While Texas Senator Ted Cruz is plunging the nation and the Republican Party into an ultra-risky, ill-considered government shutdown — with no apparent longer term strategy — he deserves credit for engaging the so-called mainstream media with face to face interviews.
Cruz’s interview yesterday with David Gregory on Meet the Press was an unqualified success, as was his interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN. His media blitz with the establishment media continues this week, and he’s proven quite comfortable in every format, with every interviewer. He’s calm, deliberative, clear and concise.
This is a significant change from watching most rank and file Congressional Republicans hide out solely on Fox News. Ted Cruz gets the highest marks not just for his chutzpah, but for taking his absolutist message to every corner of the media marketplace to help inform the public debate.
He may be wrong, and he may be sending the GOP into the proverbial ditch, but he’s incredibly articulate.