Monday on Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” panel was was not enthusiastic about the presidential campaign launched today by Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).
While Kimberly Guilfoyle was the most positive and Dana Perino tried to keep an even balance by discussing both strengths and weaknesses in the Cruz candidacy, it was Eric Bolling and Greg Gutfeld who had the strongest cases against Cruz launching an ultimately successful bid to win the presidency.
Eric Bolling said several times he was very supportive of all of Cruz’s positions, but this is just not his time, explaining, “He delivered to a very Christian audience there, who the way I understand it, I think they had to be there. I love Ted Cruz. I love the constitutional conservative in him. I think he would be a great president, but I just don’t think he is ready yet. Maybe it is not his time. I think — he is a young guy, only in the Senate like two years. Not a long, long time. One of the strikes we had against President Obama was that he was too young. He was too fresh and too green around the ears. He got in there and ended up making a lot of things his own. I can see Ted Cruz doing this in eight years, hopefully a Republican wins and maybe the next time around Ted Cruz will be more prepared. This is a guy who, I think I was the first person to put Ted Cruz on Fox Television.”
Greg Gutfeld had deeper criticisms, saying “The only person who didn’t know Ted Cruz was running was Ted Cruz. He has been running for years. The problem I have is, is he running for himself or running for the country? Republicans have had their fill of attention-seeking vessels who are looking for a talk show or looking for something else. The problem with the Republican candidates is that we want vision and they want television.”
And the liberal panelist Juan Williams had the harshest criticisms saying, “If you look, 40% say they have a favorable view of him. 38%, which is your number, said they have a negative view and would never support. This comes back to the heart of the electability issue. He has to do something about that 38% because he is talking about his own votes. He is not talking about me. When you look at the 38%, what you realize no other Republican likely to get in this race is as high as Ted Cruz when it comes to not being likable. This is the guy John McCain called a wacko bird. When I am in Washington, walking the halls of the Senate, they are making fun of Ted Cruz. They can’t believe this guy stood up.”
Williams continued, “I’m talking about colleagues and people who have to work with him, not necessarily establishments, in the Republican party. They think he is all about himself. Someone else said earlier it looks like this is not about vision but television, about him.” Gutfeld agreed saying “I feel this has always been about Ted Cruz,” which caused Kimberly Guilfoyle was to shoot back, “My goodness, somebody took their cynical pills this morning.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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