What does Ted Cruz really want?

[Xing]

Surely he knows what his odds of actually becoming president are. He can't be that dim...

[seanNJ9]

Attention. Money. Things

He wants to be paid for speeches, get people to buy his books, get wined and dined by money men, be talked about.

Same as Newt and others.

[Ebsy]

A Fox News contributor gig pays pretty well these day.

[Warren 4 Secretary of Everything]

He wants to win. Him winning the nomination is not too far out of the realm of possibility and I don't know why you guys are in such denial of that. Ted Cruz is smart, he talks the talk of conservatives and can speak to those that don't agree with him without sounding stupid or scary (if he wants to). He has the Tea Party constituency locked up and is aiming to take over the Religious Right too. If he gets those two combined then he can match the size of the Establishment. He can compete.

[Likely Voter]

With his ego, I suspect he thinks he can win the nomination, although being pragmatic he probably would recognize that he may not get it on his first try.

Also, at bare minimum he wants to remain relevant. For the next year, you get a bigger voice if you are a candidate. Anything he does in the Senate now has more attention.

[Ebsy]

He wants to win. Him winning the nomination is not too far out of the realm of possibility and I don't know why you guys are in such denial of that. Ted Cruz is smart, he talks the talk of conservatives and can speak to those that don't agree with him without sounding stupid or scary (if he wants to). He has the Tea Party constituency locked up and is aiming to take over the Religious Right too. If he gets those two combined then he can match the size of the Establishment. He can compete.

He has neither of these constituencies locked up, unless both these groups combined makes up like 5% of the GOP primary electorate.

[Mister Mets]

He probably wants to be President, but there are several good outcomes.

He's either pandering to the base, or a true believer. If he's the latter, he probably thinks he can win against Hillary. If he's pandering, he probably thinks he can shamelesslt shift to the center in the General.

He can lose a primary, and come out with a higher profile. That'll help him as a prominent Senator, and potential candidate for office later. And if he wants to make money later, it'll help to be a well-known former Senator.

[136or142]

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I believe that Cruz only ran for the U.S Senate as a platform to run for President, and isn't interested in being a senator for the long haul.

So,
1.I believe he's running to win
2.If he doesn't win, I don't think he'll run for reelection to the U.S Senate, though I could see him running for governor of Texas as a consolation prize.

[Stranger in a strange land]

He probably thinks he can win. Even if he doesn't, he can still force the other candidates to the right and raise his own profile even further.

[Lincoln Republican]

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I believe that Cruz only ran for the U.S Senate as a platform to run for President, and isn't interested in being a senator for the long haul.

Oh, you mean just like Hillary Clinton who only ran for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 as a platform to run for President, and wasn't interested in being a Senator for the long haul.

[IceSpear]

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I believe that Cruz only ran for the U.S Senate as a platform to run for President, and isn't interested in being a senator for the long haul.

Oh, you mean just like Hillary Clinton who only ran for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 as a platform to run for President, and wasn't interested in being a Senator for the long haul.

At least Hillary was able to finish a term, and didn't spend her entire tenure in office grandstanding and attention whoring.

[Lincoln Republican]

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I believe that Cruz only ran for the U.S Senate as a platform to run for President, and isn't interested in being a senator for the long haul.

Oh, you mean just like Hillary Clinton who only ran for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 as a platform to run for President, and wasn't interested in being a Senator for the long haul.

At least Hillary was able to finish a term, and didn't spend her entire tenure in office grandstanding and attention whoring.

At least you don't deny that Hillary only ran for U.S. Senate in order to have a political base from which to run for the Democratic nomination for President.

And I am sure Cruz will finish this Senate term, unless of course he is elected President.  And if he is not elected President, he will run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2018.

[Indy Texas]

I do find Cruz's placing so many chips on the Christian Right's square to be an odd tactical move.

He really has no bona fides to win them over. Sure, he's a Southern Baptist, but so is Bill Clinton. He's a Princeton-and-Harvard Man who, as far as I can tell, has never really worn religion on his sleeve during his time in public office. I recall there being an interview he did before running where he said abortion is "not an animating issue for [him]." Then, of course there is the fact that one of his major benefactors is Peter Thiel, a hedonistic anarcho-capitalist and Very Rich Gay who lives in San Francisco.

Maybe he realized that he's set fire to too many things to be anywhere near Establishment (and that's a crowded boat to be in anyway), but you can't be a Tea Party Outsider when you worked in the Bush Administration and your wife works for Goldman Sachs. Maybe cobbling together a Frankenstein out of the various Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer and Mike Huckabee coalitions was the most attractive remaining option.

[136or142]

Although I have no evidence to back it up, I believe that Cruz only ran for the U.S Senate as a platform to run for President, and isn't interested in being a senator for the long haul.

Oh, you mean just like Hillary Clinton who only ran for the U.S. Senate from New York in 2000 as a platform to run for President, and wasn't interested in being a Senator for the long haul.

Where did I say that I thought he did anything wrong?  A lot of politicians first run for lesser offices as a platform to run for higher office, though not normally for the U.S Senate.

I agree he probably will finish out his term once his ego fueled presidential run comes to an ignoble end, but I don't believe he will run for reelection.  He's shown no interest in learning the details of legislation and is completely uninterested in the office except to be a bomb thrower.

[hopper]

I do find Cruz's placing so many chips on the Christian Right's square to be an odd tactical move.

He really has no bona fides to win them over. Sure, he's a Southern Baptist, but so is Bill Clinton. He's a Princeton-and-Harvard Man who, as far as I can tell, has never really worn religion on his sleeve during his time in public office. I recall there being an interview he did before running where he said abortion is "not an animating issue for [him]." Then, of course there is the fact that one of his major benefactors is Peter Thiel, a hedonistic anarcho-capitalist and Very Rich Gay who lives in San Francisco.

Maybe he realized that he's set fire to too many things to be anywhere near Establishment (and that's a crowded boat to be in anyway), but you can't be a Tea Party Outsider when you worked in the Bush Administration and your wife works for Goldman Sachs. Maybe cobbling together a Frankenstein out of the various Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer and Mike Huckabee coalitions was the most attractive remaining option.

Well Cruz was "The Tea Party Guy" in the 2012 Republican Primary for US Senate in Texas against David Dewhurst. I'm sure you know that though since you live in Texas!

Funny statement about cobbling coalitions together though!

[All Along The Watchtower]

I do find Cruz's placing so many chips on the Christian Right's square to be an odd tactical move.

He really has no bona fides to win them over. Sure, he's a Southern Baptist, but so is Bill Clinton. He's a Princeton-and-Harvard Man who, as far as I can tell, has never really worn religion on his sleeve during his time in public office. I recall there being an interview he did before running where he said abortion is "not an animating issue for [him]." Then, of course there is the fact that one of his major benefactors is Peter Thiel, a hedonistic anarcho-capitalist and Very Rich Gay who lives in San Francisco.

Maybe he realized that he's set fire to too many things to be anywhere near Establishment (and that's a crowded boat to be in anyway), but you can't be a Tea Party Outsider when you worked in the Bush Administration and your wife works for Goldman Sachs. Maybe cobbling together a Frankenstein out of the various Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer and Mike Huckabee coalitions was the most attractive remaining option.

Considering that the Christian Right is more of a blatant political project than a sincere religious group (though I guess those aren't mutually exclusive), I don't really see the problem. And it's not like these guys aren't shameless hypocrites, either.

[King]

To be President.

If he's disingenuous, it's as a career mole to destroy the Republican Party from the inside--not to make money or sell books.