“I don’t think it’s a good idea to elect an Ivy League educated lawyer with little private sector experience and no executive experience who has spent less than two years in the Senate before choosing to run for president.”
I’m sure, dear reader, you have said this before. or else you heard someone else say it and nodded in agreement.
That’s because it’s a great point. Good intentions, policies, and philosophical positions aside, experience and results are imperative for an office of such responsibility as that of the president.
I’m sure, as well, that if you are a conservative, libertarian, Tea Partier, or some combination of the former — you said that about Barack Obama or agreed with someone who did.
And you would have been right. Aside from the appropriate charges of far-left policies, a reasonable criticism of Obama is that he is out of his league. His foreign policy results, if nothing else, prove this to be true.
But the description of the candidate to which we rightly object could also apply to Senator Ted Cruz. The Princeton and Harvard graduate served as the associate deputy attorney general in the Bush administration Justice Department, director of policy planning at FTC, and Solicitor General of Texas. Oh, and he’s worked in private practice as well.
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen of the Right. If you wish to be consistent, you have to object to Senator Cruz on these grounds.
“But the Democrats elected Obama, so they can’t oppose Cruz on those grounds!” Not a good excuse. Aside from the fact that the mainstream (aka liberal) media will never hold the Left accountable, what are you going to argue? “Well, electing Obama worked out so much better than I thought, that I’m going to vote for someone with the same resume.”
Let’s be fair: Senator Cruz doesn’t have the same resume.
It does make a difference that he’s a constitutional conservative. He did help win a huge victory for the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller. He did successfully defend the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools. He was ranked as one of the 50 best litigators in the country by American Lawyer. He did graduate cum laude from Princeton and summa cum laude from Harvard. Professor Alan Dershowitz called him “off-the-charts brilliant;” meanwhile, we still have no idea what Obama’s college achievements really look like.
Yes, Senator Cruz would likely be a far cry better than President Obama. That’s why I think he could make a good presidential candidate – some day. I’m a big Ted Cruz fan. I think he is one of the best of these new, young, small-government conservative legislators. He could be the best articulator of constitutionalism in Congress. But I want to see results.
Cruz needs to prove he can lead and bring about conservative reform. Maybe 2020 or 2024 will be his time.
But not yet, Senator Cruz. Not yet.