You can thank Ted Cruz here, for standing up against the country’s elites.
You can read about his populism here.
As a law student at Harvard, [Senator Ted Cruz] refused to study with anyone who hadn’t been an undergrad at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale. Says Damon Watson, one of Cruz’s law-school roommates: “He said he didn’t want anybody from ‘minor Ivies’ like Penn or Brown.”
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Notes of a Neophyte
September 24th, 2013 at 1:40AM
So the smear campaign begins. This is the only memory Damon has of Cruz? It’s been awhile, and he still remembers this like it was yesterday, wow. On the other hand, if I were a law student at Harvard if I had the choice I’d probably want to study with someone from Harvard, Yale or Princeton too, so if Damon’s memory is right, I can’t really blame Cruz.
I don’t remember reading much about Obama’s law school days. But I guess to some people who Cruz studied with in law school is far more important than the debacle in Lybia, and the other “accomplishments” of our current administration and our former Secretary of State.
September 24th, 2013 at 4:55AM
AYY: Of course there’s far more to Cruz’s story and character than this tidbit (hardly a smear, and hardly part of a campaign). The reason it’s in the story, and the reason a lot of people are picking up on it, is that it suggests opportunism, hypocrisy and arrogance – traits that more than a few people across the American political spectrum have ascribed to Ted Cruz, and traits that are now seen as hurting him in the Senate.
September 24th, 2013 at 7:22AM
As for smears, have we now decided to overlook the various unpleasant insinuations that Cruz made at Chuck Hagel’s Senate hearings? And… if you’re asking, the answer is yes, I think it’s fine to insinuate that Senator Cruz is a very creepy individual. I do so myself at every opportunity.
September 24th, 2013 at 7:46AM
MattF: Cruz’s statements at Hagel’s hearings were truly disgusting.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:08AM
@AVY, well, of course you wouldn’t want to study with anybody/thing other than the major Ivies. Because, after all, if you factor out the legacy kids, or the ones with rich families, then you’re only left with the absolute most brilliant students available. Of course, that would mean you would have factored out about 60% of the student body, the remaining 40% were probably not wealthy enough to suit Teddy boy anyway. If ever there was a more cynical opportunist than this guy, I’m sure glad I haven’t met them….or you for that matter.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:11AM
charlie: You’ve forgotten to factor out the athletes.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:16AM
Well, UD, that shrinks that particular gene pool even more…
September 24th, 2013 at 10:48AM
On the creepiness factor, he’d have to go a ways to outdo Hillary.
Charlie, the issue is a, how did CQ find Damon, and b, is Damon’s memory c, does Damon have an agenda, and d, there was something about the Penn and Brown students at Harvard that made Cruz uneasy. Brown isn’t exactly the most conservative school there is out there.
There were a lot of things written about Sarah Palin that weren’t true, and a lot of things about Hillary that appear to be true that aren’t prominently in the media. That’s why I’m going to be skeptical of the story until it’s proven true and until the major media outlets (not to mention UD) give Hillary or any Dem nominee the same scrutiny as they’re giving Cruz. That might take some time.
September 24th, 2013 at 10:59AM
@AVY, see, here’s the thing. When anyone aspires to get this much public attention, then they’re going to have people question who they are and what kind of person they may be. If you think that a guy like Damon would be that hard to find, if you think that it’s so difficult to track down classmates and ask them their recollections of so and so are, then I got to tell you, you should stop posting and become a Mennonite.
“There was something about Penn and Brown students at Harvard that made Cruz uneasy.” Are you seriously trying to tell me that this guy was so sensitive that anyone from a school other than The Big Three would throw him off kilter? WTF is wrong with you and him? Are you trying to tell me that he’s so insulated that anything other than a certain pedigree would be unacceptable for his association? It seems that only a certain way of thinking is allowable in Cruz’s presence. Maybe the both of you should don burqas, not be allowed to drive unless accompanied by your daddies, and make sure that you’re inside by nightfall, otherwise those big, bad lefties are gone come and take your virginity away…
September 24th, 2013 at 11:03AM
@Charlie: I always hear this “factor out the legacies” thing. The problem with “factoring out the legacies” is that most of them smart enough to get in and rich to boot. The legacy system is bullshit and anti-meritocratic, but one thing it isn’t–for the most part–is an automatic pass into daddy and grandpa’s dear old ivied alma mater. It’s a massive points boost in admissions that vaults an A-minus legacy applicant over an A-plus regular one. Of course, many obnoxious exceptions exist.
@AYY: did you get lost on the way to the Red State forums? Somehow I get the sense you don’t have the breeding or prestigious educational background required of someone your good buddy Ted would have a beer with.
September 24th, 2013 at 11:43AM
AYY: I take your point, and skepticism about the story makes sense. But some corroboration about what Cruz was like then does seem to be coming in.
September 24th, 2013 at 3:15PM
@ Charlie: become a Mennonite? You mean, like, go do some disaster relief somewhere? Volunteer for the Mennonite Central Committee? What do you mean?
September 24th, 2013 at 11:58PM
“AYY: did you get lost on the way to the Red State forums? ”
Nope. I come here regularly for the football news, and for the scandals. For me this is the “go to” place whenever I want to find out the latest news about Brown,
“AYY: I take your point, and skepticism about the story makes sense. But some corroboration about what Cruz was like then does seem to be coming in.”
Okay, but why is it coming in now, three years before the election? And why from GQ? Do you think that maybe Cruz be doing something now that the administration doesn’t like? Obamacare come to mind? Could it be that maybe someone in hte administration is using GQ to tell other Senators there’s a price to pay for opposing Obamacare?
September 25th, 2013 at 1:00AM
Oops, the “be” after “maybe Cruz” should be “is”. I don’t want the skulemarm to think I don’t kno no better.
September 25th, 2013 at 4:20PM
Cruz was missing the fact that the top schools have huge overlap in the abilities of their students. Maybe the test scores of the big 3 are a bit higher than the “minor Ivies,” (what a stupid comment!), but there is no way, in looking around at his classmates, that Cruz could have been sure he was choosing the smartest if he chose the HYP grads. What he was choosing, of course, was not the smartest but the ones with the shiniest pedigrees. The best study partners might have been from UMass and SMU, but he would have totally missed out on them because of his snobbery.