CPAC... and Ted Cruz is Canadian?

Yes the rumors are true... yes I went to CPAC under cover... and yes I observed candidates... or didn't observe them as it were...

Michael Williams and Ted Cruz were around a lot, but neither one worked the conference as hard or in as organized a fashion as he should have... Ted did seem like he was trying really hard at times without his hard work bearing much fruit... he often seemed stuck in long conversations with one person while Michael worked rooms and saw lots of people along the way... and seemed to be in a lot more camera phone pictures with peeps than Ted Cruz...

Which made this article in Human Events (link) extremely puzzling... hat tip to South Steps (link)...

Ted Cruz got his campaign manager to pull in a favor from his previous job to get some water carried.  Something had to be done about the perception that the internet exclusively loves Michael Williams.  That explains the expensive banner ads for Cruz that are everywhere.

From what I observed at CPAC Michael Williams was a crowd favorite when walking through the corridors... if only because he is black but probably because he has headlined CPAC and other similar national events in past years... Ted Cruz really kind of blended in more than a candidate for one of the most important open senate races in the country should... that's what I witnessed...

I think Ted Cruz is probably doing all the right things. I think Michael Williams probably is doing the right things too... I don't really know because so much of it is behind the scenes... I could probably live with either one as senator... although the more I look at their actual records the more clear differences emerge...

I didn't see any evidence that Roger Williams actually made it to CPAC... was I looking in the wrong places... maybe... but he was nowhere to be found.

I started doing a little research into the candidates, and Ted Cruz is a like-able enough guy but he sort of has some of the Ivy Leaguer baggage in some ways... and he is thin on the actual work resume for a big deal like United States senator...  and in doing my web searches... strangely in the research it looks like someone probably on Michael McCaul's team or maybe Dan Branch's... assiduously posted on every story and every article about Ted Cruz back in early 2009 when it looked like they might clash for attorney general that Ted Cruz was born in Canada. Calgary, it looks like... because his parents were in the oil business...

Who can blame Ted Cruz for being born in a beautiful place like that?

Calgary is like Austin but instead of hills they have the most beautiful mountains in the world in the background... and it is cold for 7 or 8 months out of the year instead of 90 or more degrees 7 or 8 months out of the year... if anything Calgary is probably more conservative than Austin... just saying... Austin is pretty liberal eh...

Still... being born in Canada... is that a bad thing? It's not like he says "hoser" but it does preclude him from ever being president... which is one thing I have seen out there aboot why Ted should win... because he is a rising star and could be president in 15 years or so... well... sorry... he can't be... he wasn't born here, and that doesn't make me a birther...

There's even a really terrible website that bashes Ted Cruz but might actually spark a backlash because it is so over the top... http://canadacruz.blogspot.com/

They call him Raffy Cruz and try to post blogs in a cheeky way but the humor is lacking and it just comes off as sort of spiteful and petty... not a fan at all the way I am a fan of the South Steps... which everyone in Texas politics should really at least a couple times a week... and the Canada Cruz page... go ahead and block it from your browser because it is absolutely diarrhea. Ted Cruz grew up in America and is an American citizen...

So to recap...

Michael Williams and Ted Cruz both worked CPAC the way you might expect... both probably could have been more disciplined at it... both got good blogger buzz and press out of it... Ted had a built in edge because he was on stage MC-ing part of the day... which was big big exposure that Michael Williams did not receive... Michael Williams seemed to make the most of his time however even eclipsing Ted Cruz... although Human Events oddly declared what I viewed as the second place guy by a long shot the actual winner of the two...

Which to me just means that Ted Cruz gave Human Events an interview and maybe were snubbed by Michael Williams if even just inadvertently? Or maybe Ted Cruz used those debating skills he honed in college and just really makes a convincing case out of very little actual experience to peeps who don't really know any better...

Michael Williams also needs to work on his elevator pitch a little bit... Ted Cruz has apparently been working on his for a long time because his is really good albeit embellished... Michael Williams is quick on his feet, but he needs to have a better speech he gives in 90 seconds about what sets him apart... that will also help for fundraising calls... which if they are not on the phone for an hour every day fundraising right now they are doing it all wrong... Michael Williams won't win on likeability alone, or being quick on his feet... he needs to tell a narrative... he needs to start taking control of his story...

Roger Williams who also has very limited experience in reality must have been working the back rooms for money and maybe that angle will pay off but no bloggers or activists saw Roger at all... money will end up being a big deal this quarter and the next... if peeps can't begin to raise serious money by the middle of this year they might be sunk... the absolute make or break quarter will be the second to last of 2011... money needs to be in the bank by then or candidates will be dropping out...

Ron Paul is not running for senate that we know of... but he probably is running for president again... his peeps were really annoying to be around... it was like they hated being there and hated everything and everyone around them... but they were the loudest peeps there...

I usually asked peeps if they had feelings about Elizabeth Ames Jones, David Dewhurst, Craig James, Debra Medina, and the others... and usually people had no idea who those people were, or they somehow associated Jones with Kay... one out of state blogger said... oh yeah she was Kay's chief of staff for a long time, right? 

No... 

People also had heard the phrase "Dewcrist" in reaction to David Dewhurst but seemed skeptical that "Rick's running mate" could be as much of a RINO as Charlie Crist...

Umm... no... Lite Guv in Texas runs independently... it's not a running mate situation...

Woah... that's weird... you guys do everything differently in Texas don't you?

Not really... a lot of states do it that way.

So in other words people were pretty grossly ignorant about Texas politics which is pretty amazing considering how big we are and how influential we are nationally...