But since Super Tuesday is almost upon us, the state has been besieged by presidential candidates. Bernie Sanders visited twice in one week, Marco Rubio is doing the same. Donald Trump had a rally which we attended (see here).
Ted Cruz had a rally in Oklahoma City on February 28th, and my family (including my wife, my two sons, my niece and I) attended.
It was fun, and interesting. The venue and crowd were much smaller than the Trump rally of two days earlier.
There were various speakers who spoke before Cruz , including singer Twila Paris, football-player-turned-preacher Paul Blair, David Barton of Wallbuilders, Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallin and Glenn Beck (more on him later).
Ted Cruz gave a really good speech. Despite the Trump-Cruz rivalry, the policies Cruz proclaimed in his speech were mostly identical to things that Trump supports.
On illegal immigration, Cruz promised to build a wall, and said he knows somebody who can do it. He also promised to get rid of welfare for illegals and of sanctuary cities, and he associated fighting illegal immigration with jobs for Americans.
Some of our family were able to make personal contact with Cruz. My wife and I were up in the balcony, the kids were on the floor. After the speech, as Ted Cruz was greeting people, my wife shouted “Rafael” (also our 13-year old son’s name) and lo and behold, Ted Cruz looked up and waved. After that, my 16-year old son David made it over to Ted Cruz and had him autograph our copy of Green Eggs and Ham (remember the filibuster?). By that time, my wife had descended to ground level where she took a photo of my son and Cruz together. She told Cruz that her younger son was named Rafael and he replied that that was good, in Cuban-accented Spanish.
Once again, the Cruz speech was good and I found myself in agreement with most of it. Plus, it was brief and well-organized. The topics were jobs, freedom and national security.
The Glenn Beck speech, which preceded it, was something else. Reflecting on it, one has to ask “Huh?”. Beck said some good things, but rambled and showed a surveyor’s compass he claimed had belonged to George Washington. Who knows, maybe it really did, but how did Beck get it and how does that make a coherent speech? The Beck speech was about as long, or seemed about as long as, or maybe longer than, the Cruz speech.
At the end of Beck’s speech, he introduced Cruz as “the next president of the United States and the first Hispanic president”.
OK, this is a political speech. So I understand that since Beck supports Ted Cruz, it’s likely he’s going to criticize Donald Trump.
But Glenn Beck went further than that, calling Trump a “totalitarian” and confidentially proclaiming that Trump is the most dangerous candidate to ever run for President of the United States.
Really, Glenn?
