Sen. Ted Cruz is running for president on his inflexible far-right political positions, but as he does the retail politics demanded of candidates in the New Hampshire presidential primary, he's showing off
a certain flexibility of self-presentation. Scott Conroy reports that, for an audience of hardcore conservative activists, Cruz dished out big chunks of red meat, like "I am convinced, come 2017, a new president in the White House is going to sign legislation repealing every word of Obamacare." But for a college-age audience at a different event the same day:
He joked about the disparaging portrayal of him in the HBO vampire series "True Blood," took a stab at a goofy Jay Leno impression and boasted about how he had co-opted Obama's winning 2008 campaign strategy to find success in his own Senate bid.
And then he took a broadside at a particularly abhorrent foe: old people.
"I think every young person, after you go in to vote, oughta walk out and punch your parents in the nose," Cruz said. "I mean, it is as if your parents went out and took a credit card in your name [and] said, 'Savannah, we're going to Vegas. We're going to party it up, we're having a great time, and guess what? You get to pay the bill!'"
Seriously, Jay Leno was one of his go-to cultural references for young people? That's going to need some work. The next morning, it was on to the golf course set, where he again adjusted his presentation and won a rousing response.
As long as the core message is the same, he avoids charges of flip-flopping, but authenticity could be another matter. Cruz has not, to date, seemed like one of those natural politicians who thrives in every setting and makes people from a vast range of backgrounds feel he understands and connects with them. (In fact, he's been notoriously disliked by many people around him from college onward.) And being Mr. Slick who never appears in public without a headset or lapel microphone attached to him, while dropping Jay Leno jokes for 20-somethings and New York Times jokes for the golf club crowd is not exactly Bill Clinton-level retail politics.