Ted Cruz Had a Very Strange Night in New York City
Just weeks after speaking disparagingly about New York Values to pander to voters in earlier primary states, Mendacious Eel Ted Cruz is cruising the Empire State this week looking for New York Voters. He has some work to do, not least proving that he is, in fact, a three-dimensional human who is, somehow, better than Donald Trump. So he went on Fallon.
In fairness to Cruz, he started off well in the above Trump phone call skit. He was loose, he didn't take himself too seriously-an actual first for the Texas senator-and he had some funny lines. It was watchable! Unfortunately, this was by far the highlight of his Big Day in the Big City.
When Fallon brought out Cruz's high school yearbook-a testament to the fact that a guy who's made his bones criticizing "career politicians" and "Washington" has only ever wanted to be a career politician in Washington-he went for self-deprecation. When Fallon ribbed him about being a "master debater," he went for self-deprecation. When Fallon asked if running for president sucks, he gave up self-deprecation, said he was having the "time of his life," and offered a classic politician anecdote about a Small Business located in the state in which he is currently campaigning. Along the way, Fallon stopped giggling at a couple points to slap him down, and Cruz really just stiffened up.
But his day didn't end there. After taping Fallon, Cruz headed off to a New York Republican function. He was not well received.
While Cruz gave his usual boilerplate speech about border control and evil government, the patrons-who had paid $1,000-a-plate and fought through protests to get there-essentially ignored him. "I mean, he blew it when he did the New York Values thing - that was a bad point," said Ron Shindel, a Republican in attendance. On TV, NBC reports, it appeared Cruz was fighting above the din of clanging plates and loud side conversations.
It wasn't quite the Dean Scream, but it wasn't pretty. New Yorkers, even rich Republican ones, apparently don't like having their values mocked. Go figure.
