The Midnight Tweet of Ted Cruz

By Robert Wenzel

Yes, Ted Cruz is coming, and what libertarian political observers should understand is that this is a big problem for Rand Paul, and Rand and his team know it.

Rand and Cruz are attempting to attract the same voters.  To be sure Cruz is no libertarian, As Howard Fineman informs, Cruz is:

to the right of Likud on Israel, anti-immigration to the max, big on defense spending, etc.

But the YAL kids love him, Here's Fineman again:

 The audience should have belonged to Sen. Rand Paul. After all, the thousand or so clean-cut millennials in the D.C.-area ballroom were members of Young Americans for Liberty, a student group founded by Paul’s father, former Rep. Ron Paul.

The kids chuckled appreciatively as Rand unspooled his tart, college-dorm-room disdain for government. But he didn’t fire them up. Neither did Utah Sen. Mike Lee, the thoughtful-sounding son of a Reagan-era U.S. solicitor general.

The man who got them cheering, who got them going, who got them roaring with derisive laughter and bubbling with anger at the depredations of liberals was: Sen. Ted Cruz.

Striding the stage like Elvis (if Elvis had been a college debater at Princeton and a brilliant student at Harvard Law), Cruz was the firebrand whom the conserva-geeks wanted to either meet or become.

From everything I hear, Cruz is very smart and a great debater, I am hearing this is the view held by high level libertarian-type Rand supporters, who know a thing or two about debating and television presence. And Alan Dershowitz, who taught Cruz at Harvard law, backs up the view:

Cruz “was an outstanding student in my class,” Dershowitz said. “Without a doubt he is among the smartest students I’ve ever had… I’ve had great students but he has to be at the top of anyone’s short list, in terms of raw brain power.”

And if that weren't enough for Rand to have to worry about, there is the Cruz family:

Optics don't get much better than this. It is John John, Caroline and Camelot all over again.

Indeed, one of the Cruz's daughters is named Caroline. It is not difficult to picture the younger one playing under the president's desk in the Oval Office.

And the girls are at a young enough age where they are not going to do anything embarrassing. The Cruz spokesman never will have to trot out, ever, during the campaign months ahead and say, "The Cruz family requests that you respect their privacy as they deal with this youthful indiscretion." Nope, hand the girls ice creams and they are good to go to win more votes.

This is what Rand is going up against, and so far Cruz has played things as if Rand was a British soldier in the days of the American Revolution. Rand is marching in formation blasting to the world what his next step is going to be. Yes, on April 7, next month, he will be over there and announce running for the presidency.

Meanwhile, with barely an advance warning, Cruz on the other hand jumped on the equivalent of a modern day messenger's horse, that is he took his cell phone in hand, and at midnight tweeted out:

I'm running for President and I hope to earn your support! pic.twitter.com/0UTqaIoytP
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 23, 2015

Thus showing early on who is skilled at social media.

This is not good for Rand. And, we have that major article looking deep into Ron Paul Inc, about to drop any day that is likely going to hurt Rand. I hear that many people have talked.

What will Rand do here? Sadly, I think this will push him even further into the war camp. Despite the cute daughters, we are really talking about Cruz missiles, when it comes to Ted Cruz. And all indications are that Rand, especially now, will advance the war cry beyond Cruz missiles.

Robert Wenzel is Editor & Publisher at EconomicPolicyJournal.com and at Target Liberty. He is also author of The Fed Flunks: My Speech at the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Follow him on twitter:@wenzeleconomics