The place Beto used in Lampasas looks like a nice place, but they estimate a capacity of 200. If he can't get 200 people, even out in BFE Texas, we shouldn't have a thread on him.
I still think Beto will come up short but this election has shades of John Tower's win in 1961. At that time, Democrats were still dominating Texas politics but the incumbent was a Senator that had poor approval ratings with the Democratic base (William Blakley) that caused an under performance of the Democratic base with some voters not showing up and others choosing to vote Republican. But Ted Cruz is unpopular enough to enable a perfect storm. His shtick wore off a while ago with some Republican voters (especially now that he's been eclipsed by Trump). So there's a tiny window for a Democrat like O'Rourke to sneak in. And voter turnout is so awful in Texas that any variability on turnout really changes election dynamics. As a general practice, campaigns only focus on likely voters but in Texas, the unlikely voter pool is so massive that the Democratic path to victory has to involve adjusting turnout rates which in turn has massive down ballot implications. An O'Rourke win doesn't just change national politics, the result arguably could flip down ballot elections (especially since straight ticket voting is still an option in 2018).
I wasn't bashing Beto for calling himself Beto, I was pointing out that he makes that the central marketing strategy of his campaign. It's effectively what he's running on. As to Ted Cruz, sure, he goes by a "white" (in reality you mean "American", but we'll let that slide) nickname for his middle name of Edward....which is a "white" (again "American" is the accurate word here) name to begin with. If he was running on TED, and essentially hiding the Cruz part, it would be similar. I deadass know people planning to vote for Beto that don't know his last name is O'Rourke. The "Beto" part is about all they know about him because that has been the major part of his candidacy thus far. I mean, some of those same people I was talking about didn't even know he was a white Irish guy that isn't even mixed, they thought he was Hispanic.....because that's what his campaign wants casual voters to think. He wouldn't sound like he checked off ANY diversity boxes if he was running as Robert Francis O'Rourke and that's something important to the modern left.
Only because Cruz is from Texas. His obstructionists schtick may have run its course, hopefully so. Not sure what the historical performance is for candidates who fail to land the presidential nomination in their next election.
Oh I was under the impression that is where this election would take place. Perhaps it is international.
You know on the voting machine his name will say Beto O'Rourke or perhaps Robert "Beto" O'Rourke, while the other will say Ted Cruz or Rafael "Ted" Cruz. If Hispanics are voting purely on name, I don't think going by Beto helps.
I would never make a blanket statement like "Hispanics are voting purely on name", in fact the majority of those I know who support him but didn't know he was white are white themselves. On the Ballot, it'll likely say Robert "Beto" O'Rourke, and I expect some people will be surprised when they see his real name, but by then it wouldn't stop them from voting for him. On the ballot Ted Cruz shows up as merely Ted Cruz from what I remember. Anyway, if they really do have multiple debates before the election, I would imagine that fewer people would be surprised that O'Rourke is a pasty white guy. We'll see what the numbers look like closer to the election.
I had to look this up because I honestly did not believe this. I was curious how he came up with the name Ted, which makes zero F'ing sense from his name (wouldn't be the first person that just had a random nickname they went by though). I've never met a Ted that was an Edward, and I've never met an Edward that goes by Ted. Edward is Ed or Eddie, while Theodore is Ted or Teddy. Granted, I went by Jim or Jimmy as a child, but at least I can see Jim because it is shorter than James.
I suspect the poster meant cruz benefited from being from Texas in the Texas primary versus the "New York City" candidate, which I suspect is an even bigger "favorite son" advantage in Texas... (New York City?!).
Yeah, the evolution of the name Edward to Ted would be from Edward to Ed, Ed to Ted. SImilar to how a name like William turns into Billy. From William to Will, from Will to Bill, from Bill to Billy. I think you are right that it is much more common for Theodore's to go by Ted but a fairly famous Kennedy named Edward went as Ted so it's not unheard of. Speaking of the Kennedy's, the nickname that never made sense to me is how one would get from John to Jack like John F Kennedy who was sometimes called Jack.
.... really? The meat of my response was what you ignored. Classic Bandwagoner. Maybe trump will help Cruz... lol.
I forgot about the Kennedys. I used to be confused in thinking John & Jack were brothers... Maybe it is because all 4 are Irish...
Ehh.. Look at the Governor Polls. If Abbott wins by 12 Cruz will win by 7 or 8 at a minimum. I don't see enough people voting for Abbott and not voting for Cruz. They will just do straight ticket.
As this article points out, Cruz's family thought specifically of how Edward Kennedy went by Ted, so there's one. Anyway, there does seem to be something microcosmically poetic about the identity switches of these two candidates. Here's one guy, a Cuban American growing up in a white environment and hiding apparently from the name teasing of his peers by deliberately adopting a generic American name, against another guy, totally white but growing up in a heavily Hispanic town and being given and embracing a cultural marker from that community despite being teased about it.
Reasons to like Beto more than ted... went to public schools, not foo foo private schools. Beto captained the Columbia rowing team. ted was in the show troupe and debate teams. Eew. And most important, Beto's kids like their dad.
The best thing for Beto would be for him to be seen as a candidate with no chance to win, that way it's possible that the Republican turnout will be low and maybe the Beto crowd will show up instead. If Beto is seen as a legitimate threat, it'll mobilize the Cruz vote to get out and vote, if that happens, Belo will have no real chance. Basically the turnout will tell the tale of this election. If the turnout is super low, Beto has a slight chance, if it is really high, Cruz will win easily.....but that's always the case when it comes to underdogs running against popular incumbents.
