About Senator Cruz: As NR’s editors note, there is much to admire about him — the raw brainpower, the oratorical gifts. When it comes to the serious conservative thinkers and their sometimes dyspeptic tomes, Cruz has, as the Hebrew sages put it, “eaten the book.” (John the Revelator, like Ezekiel before him, learned how that goes when he was instructed to do it: “It will turn your stomach sour, but in your mouth it will be as sweet as honey.”) There is a great deal to like about him, and grounds for charitable criticism as well, as my friend Charles C. W. Cooke has observed.
Conservatives of a Burkean bent, having attended the school of example, might pause to consider that the last senator who effectively launched a presidential campaign 11 minutes and 37 seconds after he was sworn in did, in fact, go on to become president, and that it will take the republic a generation to recover from the damage done.
Cruz is great. Rand Paul is great. Scott Walker is great. Bobby Jindal is great. Rick by-God Perry is great. Jeb Bush . . . was a really, really fine governor. We have primary elections for a reason, and these are some big boys (and girls? What says Governor Martinez? Governor Fallin? Governor Haley? Governor . . . ?) who are more than capable of inflicting upon themselves whatever savage and perverse ritual combat Republican-primary voters demand, with the last man standing demanding of the conclave in Cleveland: “Are you not entertained?”
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