ActRight

Share on Facebook 1 1 SHARES This is? one of the more unbelievable segments you will ever see on TV. I?ve said it a million times ? not everyone who supports Trump is a garbage human being, but the folks who are leading the Trump Train in public are universally garbage. Just unmitigated trash. And I won?t apologize for saying it. I swear, these people are going | Read More

Editor’s Note: In the new issue of National Review, we have a piece by Jay Nordlinger, on what it’s like to have a friend running for president. The friend in question is Ted Cruz. Mr. Nordlinger has expanded that piece this week in Impromptus. For the first two parts of the series, go here and here. It concludes today. Ted announced for president last March. He was the first to announce. I think his attitude was, “Yes, I’m running, so why be coy?” Also, there might have been some advantage in going first — some extra media attention. I saw him that very night, in New York. I said, “Wasn’t it just yesterday that we were talking at Earl Campbell’s Barbecue? Are you really in the U.S. Senate? Are you really running for president?” I was not surprised at Ted’s rise, certainly. I was surprised at the sheer speed of it. In due course, I made a disclosure. I said, in essence, that I was Ted’s friend and supported him — and would help him, when asked. I also said, “The fact that I am pro-Ted does not mean that I am anti-others.” I admire Jeb, Marco, Carly … I think the Republican party has serious talent. Which is part of what makes Donald Trump as frontrunner so tragic. Anyway, I made my disclosure. Transparency City, as Bush 41 might say. Everything nice and out in the open. Let me flash-forward to Iowa — the first contest of the race. I was not there on the night of the caucuses. I saw Ted a few days before, in Des Moines. But not on the night of the caucuses itself. I was back in New York, working. I was at the Metropolitan Opera, covering a performance of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (for The New Criterion). At intermission, I checked my phone. A friend had texted, saying that Ted was looking pretty good in Iowa. I did not get my hopes up. It was my impression that Ted had taken on water in the days leading up to the caucuses — with Trump’s birtherism and all that. After the opera, I repaired to a restaurant across the street. My friend had texted again. Perhaps not believing that I would believe her words, she texted me a photo of her television screen: Cruz Wins. Honestly, I gulped. I was numb for a second or two. Just the other day, or so it seemed, Ted was crashing on my couch, with his cowboy boots to the side. Now he had won the Iowa caucuses? Are you kidding me? It was surreal, sobering, thrilling, and believable, all at once, if you will excuse that jumble. At times in this race, I have been Joe Detached Journalist. At other times, I have been Joe Subjective. I have lived and died with Ted. During the first several debates, I “live-tweeted.” I did not say much — did not tweet much — about Ted. But I commented on the other candidates, in a neutral, often amused way. There came a time when I could not do that anymore — I was in too deep. I wanted Ted to win, period. I felt it keenly. No more live-tweeting for me. Even during those first debates, I was like a nervous stage mother. Luckily, my candidate was very good at it — very good at debating, and the rest of campaigning. When Ted is maligned, I feel it, personally. I don’t claim that he walks on water. And I don’t claim that the other candidates are villains. I can be Ted’s worst critic. But make no mistake, he has been maligned. This “Liar, liar” charge? “Lyin’ Ted,” as Trump says? It is a nasty charge, and a false one. I’m sure that, on occasion, Ted stretches, as all politicians stretch, and all people do. But “Liar, liar”? That is a lie in itself. #ad#Take this Ben Carson business — the notion that Ted played a dirty trick in Iowa, robbing votes from Carson. Ted is not-guilty in this affair. Indeed, innocent. I could take you almost through a tick-tock (that is, a moment-by-moment description of what happened). Then there was the Marco Rubio story — the false story that one of Ted’s staffers, Rick Tyler, saw and then circulated. Rick immediately regretted it. And apologized for it. Ted fired him, and it was damn hard to do. Rick is a wonderful guy, who made a mistake. MSNBC viewers lucked out. What I mean is, Rick is now an analyst for that network. Anyway, when you see things from the inside, or have a glimpse at the inside, you have a better understanding. And the false caricatures are irksome. Sometimes infuriating. Above, I wrote, “I don’t claim that the other candidates are villains.” Let me qualify that: When Donald Trump went after Heidi Cruz, in his loathsome way? Villain territory. “You’re in the arena,” I remarked to Ted at one point. I suspect he knows every word of that Teddy Roosevelt passage. Cruz is absorbing the blows, and striking them. He is the target of jeers, and the object of cheers. Some of my friends and colleagues can’t stand Ted. And they are not shy about telling me. Some days, I am serene. I try to explain, defend, and persuade. Other days, I bristle, and want to growl, “Don’t vote for him then. Leave me alone.” Whatever the day, I need to remind myself that, to the world, Ted Cruz is a presidential candidate. Not my friend, but a presidential candidate, and thus the fairest of game. Still … Obviously, the Cruz style is not for everyone. But I can say this, to conservatives (and to anyone else, for that matter): If he is president, he will do everything humanly possible to repeal Obamacare. And to prevent Iran from going nuclear. And to do other hard, vital things. I don’t know if these things can be done. But I feel sure that, if they can, Ted will do them. He will go the last mile, and beyond. Like everyone else, he likes popularity more than unpopularity. But if popularity clashes with the right course of action, popularity will have to go. Ted is used to opposition and scorn. And he would do anything — walk through fire, chew on glass — to keep this country free. Pardon the campaign rhetoric, but it’s true. At the moment, it looks like Ted has a steep road to beat Trump for the Republican nomination. I would not bet the ranch on Ted. But I would not bet a cent against him. He has defied odds before. And no one works harder, and few work as cannily. Say he wins the nomination and goes on to beat Hillary Clinton, taking the presidential oath of office on January 20, 2017. I will be amazed. But you’ll know what I mean, having read this series, when I say, I won’t be surprised.

