Cruz wows GOP crowd, deserved wider audience

Austin American-Statesman: 

Ted Cruz, Texas' Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, drew roaring applause Tuesday night from the Texas delegates before he discussed his Hispanic heritage and slammed the president during a speech at the Republican National Convention.

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"This election presents a stark choice. Two visions: we can continue down the road of the Obama Democrats, towards more and more spending, debt and government control of the economy and our lives. Or we can return to the founding principles of our nation — free markets, fiscal responsibility, and individual liberty," Cruz said.

"Unfortunately, President Obama's campaign is going to try to divide America. They're going to try to separate us into little groups, and try to scare everybody. They're going to tell seniors that Medicare will be taken away, tell Hispanics that we're not welcome here and send the vice president to preach a message of division."

Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University, said it was unfortunate for Cruz that major cable channels conducted interviews during his speech and the networks didn't cover it.

"Ted Cruz gave an impressive and stirring speech, distinctive in that he alone of the dozen speakers that preceded him spoke from the middle of the stage without notes or a teleprompter," Jillson said.

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In his speech, Cruz, a college debater and former assistant state attorney general who has argued cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, echoed much of what he said on the campaign trail.

"To restore America, to get Americans back to work, we must rein in the leviathan," he said. "We must stop spending money we don't have and turn around our crushing debt."

The son of a Cuban immigrant, Cruz was one of a few Latinos to take the stage during the convention.

In his speech, Cruz juxtaposed a story about his father's journey from torture in his birth county to a business owner with a statistic showing Hispanic unemployment at more than 10 percent.

Iggy Sanchez, a delegate from Potomoc, Md., listened closely to Cruz's speech.

"I think he's a superstar. He's got a compelling story," Sanchez said from the convention floor immediately after the speech.

Sanchez added that he thought Cruz could bring more Latinos into the party.

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I was disappointed that his speech was not carried on the networks.  MSNBC was avoiding any speeches that conflicted with their racialist narrative, but Fox also ignored the speech to have some rather meaningless interviews.