Sen. Ted Cruz didn’t sugarcoat the odds against preventing ObamaCare from going into effect during a rip-roaring speech at the Western Conservative Summit Saturday in Denver.
Then again, a senatorial hopeful with a 2 percent poll rating isn’t supposed to win the general election by 16 points.
The Texas senator reminded the packed ballroom at the Denver Hyatt Regency of his campaign’s modest beginnings to show them anything is possible when you have the American people on your side.
The conservative darling introduced the new web site dontfundit.com at the fourth annual Summit, simulcast live Saturday to delegates attending the Arizona Western Conservative Summit in Scottsdale. The site includes a petition against ObamaCare as well as contact information for Republican Senators to convince them to support the funding ban.
Cruz earned several standing ovations with his speech, a folksy blend of humor, hard truths and personal stories. He reminded the crowd how fellow Sen. Rand Paul’s recent filibuster against drone strikes rallied the American people to contact their local officials. In no short order public polling on the subject shifted dramatically, and even President Barack Obama took notice.
“Force our elected officials to be accountable and do the right thing,” he said.
The crowd gobbled up every punch line and political stance from Cruz, but they roared when he railed against the IRS’s unequal treatment of Tea Party groups. The line that inspired the loudest response touched on the IRS’s questioning of a deeply personal matter.
“The U.S. government has no business whatsoever asking any American the content of our prayers,” he said to sustained applause and, finally, another standing ovation.