Senator Ted Cruz may be among the smartest and best educated persons to ever run for president. Consider:
* He attended a private elementary school and high school and graduated from high school as the class valedictorian.
* He began formally studying economics when he joined the Free Market Education Foundation--at the age of 13.
* He earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy and graduated cum laude from Princeton University.
* While he was at Princeton, he won the top speaker award at the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship. That same year, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year.
* In 1995, he was a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship, which made him Princeton’s highest-ranked debater at the championship. Princeton's debate team later honored him by naming their annual novice championship after him.
* Next, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude and at the top of his class in 1995 with a Juris Doctor degree.
* While at Harvard, he was selected to be a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. And, unlike when Obama was “selected” to be the HLR editor, the selection committee did not have to lower the selection standards to enable Cruz to be selected. (As most here know, Obama was only named HLR editor after the selection committee lowered the selection standards; otherwise, he would not have even qualified for consideration.)
* Regarding Cruz’s performance as a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said, "Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant." (Incidentally, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who spent hours interviewing Cruz, has likewise said that Cruz is a very smart man.)
* While at Harvard, Cruz was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.
* After graduating from Harvard, he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and then for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Hispanic to clerk for a SCOTUS Chief Justice.
Cruz also has an impressive resume in terms of professional achievement and public service. Consider:
* Cruz served as an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department and as the director of policy planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
* From 2003 to 2008 he served as Solicitor General of Texas. As Solicitor General, Cruz argued before the Supreme Court nine times, winning five of his cases.
* Cruz has authored 70 United States Supreme Court briefs and presented 43 oral arguments, including, as mentioned, nine before the Supreme Court.
* It should be mentioned that Cruz's record of arguing before the Supreme Court nine times is more than any practicing lawyer in Texas and any current member of Congress.
* Cruz has been named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America by The National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America, and as one of the 25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century by Texas Lawyer.
Whether all this means that Cruz would be the best candidate to run against the Democratic nominee is another question.
Both sides like to portray the other as stupid, dumb, poorly informed, hollow, etc., and in some cases those labels are justified, but no rational person can believe such things about Cruz. Clearly, Cruz is very smart and very well educated.
* He attended a private elementary school and high school and graduated from high school as the class valedictorian.
* He began formally studying economics when he joined the Free Market Education Foundation--at the age of 13.
* He earned a bachelor’s degree in public policy and graduated cum laude from Princeton University.
* While he was at Princeton, he won the top speaker award at the 1992 U.S. National Debating Championship and the 1992 North American Debating Championship. That same year, he was named U.S. National Speaker of the Year.
* In 1995, he was a semi-finalist at the 1995 World Universities Debating Championship, which made him Princeton’s highest-ranked debater at the championship. Princeton's debate team later honored him by naming their annual novice championship after him.
* Next, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating magna cum laude and at the top of his class in 1995 with a Juris Doctor degree.
* While at Harvard, he was selected to be a primary editor of the Harvard Law Review, and executive editor of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, and a founding editor of the Harvard Latino Law Review. And, unlike when Obama was “selected” to be the HLR editor, the selection committee did not have to lower the selection standards to enable Cruz to be selected. (As most here know, Obama was only named HLR editor after the selection committee lowered the selection standards; otherwise, he would not have even qualified for consideration.)
* Regarding Cruz’s performance as a student at Harvard Law, Professor Alan Dershowitz said, "Cruz was off-the-charts brilliant." (Incidentally, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who spent hours interviewing Cruz, has likewise said that Cruz is a very smart man.)
* While at Harvard, Cruz was a John M. Olin Fellow in Law and Economics.
* After graduating from Harvard, he served as a law clerk to Judge J. Michael Luttig of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals and then for Chief Justice William Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court, becoming the first Hispanic to clerk for a SCOTUS Chief Justice.
Cruz also has an impressive resume in terms of professional achievement and public service. Consider:
* Cruz served as an associate deputy attorney general in the U.S. Justice Department and as the director of policy planning at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
* From 2003 to 2008 he served as Solicitor General of Texas. As Solicitor General, Cruz argued before the Supreme Court nine times, winning five of his cases.
* Cruz has authored 70 United States Supreme Court briefs and presented 43 oral arguments, including, as mentioned, nine before the Supreme Court.
* It should be mentioned that Cruz's record of arguing before the Supreme Court nine times is more than any practicing lawyer in Texas and any current member of Congress.
* Cruz has been named by American Lawyer magazine as one of the 50 Best Litigators under 45 in America, as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America by The National Law Journal as one of the 50 Most Influential Minority Lawyers in America, and as one of the 25 Greatest Texas Lawyers of the Past Quarter Century by Texas Lawyer.
Whether all this means that Cruz would be the best candidate to run against the Democratic nominee is another question.
Both sides like to portray the other as stupid, dumb, poorly informed, hollow, etc., and in some cases those labels are justified, but no rational person can believe such things about Cruz. Clearly, Cruz is very smart and very well educated.
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