Beto vs Ted

Exactly.

Cruz knows all tricks and techniques and is accomplished at using them.

However, at the end of the day, it comes down to how likable and in control you seem to be.

Cruz is not going to come across well physically...... he looks older, is fatter, makes weird facial expressions and sweats. Contrast that with the smiling O'Rourke, who looks like he is more youthful with more energy and thinner.

Cruz has to really crack O'Rourke and also not look like he is sniveling. He can do it, but it won't be easy.

This reminds me a lot of the Nixon/Kennedy debate..... those that listened on the radio believed Nixon won, those that saw it on television believed Kennedy easily won....... why the difference? Optics.

 

Wu's statute is weaksauce. For every thousand people a deceptive marketer might defraud, maybe one sends you a certified letter. And then you refund that one guy. From DTPA:

1. As a prerequisite to filing a suit seeking damages under this Act, the consumer must send a registered or certified letter of written notice telling the seller what is wrong and asking for the amount of your damages. The notice must advise the seller in reasonable detail of the consumer's specific complaint and the amount of damages.
2. If the seller fails to send you the amount requested within 60 days of receiving your letter, a suit can be filed.

So for standing, someone would have to have received this mailer, sent in a check, later realized their mistake and sent a registered or certified letter to the Cruz campaign asking for their money back, and the Cruz campaign failing to refund it within 60 days. This law hardly has any teeth. A politically motivated actor might jump through the requisite hoops so they can have standing to sue (though the election is less than 60 days away), but the Cruz campaign would just refund them to make it go away. Wu's tweet is the most enforcement we can get -- a little public shaming for being technically against the law. Great job.

 

I really don't want to be dragged into this, but: employers can set standards regarding employee behavior while on the job. The players can give their opinions during media interviews, if they wish. Or write letter to editors. Or take out an ad on a billboard. The fact that the NFL has botched this whole thing does not undermine the above. The NBA is also allowed to do things differently, if they wish.

I would say that this topic is irrelevant to the whole Beta-Ted race, or politics in general, but it isn't. I find that Beta supporters are often confused about how the topic of free speech relates to the NFL anthem policy. That faulty reasoning, in turn, quite likely (in my mind) springs from the same faulty reasoning that leads one to support Beta and his policies.

Lastly, I could care less about how Cruz treats ostensible insults and injuries to his family. That's his business, not mine. Here's the question: who is more likely to raise taxes? The answer is obvious.

 

Clearly you couldn't care less about how he treats insults to his family, as you are still supporting. And I think the answer to your last question is a lot more up in the air than it should be. The Republican party use to be about fiscal responsibility, however the national debt has exponentially grown over the last 2 years. So who knows? Maybe spending gets so out of control that they finally bite the bullet and raise taxes. It's been done before. But if you're entire voting criteria revolves around raising taxes, our dialogue could've been a lot shorter my friend, haha! In any case, I enjoyed our discourse, and I wish you the best.

 

I'm not sure this is true any longer. I'm no HRC fan, but at least in the first debate, she seemed to me to be cleaning Trump's clock. He was the one that was outrageous, out of control....she was the one that was calm, cool, collected, statesmanlike......but who won in the end?

Debates *can* be crucial, but they aren't always -- and, I think as time goes on and each side gets entrenched in their positions, I think debates (perhaps unfortunately) matter less and less.

I do agree that Cruz is a very skilled debater. He would also have held his own (or better) against HRC if he had been the Republican nominee.

 

Thank you, I'm always in favor of civility. The best to you as well.

 

Cruz is a debate champion... but against trump and Rubio he was talking about his penis size and rambled a phrase in Spanish.

There’s 40% of this state that’s never going to vote for Beto, but if he can come off genuine and likeable while holding his own in a debate he could win that 5% he needs for the election.

 

Who knew cruz was such a comic wit...

 

There are people who actually support this guy. That's hard to believe.

 

To many "christian conservatives" now days anyplace inhabited by a majority of "brown" people is automatically a "shithole"

 

I know it says "(this is real)" but please tell me this is not real. I've been reading about this "man's" debate expertise, but are we still sure "he" has it? I mean looks what's become of Guiliani, or Trump, or just about anyone else that ages; their skills diminish. It is just hard for me to believe that anyone who threatens a BBQ ban could be some sort of debate master. I could be wrong though, and it wouldn't be the first time, ha! What a time to be alive.

 

I think it says more about the kind of audience he thinks he is dealing with

 

Wants to ban AK47, it's okay with players protesting during the anthem and wants to impeach the president. It's obvious for this guy the Senate race in Texas is an afterthought and his real focus is the future.

 

I know we differ here, but I am not opposed to anything you just listed.

 

I think you are right. But how disrespectful is that, when you sit back and think about it? I know the "deplorables" comment received a lot of criticism, but didn't our president just recently say "dumb southerner," or something to that extent. Isn't Cruz basically saying, "I think these idiots are going to take my BBQ ban comment, hook, line, and sinker." I guess that's the overall Republican strategy, and it's been pretty effective thus far.

 

No one supports him but our two party system and it's members create fascist-like priority of god, party, everything else. So he'll get those peoples vote regardless.

 

It's basically Cruz saying "you bunch of dummies will vote for me because you're incapable of thought and reason" and the republican, party over everything, voters saying "yer damn right we will!"

And they're both right. This unlikable, morally corrupt, business interest politician will get millions of votes from willing voters who are so very proud of their vote.

 

BBQ effect?

Cruz opens up 9 point advantage.

 

You might not be, but the majority of Texas is against those things. That's why Beto hasn't been really loud about the things he supports. Right now he's trying to get by on motivational speaking and a nickname. We'll see what happens after the debates where he has to admit to his positions on the issues and attempt to defend them. You might still support him after that, you might even support him more strongly, but the state of Texas as a whole? I'm not so sure.

Agreeing to those debates was the biggest mistake of the campaign for him.

 

Some of the first Cruz ads came out spelling out some of Belo's positions on the issues. The more the general public find out about what Beto stands for, the wider the gap is likely to be. RCP has Cruz up by 4.5 points after that new poll came out. I think we're likely to see things keep going in that direction as Cruz becomes more engaged in the election.