On Easter Sunday, Senator Ted Cruz became the first presidential candidate this cycle to run a television commercial. The video and transcript are after the jump, along with highlights from Cruz’s events in Sioux City, Dubuque, Durango, Cedar Falls, Cedar Rapids, and Des Moines on April 1 and 2.
Nothing I’ve seen or heard from Cruz lately changes my view that he will crash and burn in the Iowa caucuses.
The 30-second spot “Blessing” aired nationally on April 6 on the Fox News Channel’s program “Killing Jesus,” and also in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada during NBC’s broadcast of “A.D.: The Bible Continues.” The total ad buy was small–just $33,000–but it generated a ton of free media coverage for Cruz’s presidential campaign this weekend.
The audio and some of the video used in this commercial come from Cruz’s campaign launch at Liberty University last month.
My annotated transcript:
Cruz’s voice: Were it not for the transformative love of Jesus Christ, I would’ve been raised by a single mom without my father in the house. [viewer sees footage of Cruz and his wife walking down the street, holding hands with their daughters; then family holding hands around a dinner table as Cruz apparently says grace; then Cruz hugging his father backstage at a political event]
God’s blessing has been on America from the very beginning of this nation. Over and over again, when we faced impossible odds, the American people rose to the challenge. [footage of unidentified family walking outdoors, children praying, children saying the Pledge of Allegiance while one girl holds a U.S. flag, soldier embracing his wife and child, man silhouetted against rural scene, another person praying]
This is our fight, and that is why I’m running for president of the United States. [viewer sees footage of Cruz standing with flag in background, then Cruz speaking to large crowd at Liberty University]
I’m Ted Cruz and I approve this message. [footage of Cruz waving to crowd at Liberty University; wife and daughters stand with him]
The opening line was jarring for me. Reading the sentence on the screen doesn’t convey the full effect. Listen to Cruz speak those words while the viewer sees images of his perfect-looking family. His tone suggests that growing up with a single mom is a horrible fate, and even implies that single mothers have not been touched by “the transformative love of Jesus Christ.”
I recognize that Cruz’s ad is not targeting liberals like me, but social conservatives, who are an important voting bloc, especially in the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina primary. Maybe it will strike a chord with many, but some conservative Christian women received his message in the same way I did: “tone deaf” and insulting to single mothers.
Visually, my first thought is that Cruz looks weird with that microphone attached to his face. Most politicians wear a mic somewhere on their clothing. Maybe he is deliberately going for a motivational speaker or megachurch pastor image, but I find it odd. Cruz has worn that kind of microphone at larger events in New Hampshire and Iowa but reportedly not in smaller venues.
In general, it strikes me as poor taste for a candidate to use a religious holiday as a promotional opportunity, but Cruz is far from the first presidential hopeful to combine political and spiritual messages on Easter or Christmas. At the end of this post, I enclosed his campaign’s Easter press release, which includes a classic Ronald Reagan reference.
Side note: I hadn’t made this connection, but Patti Brown is probably right about the “disconnect” for Cruz to hold big political events on Maundy Thursday.
Unquestionably, though, Cruz was well-received at his Iowa events on April 1 and 2. He drew big crowds at all the venues, he took questions from audience members, he got laughs from his jokes and drew lots of applause.
Cruz emphasized his uncompromising stance on many issues of importance to conservatives:
“There are a lot of candidates in this race who appeal potentially to one slice, or another slice or another slice. But we’ve got to get a big enough team to get to 51% and win,” Cruz told the [Sioux City] crowd. […]
“There are a lot of good people who are going to get into this race who I like, who I respect, who are friends of mine, but if you look at the field and ask of those dozen issues that have been the biggest issues in the last couple of years, on how many of those issues have those individuals stood up and lead?”
Speaking to reporters in Durango, Cruz again defended Indiana’s “religious freedom” law, widely interpreted as an attempt to legalize discrimination against LGBT citizens: “I think it is unfortunate that large companies today are listening to the extreme left wing agenda that is driven by an aggressive gay marriage agenda.”
Cruz stood his ground when confronted by a supporter of biofuels and mixed it up with a Rand Paul supporter over a bill related to the National Security Administration, which the Senate considered last year.
Pat Rynard attended several of the Cruz events and wrote up his takeaways at Iowa Starting Line. This part strikes me as important:
Cruz cracked a lot of jokes that the crowds ate up, but what stood out to me was how mean-spirited they all were. He recalled bantering with a Texas farmer that “the only difference between a regulator and locust is that you can’t use pesticide on the regulator.” It sounded like he was attempting to appeal to young voters when he began talking of young people with “faded posters of Obama on their wall,” but he turned them into a punchline by finishing “who still live in their parents basement,” which got lots of laughs. He got chuckles just from saying Joe Biden’s name. His favorite joke was about closing the IRS and sending all 90,000 IRS agents to the southern border to scare away immigrants.
What pleases a room full of people who came to see you is not necessarily what will appeal to a critical mass of Iowa Republicans. My money’s on Cruz’s unpleasant personality putting off way too many people here.
Speaking of money, Cruz says his campaign raised about $4 million in its first eight days from some 43,000 donors. Whether he can raise the $40 million to $50 million his advisers have talked about is another story.
Any relevant comments are welcome in this thread.
P.S.- Bleeding Heartland has argued that Representative Rod Blum (IA-01) should endorse Rand Paul before the caucuses. The best argument for Blum not to endorse: he basked in Cruz’s reflected glory at three events last week. He even got a standing ovation from the Cedar Falls crowd. Endorsing Paul early would deprive Blum of opportunities to make a good impression with activists leaning toward other presidential candidates.
CRUZ: Today is a day to cherish our faith, our freedoms, and all precious gifts that we have been blessed to receive
04/05/15
CHARLESTON, SC – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, released the following statement in observance of Easter:“He is risen!
“Heidi and I are in Charleston, South Carolina where we attended a beautiful sunrise service.
“As Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are reminded of the true hope for the world.
“Today I am reminded of the touching anecdote President Reagan once used to explain the prevailing promise of God’s word.
“As Reagan said in his famous ‘Tear down this wall’ speech at the Brandenberg Gate:
“‘The totalitarian world produces backwardness because it does such violence to the spirit, thwarting the human impulse to create, to enjoy, to worship. The totalitarian world finds even symbols of love and of worship an affront. Years ago, before the East Germans began rebuilding their churches, they erected a secular structure: the television tower at Alexander Platz. Virtually ever since, the authorities have been working to correct what they view as the tower’s one major flaw, treating the glass sphere at the top with paints and chemicals of every kind. Yet even today when the sun strikes that sphere-that sphere that towers over all Berlin-the light makes the sign of the cross. There in Berlin, like the city itself, symbols of love, symbols of worship, cannot be suppressed.’
“Today is a day to cherish our faith, our freedoms, and all precious gifts that we have been blessed to receive.
“As it is written in Luke 24:7 ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’
“Heidi and I wish you and your family a very Happy Easter.”