1stRambo
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Ted Cruz stands alone after the King Corn summit
posted at 9:31 am on March 8, 2015 by Jazz Shaw
Yesterday we covered the acid test of prospective candidates for 2016 in Iowa when it comes to ethanol subsidies and the Renewable Fuel Standard. At that time I promised that I would report back to you on how the 2016 hopefuls did in this admittedly daunting challenge to conservative politicians. Iām sorry to say that,as the WSJ reported for us, the results were less than impressive in most cases.
Letās start with the bad news. First upā¦ Rick Perry.
[T]he former governor of a petroleum-rich state [Governor Perry] suggested he didnāt think it would be fair to end the RFS while oil companies continued to benefit from tax breaks. āI donāt think you pull the RFS out and discriminate against the RFS and leave all these other subsidies,ā he said.
Jeb Bush acted like the RFS is a bad toy, but had no plans to put it back in the cupboard.
āThe markets are ultimately going to have to decide this,ā said Mr. Bush, who declined to set a firm deadline for ending the fuel standard imposed a decade ago by his brother, former President George W. Bush. āWhether thatās 2022 or sometime in the future I donāt know,ā he said.
And then there was this guyā¦
When asked if he would support the Renewable Fuel Standard he just said no. And then he put out some hard truths which seemed to earn him the respect a difficult answer deserved.
āI recognize that this is a gathering of a lot of folks where the answer youād like me to give is āIām for the RFS, darnit;ā thatād be the easy thing to do,ā he said. āBut Iāll tell you, people are pretty fed up, I think, with politicians who run around and tell one group one thing, tell another group another thing, and then they go to Washington and they donāt do anything that they said they would do. And I think thatās a big part of the reason we have the problems we have in Washington, is there have been career politicians in both parties that arenāt listening to the American people and arenāt doing what they said they would do.ā
And the crowd applauded, giving Cruz the warmest welcome so far.
Hot air reached out to the Cruz campaign about how he managed such an answer.
āTed Cruz is straightforward about what he believes, whether he is in Iowa, Texas, or Washington DC. We need more leaders who tell the truth about what they will do and the response to that kind of honesty is very positive.ā
I have to say, this was a potential game changer for me. I know that I probably put off some of you with my seemingly endless fascination with energy issues in general and ethanol subsidies in particular. Itās a sort of wonky subject, but I feel itās an important one. And this forum in Iowa was, in my view, a test of character for the nascent candidates on a matter of vital interest.
Iāve expressed doubts in the past about the long term viability of Ted Cruz on the national stage, particularly given the horribly effective way the media has sold the ācrazy wingnutā stories to the public. But this guy has demonstrated the kind of intestinal fortitude that is far too often lacking in GOP leaders, and he certainly showed those qualities once again in Iowa. Take this as a benchmark for the coming campaign. There werenāt many clear standouts here, but the Best in Show was clearly a winner.
Ted Cruz stands alone after the King Corn summit Hot Air
"GTP"
"OBAMA HATES AMERICA"
posted at 9:31 am on March 8, 2015 by Jazz Shaw
Yesterday we covered the acid test of prospective candidates for 2016 in Iowa when it comes to ethanol subsidies and the Renewable Fuel Standard. At that time I promised that I would report back to you on how the 2016 hopefuls did in this admittedly daunting challenge to conservative politicians. Iām sorry to say that,as the WSJ reported for us, the results were less than impressive in most cases.
Letās start with the bad news. First upā¦ Rick Perry.
[T]he former governor of a petroleum-rich state [Governor Perry] suggested he didnāt think it would be fair to end the RFS while oil companies continued to benefit from tax breaks. āI donāt think you pull the RFS out and discriminate against the RFS and leave all these other subsidies,ā he said.
Jeb Bush acted like the RFS is a bad toy, but had no plans to put it back in the cupboard.
āThe markets are ultimately going to have to decide this,ā said Mr. Bush, who declined to set a firm deadline for ending the fuel standard imposed a decade ago by his brother, former President George W. Bush. āWhether thatās 2022 or sometime in the future I donāt know,ā he said.
And then there was this guyā¦
When asked if he would support the Renewable Fuel Standard he just said no. And then he put out some hard truths which seemed to earn him the respect a difficult answer deserved.
āI recognize that this is a gathering of a lot of folks where the answer youād like me to give is āIām for the RFS, darnit;ā thatād be the easy thing to do,ā he said. āBut Iāll tell you, people are pretty fed up, I think, with politicians who run around and tell one group one thing, tell another group another thing, and then they go to Washington and they donāt do anything that they said they would do. And I think thatās a big part of the reason we have the problems we have in Washington, is there have been career politicians in both parties that arenāt listening to the American people and arenāt doing what they said they would do.ā
And the crowd applauded, giving Cruz the warmest welcome so far.
Hot air reached out to the Cruz campaign about how he managed such an answer.
āTed Cruz is straightforward about what he believes, whether he is in Iowa, Texas, or Washington DC. We need more leaders who tell the truth about what they will do and the response to that kind of honesty is very positive.ā
I have to say, this was a potential game changer for me. I know that I probably put off some of you with my seemingly endless fascination with energy issues in general and ethanol subsidies in particular. Itās a sort of wonky subject, but I feel itās an important one. And this forum in Iowa was, in my view, a test of character for the nascent candidates on a matter of vital interest.
Iāve expressed doubts in the past about the long term viability of Ted Cruz on the national stage, particularly given the horribly effective way the media has sold the ācrazy wingnutā stories to the public. But this guy has demonstrated the kind of intestinal fortitude that is far too often lacking in GOP leaders, and he certainly showed those qualities once again in Iowa. Take this as a benchmark for the coming campaign. There werenāt many clear standouts here, but the Best in Show was clearly a winner.
Ted Cruz stands alone after the King Corn summit Hot Air
"GTP"
"OBAMA HATES AMERICA"
