Cruz: Getting better on Adultery Question

Cruz flubbed the question on Adultery a Week Ago.   But he is getting better at his answer, with practice.

A week ago today Ted Cruz could not make himself dare a direct answer to the question on whether he had committed adultery with five women, as was charged in a tabloid.

(Just to make clear to readers, I don't care one bit about Ted Cruz and whether he had sex with women other than Heidi.  That is between him and Heidi.  But the issue became relevant to his campaign because of the kind of campaign Cruz has run.  He has been a hard knuckled accuser of others, pointing out their political sins, their weakness, their willingness to compromise and he set himself up as the one pure guy, more holy than thou, the TrusTED conservative, not a hypocrite, like everyone else.   So he has made it relevant to his campaign.   Trump, on the other hand, could say that he has had sex with 200 different women in the past ten years, all of them gorgeous, really, spectacularly gorgeous, and it would help him as much as hurt him because he has presented himself to the world as a man who lives richly amid his success, not as a righteous man seeking purity of thought and action.)

Cruz:  Any President who does not pray is not fit for the job

Republicans generally set themselves up as well, having made revelations about adultery relevant back in the Clinton impeachment era, endorsing the work of Kevin Starr.  They decided it was absolutely OK for opponents to be asked direct questions about their sex lives, "Have you ever. . . ."   It turned out to be near political suicide to ask the question as well as to answer it.

Cruz is better at answering the adultery question now, with a direct answer, starting at 1:45:  "I have always been faithful to my wife."   Watch the clip: 
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlug_89YOsE



Compare it with how badly he handled this question a week ago, where he was obviously embarrassed, afraid, and evasive.   (Was he dishonest?  We don't know yet, but he was embarrassed, afraid, and evasive.   If you asked your teenager if he took $20 from your billfold and he answered the way Ted answered-- embarrassed, afraid, and evasive--what would you think?)    Watch:   http://goo.gl/fOi21R

He has gotten better, but he does not yet have it down perfectly.  He says the direct answer rapidly and then immediately changes the subject.   "I have always been faithful to my wife, I love my wife, she is my best friend in the whole world".  There is not a millisecond between his denial and his changing the subject from adultery to love.    He is obviously not yet comfortable with the denial, certainly in comparison with how comfortable he is bashing Trump for the "garbage" charge, which is what he moves to immediately.   

Cruz's typical pattern of speech is to lay out a zinger of a sound bite, then pause to let it sink in and get crowd acknowledgment.   He might have said, "I have always been faithful to my wife. (Pause. Look Megyn in the eye. Nod his head. Let the words sit there.)"   He did the opposite--a hit and run.

Megyn Kelly, last night:   "Have you committed adultery?"

Cruz:   "I have not, that attack was complete and utter garbage.  It was complete lies."

Look at Ted's head as he says this.  Note that Cruz shakes his head left to right as he says it.  Is this a head-shake of wonderment that Trump would make such a garbage charge?  Possibly.  But he shakes his head during the denial but looks Megan in the eye when he attacks Trump. 


Do head shakes mean anything?  And does the immediate change of subject mean anything?  Ask a psychologist, or a police detective who does interrogations, or the parent of a teenager who was out of the house long after he or she was due home.

There is an idea floating around that politicians are excellent liars.   Possibly not.  They say things they don't believe, of course, because they have to attempt to do the impossible (i.e. cut taxes, increase the military, and balance the budget, simultaneously) but they are bad liars because they are embarrassed or guilty.  They aren't sociopaths; they are politicians.   They would prefer to be honest.

Remember Marco Rubio, in defeat.    

As I noted in my blog post of March 16, "Adios, Rubio" the candidate was shaking his head left and right vigorously as he ended his campaign in discouragement as he voiced the words "hopeful and optimistic".   Of course he was not hopeful and optimistic.   He was shutting down his campaign in discouragement and failure, and had to feel anything but optimistic.  He was putting on a happy face, badly.     "While this may not have been the year for a hopeful and optimistic message about our future, I still remain hopeful and optimistic about America."   He couldn't help but shake his head in denial of his own words..   Watch the clip:  http://goo.gl/8zkgKy   

We may never know the truth about Cruz and adultery, but we do know that he has the capacity to learn when making denials of direct questions.   He has gone from bad to somewhat better.  He wants to be righteous.