How many American politicians do the Saudis own?

NEW YORK – Donald Trump?s suggestion in an interview Wednesday that former Breitbart News reporter Michelle Fields pressed battery charges against his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, because ?she likes it,? echoed his campaign?s initial suggestion that Fields had a history of such allegations against public figures. Two days after the March 8 incident, Trump campaign [?]

Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority.

Europe can afford to defend itself.

For years President Obama has escaped scrutiny in a corruption scandal where his former senate seat was offered for sale. But now all that may be ending, thanks to a lawsuit that is seeking the release of long-hidden records from a secret FBI interview with Obama and his closest aides. Judicial...

Professor John McAdams: 'Of Course I'm Not Going to Apologize' for Defending a Student's Freedom of Speech

Today, the editorial board of The Daily Wire endorses Donald J. Trump for president. We have been convinced by long months of persuasive argument from Trump’s supporters, including informing us that we are the sort of conservatives who enjoy watching our wives have sex with other men, telling us that we are social justice warriors for defending women from smears, and reminding us that we are shekelmasters in the pay of Big Oil Cruz Supporters™.

The Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved a proposal to expand a telephone subsidy for low-income Americans to include Internet access, after a deal to cap the cost of the plan collapsed.

HOUSTON, Texas — The Cruz for President campaign released the following video announcing that Donald Trump has accepted Ted Cruz’s invitation for a one-on-one debate:

Is there anything behind the ceaseless attacks on the Texas senator?

Although academia differs from the settings explored by groupthink theorists, it exhibits many of the same tendencies and failings. One result is the relative absence of classical-liberal and conservative viewpoints among humanities and social sciences professors, especially in the more elite departments.

UK, Belgium, Germany, Sweden at risk of rise in millionaire outflows amidst emerging signs of unrest.

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet.

The liberal media are only too happy to call pro-life presidential candidates “extreme.” But they’ll never dare apply the same label to pro-choice candida

"If Ted Cruz’s mouth is moving, he’s lying.”

Donald Trump tweeted a new Wisconsin poll a little while ago, thanking voters for it. But the only problem is he’s losing in the poll. By one point, but still, he’s losing! So I guess T…

"D.C. Madam" lawyer Blair Sibley threatens to defy gag order, release client phone list within the next two weeks VIDEO

To be clear, a half a million dollars is not a small donation, and, at the time, it was the largest expense that the PAC had paid out. So why the heck would

Clinton, Trump Have Big Leads In New York Primaries, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Adopted Daughter Thumps Native Son, Edges Kasich

The Havana Tribune, a state-controlled Cuban newspaper, calls President Obama 'negro' in an editorial.

Or at minimum, ending "wealth hording" by forcing "well-endowed private institutions [to] share their assets"

Influenced by the relentless campaign of incitement that has fostered genocidal hatred toward Jews in generations of Palestinians, all he cared about was stabbing as many civilians as possible.

Progressivism has a history of racism spanning a century that the Left does it's best to conceal and forget while accusing the Right of racial bias and bigotry.