There is a hazard in selling purity. You have to be pure.
Take 30 seconds to watch this Cruz ad, called Conservatives Anonymous:
The ad isn't very powerful to my mind, and if I just saw it pop up randomly on my TV set in South Carolina it wouldn't be all that clear who it was for--or against. The conceit of the ad is that people are sitting around in an addiction group support meeting openly discussing their failures, and in that context the man admitted that he had been suckered by an inadequately conservative politician who ran as a Tea Party supporter but was really a compromiser, evidenced by having "played patty cake" with Chuck Schumer, a Democrat.
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The issue--immigration reform--in which Rubio participated in bi-partisan efforts is undescribed other than as "an amnesty deal." The sin being exposed is cooperation with a Democrat. A New York Democrat. With a Jewish sounding last name. Probably liberal. Bad.
Cruz put his name and face on this ad: "I'm Ted Cruz and I approved this message." Until he didn't. Ted was scheduled to speak at the Carolina Values Summit.
The actress in the ad with a speaking part, Amy Lindsey, has a filmography that includes some soft core erotic films. The Cruz campaign promptly removed the ad. The actress, as you see from the ad, is playing nothing remotely erotic in the ad. But now something in the ad had a past, a taint. Even though the subject of the ad is redemption from past mistakes, some mistakes follow you. The actress said she is a Republican, a Christian, a conservative, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism and drama, and was considering voting for Cruz. That apparently didn't matter either. Nothing washes off the stain of sin.
A spokesperson for the Cruz campaign said:
"Unfortunately, she was not vetted by the casting company. Had the campaign known of her full filmography, we obviously would not have let her appear in the ad. "
Obviously. When what you are selling is purity a guy has to stay pure, and in the primary elections coming up it can even be a talking point for Cruz. Something like:
"Hey, Senator Cruz, I heard you had a porn actress in one of your commercials!"
"That commercial was prepared by a media group and they failed. They included an actress with some inappropriate credits. We pulled that ad off the air immediately and at considerable cost to ourselves. This campaign stands for something. Christian values. American values. I apologize for the error and did exactly the right thing: corrected it immediately."
I am pretty sure that would work for Ted.
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