2018 Senate (& House)

Cruz offered to do 5

Q: Should a white guy appropriating a Spanish-language nickname in a callus attempt to sway Hispanic voters be considered racist?
A:

Spoiler

Only if he is running as a Republican

 

Florida-27 is up for grabs. Donna Shalala has never been popular outside entrenched Dem enclaves and apparently even those places have woken up to her.

"The congressional seat was supposed to be the easiest of Democratic pickups. Hillary Clinton carried the Miami-based 27th District by nearly 20 percentage points just two years ago. Donna Shalala, the Democratic nominee, was a well-known, former Cabinet secretary with a talent for raising money.

But now local Democrats are dismayed as Shalala is struggling to put away her Republican rival, a popular former Spanish-language television newswoman named Maria Elvira Salazar.

According to internal polls from both campaigns obtained by POLITICO, Salazar is either ahead — or just narrowly trailing — Shalala....."​

Democrats fear Shalala campaign is in ‘sleep mode’ while challenger surges

 

Just to note the record - Maria Elvira Salazar is smokin' hot, especially for being in her 50s.

 

There have to be exceptions to the Pence Rule, otherwise what is the point of having a rule?

 

Calling my shot: There will be a "Blue Wave" in the midterms but Cruz will prevail.

 

Of course Cruz will prevail. More of us Texans are smart enough not to vote for beta male socialist fruit loops, than there are imported California numb nuts skinny jeans types who will vote for one.

 

Winning a Congressional election is no small feat

 

Is he the one who asked a 4 star admiral if Guam would tip over?
That right there is Shelia Jackson Lee territory.

 

I actually feel sorry for people like Johnson. If you have to care about stuff like that, it has to be exhausting - not because we shouldn't try not to offend. We should, but when the target is moving quickly, it's hard to keep track.

Mrs. Deez is a special education teacher by trade, and early on in our marriage I used the term "retarded kid" in public. She looked around to make sure no one heard me and then told me that term is considered offensive in education circles. I asked her if she knew that "retarded" was actually a politically correct euphemism for other terms like "moron," "idiot," and "imbecile" which are still used in the Texas Rules of Civil Procedure and pointed out the irony that the euphemism is now offensive.

I asked if I should call them "mentally disabled children." She said that was less offensive but still inappropriate because we never "lead with or define the person by the disability." I'll admit that this prompted an eye-roll from me. The appropriate term was "children with disabilities" (or something like that). Again, it's a moving target. They might even be onto some other term now.

 

If you're a Beta fan, this isn't a good sign.

 

How come no one wants to answer this question -- Is it racist for a white guy to appropriate a Hispanic first name to help him win elections? Indeed, for any purpose?

 

Polls on Beto-Cruz are all over the place. One internet poll released Monday had Beto up by 2. Another poll released Tuesday had Cruz up by 9.

Why are poll results so different for Cruz/O’Rourke race?

 

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson. It was worth sitting through her crappy movies just to see her.

I saw her on the Tonight show many years ago. David Brenner was guest hosting. It was Halloween and Vincent Price was also a guest. She was hilarious. I think Vincent had to pogo stick his way off stage if you know what I mean (and I think you do).

 

Thin ice, Joe. Very thin ice. There's a reason why Cruz was on the ballot as Ted when he ran against Dewhurst. He wanted tot win. HeH didn't want to be the next Xavier Rodriguez (Texas Supreme Court), Felipe Reyna (Waco Court of Appeals), or Ernest Garcia (Austin Court of Appeals).

 

IIRC He was never called Rafael. that is his father.
He was called Felito until High school when he started to go by Ted which is of course a name many people named Edward use. He has gone by Ted ever since. With a last name like Cruz it would be difficult to fool gringos. Of course his mother is a pure gringo.

 

I get that, but that's basically Beto's justification.

 

Yes it is.
And it might fool a few.

