TED CRUZ BECOMES RESPECTABLE!! – AT 8:48 A.M. ET:  You know when a Republican candidate for president is becoming respectable.  The New York Times viciously attacks him.  It is a badge of honor, to be worn proudly.  From Howard Kurtz at Fox:

Just as Ted Cruz has become a serious threat for the nomination, we learn that he faces a gigantic obstacle that could doom his campaign.

In the view of the New York Times, he has one helluva charm deficit.

The paper pulled out the stops in depicting the Texas senator as socially awkward and not very likable. As the Times put it, “now comes the hard part: making friends.”

Now personality is part of politics and undoubtedly fair game. And no one would accuse Cruz of being a warm and fuzzy guy. He has a combative public personality. He’s alienated some of his Republican colleagues with tough tactics, filibusters, a government shutdown and sometimes harsh rhetoric.

But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a more approachable side. And the Times story seems to me to vacuum up every available negative dust ball to paint a dark picture.

It begins with the choice of opening anecdote:

“Senator Ted Cruz had been at it for several minutes, offering handshakes and uneasy smiles, when he encountered an apparent holdout in the crowd.”

The haughty holdout? A 3-year-old boy, who didn’t respond to the senator’s questions about toy dinosaurs and fire trucks. As if that’s never happened to any other politician.

“The article began by mocking a shy little boy,” a Cruz adviser tells me. He described Cruz as “a great guy to hang out with, a night owl who likes to laugh and have fun. People don’t see that side of him. He’s actually a little nerdy.”

Cruz did say in a debate—dutifully noted by the Times—that “if you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy. But if you want someone to drive you home, I will get the job done and I will get you home.” The adviser acknowledged that this was a mistake.

I haven’t hung out with Cruz, but I’ve chatted with him enough to know that his political passion is leavened by an easy sense of humor.

COMMENT:  Ted, you've arrived.  The New York Times hates you.  We'll send you a plaque commemorating the achievement.

Cruz is not Mr. Popularity.  But he is Mr. Brilliant.  If he gets into a scrap with Hillary, he'll have her for lunch.

December 14,  2015