320 Years of History
Gold Member
I have so far only watched the first part of the last GOP town hall discussion, so I only saw Ted Cruz's piece of it. I took notes as I watched and below are those notes.
Overall, I don't think I know materially more about what Mr. Cruz's positions are with regard to the subject of the questions asked than I did before. That's pretty bad because I've until recently pretty well ignored Mr. Cruz, largely because I don't care for what I perceive to be his "born again" and "my way or the highway" approaches to legislation and governance. However, seeing as I've also decided I will not vote for Trump -- I didn't watch his part of the town hall because he's "burnt the bridge" to my vote, and it no longer matters to me what he says -- I have little choice but to give Mssrs. Cruz and Kasich a listen.
FWIW, if you missed the town hall, here are the transcripts:
Ted Cruz’s Questions
Note:
This first bit of discussion/Q&A is between Anderson Cooper (AC), the moderator, and Mr. Cruz.
So, whereas Trump just says any damn thing, Mr. Cruz talks a lot but still doesn't tell you what you want to know. I sort of, but not much, tolerate candidates' not responding directly when presented with questions by a newsperson. Doing that when voters ask questions of them is completely unacceptable to me. It shows a complete lack of respect for the person asking the question as well as other individuals in the audience who may want to know the answer to the same question. So, as a result of the last town hall, I'm not likely to give Mr. Cruz much more consideration.
Thread Question:
Does a candidate's failure to answer directly really piss you off? Enough to deter you from voting for them?
(Note, if you are keen on Trump, you don't need to answer that question because we all know that, like Trump, you folks don't even care about whether a candidate (yours) makes truthful statements, so we know you don't care if you don't get clear and direct answers to questions.)
Overall, I don't think I know materially more about what Mr. Cruz's positions are with regard to the subject of the questions asked than I did before. That's pretty bad because I've until recently pretty well ignored Mr. Cruz, largely because I don't care for what I perceive to be his "born again" and "my way or the highway" approaches to legislation and governance. However, seeing as I've also decided I will not vote for Trump -- I didn't watch his part of the town hall because he's "burnt the bridge" to my vote, and it no longer matters to me what he says -- I have little choice but to give Mssrs. Cruz and Kasich a listen.
FWIW, if you missed the town hall, here are the transcripts:
Ted Cruz’s Questions
Note:
- “Not answered” here means no direct answer to the question asked was given. Failing to answer "yes" or "no" to a yes/no question is the clearest form of not answering.
- “Answered” means the speaker gave a direct answer to the question asked.
- Any other classification means the speaker responded to the question with remarks that did not directly answer the question and that could be correctly or incorrectly inferred to mean multiple things, some or none of which the speaker made clear were or were not what he meant.
This first bit of discussion/Q&A is between Anderson Cooper (AC), the moderator, and Mr. Cruz.
- If your campaign manager were charged with battering a member of the press that covers your campaign, would you fire him?
- Answered. His answer, not surprisingly, was, “Of course.” (This is the only question he directly answered for the first 24 minutes of the town hall discussion.)
- Seeing that you need 85% of remaining delegates, how do you see yourself as having a path to victory?
- Not Answered: Referring to the old adage about two campers and a bear, he responded, that he’s putting on his running shoes because he doesn’t have to outrun the bear, he need only outrun the bear. Nice axiom, but it doesn’t really answer the question.
- Not Answered: Asked about the idea of culling Muslims and Muslim communities, he engaged in demagoguery and fear mongering.
- Asked if when he last fall stated that Donald Trump is “terrific,” did he mean that or was it political posturing that drove him to say that?
- Not answered. He talked about other people and what was going on at the time, but did not address his own statement and whether it was sincere remark or something said for political strategy’s sake.
- How and why does your religion play a part in your political decision making? Do you not think it should be more of a moral belief and not something that should interfere with your decision making on behalf of all people?
- Not answered. Talked about other people. Talked about what we need. Talked about the role of the Constitution as a unifying engine.
- Will you send overwhelming force with unrestricted use of power to obliterate ISIS and to send a message?
