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Books by and about 2020 presidential candidates |
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Crippled America,
by Donald J. Trump (2015) |
United,
by Cory Booker (2016) |
The Truths We Hold,
by Kamala Harris (2019) |
Smart on Crime,
by Kamala Harris (2010) |
Guide to Political Revolution,
by Bernie Sanders (2017) |
Where We Go From Here,
by Bernie Sanders (2018) |
Promise Me, Dad ,
by Joe Biden (2017) |
Conscience of a Conservative,
by Jeff Flake (2017) |
Two Paths,
by Gov. John Kasich (2017) |
Every Other Monday,
by Rep. John Kasich (2010) |
Courage is Contagious,
by John Kasich (1998) |
Shortest Way Home,
by Pete Buttigieg (2019) |
The Book of Joe ,
by Jeff Wilser (2019; biography of Joe Biden) |
Becoming,
by Michelle Obama (2018) |
Our Revolution,
by Bernie Sanders (2016) |
This Fight Is Our Fight,
by Elizabeth Warren (2017) |
Higher Loyalty,
by James Comey (2018) |
The Making of Donald Trump,
by David Cay Johnston (2017) |
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Books by and about the 2016 presidential election |
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What Happened ,
by Hillary Clinton (2017) |
Higher Loyalty ,
by James Comey (2018) |
Trump vs. Hillary On The Issues ,
by Jesse Gordon (2016) |
Hard Choices,
by Hillary Clinton (2014) |
Becoming ,
by Michelle Obama (2018) |
Outsider in the White House,
by Bernie Sanders (2015) |
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Book Reviews |
(from Amazon.com) |
(click a book cover for a review or other books by or about the presidency from Amazon.com)
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Cruzing Republicans to the White House
A Researched Biography
by Mario Broes & Daniel Gibson
(Click for Amazon book review)
Click here for 32 full quotes from Ted Cruz in the book Cruzing Republicans, by Broes & Gibson.
OR click on an issue category below for a subset. |
BOOK REVIEW by OnTheIssues.org:
This book presents a decent "researched biography" of Ted Cruz, with a couple of odd themes. The first odd theme is using the term "Cruzing" as a verb, to mean "cruising to victory." Or more specifically, in the context of political campaigns, candidates "don't want to get Cruzed, to be attacked from the right by even more conservative primary challengers accusing them of insufficient ideological purity" (p. 167). We're not so sure that term has entered the political lexicon just yet -- but the author hopes so.
The second odd theme is that the book intersperses blog postings on just about every page. We guess the author wants to show the typical voters' perspective, and the author chooses the blog posts well. Blog posts have the great disadvantage of being heavily self-selected -- i.e. only those with extreme political views post on blogs -- but the author takes some time to pick some less extreme posts and hence more representative of normal voters.
This book was written in 2014, before Donald Trump entered the race -- and surprisingly points out that Cruz would have taken on several roles that Trump took instead:
- After the shutdown "freaked people out [and] is not well-regarded among Senate Republicans," Cruz "replaced Jim DeMint as the most hated man on Capitol Hill" (p. 182). Certainly Trump has that role among Republican Party regulars now.
- Megyn Kelly invited Cruz to the opening episode of her show, The Kelly Files, and asked Cruz, "What's it like to be the most hated man in America?" (p. 132). That's the same Megyn Kelly who insulted Trump so much at a debate that Trump boycotted the next debate hosted by Megyn Kelly.
- The book has a subsection entitled "Cruz, Master of the Media" (p. 138). That title might have been appropriate for Cruz in 2014, but obviously Trump has become the master of the media in 2015-16. One pundit concluded that Trump has received over $1 billion worth of unearned media in 2015 (i.e., news stories featuring Trump, as opposed to paid TV advertisements) ; Cruz received a small fraction of that.
- Another subsection is entitled "Cruz dominates Facebook, Twitter" (p. 146). The author cites the lead held by Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz on social media (in 2014), so we checked for a 2016 update:
Facebook followers:
Ted Cruz 2.1 million
Hillary Clinton 2.3 million
Donald Trump 5.6 million
- That means that Ted Cruz WOULD Have had the role of media favorite, and the role of Facebook wizard, and the role of "hated politician" that makes for lots of unearned media -- but Trump took that role! No wonder Cruz hates Trump so much!
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This is an interesting book -- there are so few books about Cruz that it counts as "one of the best".
-- Jesse Gordon, editor-in-chief, OnTheIssues.org, March 2016
| OnTheIssues.org excerpts: (click on issues for details)
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Civil Rights
UN Treaty on Disabilities threatens US sovereignty.
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Crime
Freeing killer when prosecutors erred sets a bad precedent.
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Education
School choice is a deep passion of mine.
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Environment
OpEd: Tweeted joke picture of endangered tiger skin rug.
OpEd: Tweeted joke picture of endangered tiger skin rug.
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Families & Children
Mother lost an infant child, Ted's would-be brother.
Alcoholic father gave his life to Christ.
Read "Green Eggs & Ham" to his kids during Senate filibuster.
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Foreign Policy
To make a deal, Iran must recognize Israel as Jewish state.
Abrogate treaties with Russia over Ukraine invasion.
America should be voice of freedom, but not interventionist.
Deny visa for Iranian ambassador to visit the United Nations.
Those who hate Israel hate America.
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Government Reform
1992 thesis: History of the 9th and 10th amendment.
Rein in judicial activism.
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Gun Control
Served as lawyer for the National Rifle Association.
Stand-your-ground laws are not veiled racism.
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Health Care
On his wife's healthcare plan at Goldman-Sachs.
Interstate compacts should nullify individual mandate.
No regrets for 16-day government shutdown to fight ObamaCare.
2014: Travel ban from West Africa to prevent Ebola.
2014: Travel ban from West Africa to prevent Ebola.
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Homeland Security
Deploy missile defense with Czechs & Poles, to limit Putin.
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Immigration
Democrats want amnesty to get a lot more Democratic voters.
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Principles & Values
Republican motto: our ideas work; theirs don't.
Favorite novel: Atlas Shrugged; & movie: The Princess Bride.
Obama believes redistribution of wealth betters the world.
Not "purity," but commonsense.
2013: Renounced Canadian citizenship.
Two heroes in life: my father and Ronald Reagan.
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Technology
Net neutrality is biggest regulatory threat to the Internet.
NASA funding cuts have degraded space exploration.
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Click for quotations from other sources by:
- Ted Cruz
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The above quotations are from Cruzing Republicans to the White House
A Researched Biography
by Mario Broes & Daniel Gibson.
2016 Presidential General Election:
- Second presidential debate, Oct. 9, 2016
- Vice-presidential debate, Oct. 4, 2016
- First presidential debate, Sept. 29, 2016
- NBC Commander-in-Chief forum, Sept. 8, 2016
- Hard Choices, by Hillary Clinton (D-NY)
- For Love of Politics, biography of Bill and Hillary Clinton
- Green Party platform
- Libertarian Party platform
- Joint interviews of Libertarian ticket, Gary Johnson & Bill Weld
- Joint interviews of Green Party ticket, Jill Stein & Ajamu Baraka
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