Blog | Why a Ted Cruz presidential campaign is so delicious: It resets the birther and ‘Obamacare‘ debate
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How sweet it is that Sen. Ted Cruz is the first out of the official presidential gate for the 2016 nominations.
Had he not gone first and delivered that big speech at Liberty University earlier this week, it would have been harder to understand the deliciousness of his campaign.
First, it has defanged the birthers more than President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate ever could. Before, the birthers were vehemently making the case that Obama was not eligible to serve because he was supposedly secretly born in Kenya, not in Hawaii. Despite overwhelming evidence - including birth announcements at the time of Obama’s birth - they insisted that he was a sleeper agent born in Africa rather than America making him, according to their theory, neither fully American nor a natural born citizen, a constitutional requirement for anyone who wants to be president of the United States. And for much of the past 6 years, a majority once believed, and a big minority of Republicans still believes such things.
Of course they were wrong on both counts. Obama was born in the United States. But even if he hadn’t, he was an American from birth - therefore ‘natural born’ - because his mother was born in Kansas, which, if I’m not mistaken, is somewhere in North America, not on the continent of Africa.
None of that, of course, convinced the tens of millions of Americans who wanted to “otherize” Obama, to disqualify him from office. Now comes along Cruz, a man who clearly was born in another country - Canada - and even had dual citizenship. But because Cruz is more acceptable to Obama haters, the talk of birthering has largely died down, except for the forever clowns Donald Trump and Orly Taitz who, I suspect, are keeping up the birther rouse with Cruz because they want to be seen as principled, bipartisan losers.
It’s not gonna work. Obama was born in the U.S. and was eligible to be president. Cruz was born in Canada but is eligible to be president because he has American parents. And Trump and Taitz are still clowns.
But that was just the warm-up act for Cruz. Remember when he proudly read “Green Eggs and Ham” on the floor of the Senate during a 21-hour talk? He was protesting the dreaded “Obamacare,” which celebrated its 5th anniversary this week and, for some odd reason, the sky has yet to fall, though maybe 16 million Americans who wouldn’t have health insurance now do.
According to Cruz, Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, is one of the worst things to ever happen to the country, which is why he was willing to shut down the government to try to have every word of it repealed. It is awful. It is disgusting. It is Nazi-like. And soon, it might be the performed route for health insurance for none other than ... Ted Cruz.
He and his press guys are busy spinning the irony or hypocrisy, or whatever you want to call it.
What do I call it? I’m just glad he and his family have an option like Obamacare. The Cruz family, like millions of Americans, are going through a big life change. Because Cruz is running for the nation’s top office, his wife is taking time away from her Wall Street job, and they will no longer have health insurance through Goldman Sachs. So they have to figure out their next step.
Cruz said he is seriously considering signing up on a federal exchange - through the ACA. He doesn’t have to, mind you, because his family is wealthy and has other options.
And that’s the rub. Even a wealthy family needs options because of life-changes. I’m glad Obamacare is there for Cruz if he needs it. But I’m happier that it is there for millions of Americans who don’t have the options Cruz has.
This story was originally published March 26, 2015 at 10:03 AM with the headline "Blog | Why a Ted Cruz presidential campaign is so delicious: It resets the birther and ‘Obamacare‘ debate."