Editorial boards at national newspapers, including the right-leaning Wall Street Journal, are unenthused with Sen. Ted Cruz’s announcement Monday that he’s officially running for president.
Both the Journal and the Washington Post compared the Texas Republican to President Obama. The comparisons did Cruz no favors, but from very different points of view.
“[Cruz and Obama] are political solo artists in an age that rewards entrepreneurial candidates,” wrote the Journal. “They saw the Senate as a stepping-stone to the White House rather than a place to contribute or get something done.”
The editorial called on potential GOP presidential nominees to “offer an optimistic, inclusive vision and reform agenda that look beyond the Obama years.” While acknowledging that Cruz may play well in the Republican primary, the Journal’s strongly pro-immigration ed board said his hardline opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants “is a dream come true for Hillary Clinton,” who is expected to seek the Democratic nomination.
The Washington Post, on the other hand, made Cruz and Obama a study in contrasts: Like Cruz, the president was also a freshman senator when he ran for the White House, but the Post editorial board says the likeness ends there. “Here’s one way to tell Mr. Cruz (R-Tex.) from the winning constitutional scholar of 2008,” the Post wrote. “Sen. Barack Obama promised to unite the country. Mr. Cruz — not so much. In fact, the most notable characteristic of Mr. Cruz’s brief time in elected politics has been his aversion to values that are essential to democracy’s functioning: Practicality, modesty and compromise.”
A spokeswoman for the Cruz campaign did not return a request for comment, but Cruz himself drew a distinction Monday when he was compared to Obama by Jonathan Karl of ABC News.
“I will note, before I was in the Senate, I wasn’t simply a community organizer,” Cruz said, referring to time Obama spent in Chicago, which is often mocked by conservatives. “I spent five and a half years as the solicitor general of Texas, leading the state, representing the state before the U.S. Supreme Court; and we won landmark victories over and over again.”
The New York Times, with an editorial board that leans left on most issues, greeted the Cruz announcement with distaste. The Grey Lady’s editorial described Cruz as someone “whose oratory captures so many Republican paradoxes and idiocies, especially on immigration and health care.”
