Hillary responses. Because the haters are always the top responses and completely swamp the supportive responses on the first page, it seems to me that every tweet from the campaign is effectively an advertisement against itself.

    You been following any of the kerfuffle about the ‘alt-right’ attacking Leslie Jones & finally getting Breitbart’s Ann Coulter MkII (Milo Y) banned from Twitter? Any tweet by any woman, especially a famous woman who’s known to be a feminist, is liable to attract exactly that ratio of pixilated sh*t. If anything, it reminds all the women & most of the minorities reading HRC’s twitter feed exactly who we’re voting for… and against!

  310. 310.

    hovercraft

    @Quinerly:
    Stephen Jenkins of Third Eye Blind is trolling Don Lemon to his face and Lemon doesn’t realize it. Complimented him sarcastically on his intro, Lemon thanked him.
    Chastizes him for talking about trivial bullshit ( air kiss, cruz endorsement)instead of the platform and NATO interview.

  312. 312.

    sukabi

    @hovercraft: hr also trolled the rnc folks who went to the concert last night…poor confused folks were stuck between booing because they wouldn’t play any of their well known songs and the polital statements he was making and cheering the songs played..

  313. 313.

    TriassicSands

    @hovercraft:

    Isn’t that “incoherent unconsciousness?”

    It will be interesting. It remains to be seen if it is possible for advisors to actually get through to Trump. I’m sure they’re telling him this is the most important speech of his life and he needs to be “presidential.” It’s possible that with the right amount of Ritialin he will be able to follow the script. Some adults may require 40-60mg a day, which means Trump could probably get by on 8-10 grams (and maybe some barbed wire wrapped tightly around his torso). Since I despise the man and wish him ill, I’m hoping for a complete meltdown — either he’s so drugged he’s a zombie or so wired he freaks everyone out. I always keep in mind that what is bad for Donald Trump is good for America.

  317. 317.

    Anne Laurie

    @TriassicSands:

    It’s possible that with the right amount of Ritialin he will be able to follow the script. Some adults may require 40-60mg a day, which means Trump could probably get by on 8-10 grams (and maybe some barbed wire wrapped tightly around his torso).

    Problem with that solution is that Ritalin can be really dangerous for people with high blood pressure — speeds up the heart rate dramatically, while stilling the brain-noise. We’ve been told that Donald Trump is perfect super healthy, but anyone in the AARP cohort (like me) looks at his bloated face & thinks ‘heart attack waiting to happen.’

  321. 321.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    I know this thread is old, so its probably too late to comment. Trump has been getting a fair amount of blow back lately over trying to portray himself as a man of the people, which could really hurt him with the typical Trump voter. Cruz is the ultimate elite.. Harvard educated and oh so smug about it. Cruz’s diss riles up Trump’s base, increasing their identification with him. It solidifies Trump as the true outsider.

  323. 323.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @hovercraft

    : Steele wants to know what the Clintons are going to do when Donald gives them the treatment he gave Cruz. Apparently he doesn’t think Trump has begun to campaign against Hillary, and she isn’t prepared for what’s coming. What the fuck is he smoking? And how are the three jokers sitting with him not challenging him.

    Go read Hilary’s tweet stream, Trump trying blustering at her and her reply was to repeat “Vote your conscious”. I think is going to be the one in for a surprise on this.

  326. 326.

    Paul in KY

    @Greg: Thought he was a stand up guy who was unfairly marginalized by those snooty ‘real’ spacemen.

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