- Not answered. Stated that the question of when to commit forces to combat is the most serious decision a President must make. Stated that he believes doing so should be keyed to the vital national security interests of the U.S. Seen too often in the past seven years that Mr. Obama has not focused on our national security issues. Offered what he called an example of Libya (It’s not relevant whether he’s right or wrong…he still hadn’t answered the question)….Talked about why that was a mistake, all the while criticizing Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
Moved to taking about Syria…if we topple Assad, ISIS will take over. Our focus in Syria should be destroying ISIS. When pressed, to answer directly, he said, “I’ll do what is necessary….We should use overwhelming air power.”
When asked by AC about the civilian impact of doing that, he described using tactics that are appropriate to combating a state, but not for combatting a group that situates its members and resources among the civilian population.
Finally stated that he wouldn’t use ground forces the way Mr. Obama has.
- Not answered. Stated that the question of when to commit forces to combat is the most serious decision a President must make. Stated that he believes doing so should be keyed to the vital national security interests of the U.S. Seen too often in the past seven years that Mr. Obama has not focused on our national security issues. Offered what he called an example of Libya (It’s not relevant whether he’s right or wrong…he still hadn’t answered the question)….Talked about why that was a mistake, all the while criticizing Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton.
- What do you regard as your greatest personal failure and what did you learn from it?
- Not answered. Told us that questions like that are always tricky. (No shit!) Describes what it’s like when that question comes up on a job interview. His answer was that “he’s a pretty driven guy,” saying that has pros and cons. Talked about his father having been imprisoned and tortured. Talked about growing up in a two party Cuban household – Republican and Communist. Said he’s a “what you see is what you get” guy.
- Is the name calling setting a good example for the kids of America? Should we stick to substance?
- Answered. Said he worries about the message the candidates are sending. Said he thinks the name calling has no place in politics. Said he can’t control what the other candidates say. Said he’d refrain from personal attacks and insults, avoid gutter mining, etc.
- Wisconsin farmer with 2800 head of dairy cattle: What are the short and long term solutions for keeping the Latino workforce on which farmers depend because they cannot get native born folks who will do the job?
- Not answered. Told the story of an Arizona pepper farmer who lost his workforce when AZ cracked down on illegal immigrant workers. The farmer was ticked off and didn’t know what to do. He ended up designing a machine that would pick the peppers, went to the local college and had them build it for him. Mr. Cruz then shared how the drop in illegal immigrants freed up resources/money in AZ that could then be used to take care of the state’s citizens. (??? I thought, “Say what?” Well, okay….I’m dying to hear how/if he addresses subsidy programs, assuming he gets a question about that.)
Said he’s going to end illegal immigration. Says his view of immigration is “Legal immigration = good. Illegal = bad.” Says that eliminating illegal immigrants from the workforce will make wages go up. (Never mind that removing workers of any sort – legal, illegal, etc. -- from the workforce while the demand for labor remains constant or increases will do that anyway, but he’s not wrong, he’s just not telling the whole story either.)
- Not answered. Told the story of an Arizona pepper farmer who lost his workforce when AZ cracked down on illegal immigrant workers. The farmer was ticked off and didn’t know what to do. He ended up designing a machine that would pick the peppers, went to the local college and had them build it for him. Mr. Cruz then shared how the drop in illegal immigrants freed up resources/money in AZ that could then be used to take care of the state’s citizens. (??? I thought, “Say what?” Well, okay….I’m dying to hear how/if he addresses subsidy programs, assuming he gets a question about that.)
- Will you adhere to your statement wherein you said you’d support whoever is the GOP nominee, even if it’s Donald Trump?
- Not answered. Pressed twice and still not answered.
So, whereas Trump just says any damn thing, Mr. Cruz talks a lot but still doesn't tell you what you want to know. I sort of, but not much, tolerate candidates' not responding directly when presented with questions by a newsperson. Doing that when voters ask questions of them is completely unacceptable to me. It shows a complete lack of respect for the person asking the question as well as other individuals in the audience who may want to know the answer to the same question. So, as a result of the last town hall, I'm not likely to give Mr. Cruz much more consideration.
Thread Question:
Does a candidate's failure to answer directly really piss you off? Enough to deter you from voting for them?
(Note, if you are keen on Trump, you don't need to answer that question because we all know that, like Trump, you folks don't even care about whether a candidate (yours) makes truthful statements, so we know you don't care if you don't get clear and direct answers to questions.)
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