 

Deez, I don't recall Ted ever running away from his surname.
I don't recall EVER seeing O'Rourke on any sign or campaign literature. Just Frito. Why would Frito be so ashamed of his family name?

 

He didn't run from it, but he wanted people to know that he was a Ted (a cultural white guy), not a Rafael (culturally less white-sounding).

 

I don't think the name Ted is related to Anglos. I have known many Hispanic guys who were called Ted. I'll stipulate Ted sounds more "white" than Rafael.

 

But that's the point. Cruz wasn't trying to falsify his ethnicity. Nobody cares about that. He was trying to signal his culture. I'm sure you've known some Hispanics named Ted. How many were illegal aliens? How many spoke primarily Spanish? Probably not many.

Personally, I represented a ton of Hispanics who couldn't speak English and/or were illegal. Lots of Joses, Miguels, Juans, Robertos, Gonzalos, Julios, and Jorges. I don't recall any Teds. Lol. To be fair, I think there was a Teodoro.

 

I'm not sure Ted was signalling anything. I think he was using the name he grew up with.

Beta, on the other hand, is false signalling like a mofo.

 

SN
There is a pic around showing a 1st grade O'rourke wearing a beto shirt
I would like to see his HS yearbook. We know he was Bob at Yale and in his band

 

Did you follow the judicial races I mentioned earlier? There's no way those weren't on Cruz's mind. (I worked on the Garcia race.)

 

Ted went by Ted in HS and through college, law school etc
Actually by the time he ran in 2012 having a more Hispanic name would not have hurt him.

 

In a Republican primary, yes it would. Again, ask X-Rod, Felipe Reyna, and Ernest Garcia.

 

Mr D
I will look these people up. The only one I know is Felipe Reyna
so you think he did not win reelection because he was hispanic?

 

Mostly, yes. There were special interest battles involving Reyna, but most voters knew nothing about those. People are thoroughly ignorant about judicial races, especially in rural areas.

Texas Supreme Court justice Xavier Rodriguez was defeated by Steven Wayne Smith. Rodriguez had tons of money and broad support. SWS ran mostly on constitutional issues and his success in represent the plaintiffs in the Hopwood case but had no money to run a serious race. To 90 percent of Republican voters, he was completely unknown. He won anyway. Full disclosure - I have known both SWS and his campaign manager, David Rogers for 18 years. They are good people, and Smith was an outstanding Supreme Court justice. I voted for him every chance I got. However, being up against a guy named Xavier Rodriguez was the difference maker for him. SWS was challenged a couple of years later by Paul Green (white guy with a white name) and was defeated. He ran again in 2006 against Don Willett (another white guy with a white name) and was defeated.

Ernest Garcia was appointed by Bush to fill a vacancy as a Travis County civil district judge. Local lawyers of all stripes thought he was a fair judge and respected him, but he lost in 2000 to Darlene Byrne, basically because he had a R by his name. In 2004, he ran in the GOP primary for the Austin Court of Appeals. At this point, not only did he have strong support from the legal community, he ran as an ideological conservative and had strong grassroots support and ran a solid, well-funded campaign. His opponent? Bill Green, who was a bike-riding liberal environmental activist from Austin with no money, no legal connections, and blatantly homosexual. Green defeated Garcia - not in liberal Travis County but in the rural counties, where a bunch of dumbasses saw the name Green and thought it was better than the name Garcia.

Those races don't sound like a big deal, but in GOP insider circles, they caught a ton of attention and were analyzed to death. Ted Cruz unquestionably knew about them and campaigned accordingly.

 

Obama is out there campaigning for fellow leftists
Things are getting a little testy
But its the same old Barry -- Speaking for ~33-minutes, he said
“I” 56 times + “Me” 5 times + “My” 4 times
talking about himself a total of 64 times, or once about every 30 seconds.
Some things never change

 

I'm shocked, I'm stunned
CNN caught red-handed doing some actual reporting