The American Catholic is hilarious

Donald McClarey tries to convince me that Jimmy Carter would pick Trump over Cruz.  No, wait.  It's real!  That's right, Jimmy Carter said he would prefer Trump over Cruz.  Personally, I think it's a dig on Cruz.  I mean, the man is disliked by just about everyone.

I'm reminded of a special I saw on PBS some years ago.  It was about the fall of Communism.  Going against the grain of liberal scholarship, it actually allowed for the possibility that Reagan had something to do with it, including the historic Summit at Geneva in 1985.  And more to the point, it actually interviewed former Soviets who were at the meeting who seemed to give Reagan the most credit for how things turned out.  I know, that's like a world where American settlers weren't genocidal, racist, imperialist, mass murderers.

Nonetheless, it was a well produced documentary.  And there was quite a bit of Reagan love.  Even from his son Ron Reagan, Jr.  I'm sure we all remember that Jr. was no fan of his father.  At least as president.  And yet, Ron gave probably the best take on the entire monumental conference:

When the Summit began, Reagan famously bombarded Gorbachev with a laundry list of how evil the USSR was, and how the problems of the Cold War were the fault of the Soviets.  Gorbachev responded by saying he didn't come there to be lectured by Reagan.  Oh, and when that leaked out, I remember the uproar, the furor, the panic.  This was it!  Reagan was going to nuke the world!!!

But when the dust settled, Reagan and Gorbachev emerged as fast friends, and remained so until Reagan's last days.  It was their friendship that helped bring about a peaceful end to the Cold War, against all the expectations we had only a decade earlier.

Ron, Jr. pointed out that only Reagan could have gotten away with that.  Only he could have sat there and chastised the Soviet leader that way and, not only not cause a war, but end up being friends.  It was something Reagan had, a certain 'it' factor.  Friendship from the point of strength. 

But not Cruz.  I can see Cruz doing the same thing and causing a nuclear war.  There is something about him that is abrasive.  Offensive.  He's not likable in all the wrong ways.  He reminds me of some ministers we used to know in my Protestant days.  They were just jerks, plain and simple.  Yet when there were problems, they would insist it was all because Jesus said we'd be persecuted.  No, we said, it's not because of Jesus that you have problems.  It's because you're a jerk.  The same, I'm afraid, goes for Cruz.