Ted Cruz for President? - the Atlantic

At meetings like this one, both in his home state of Texas and across the country, Cruz is a bona-fide rock star. “It’s like all the Beatles in one person,” gushed the Texas gathering’s emcee, Erick Erickson, editor-in-chief of the widely read RedState, who introduced Cruz by hailing him as “the leader of the conservative movement in the United States.”

[…]

At the end of his speech, as the crowd waved red-and-blue signs handed out by Cruz’s staff and bearing his hashtag-slogan, “#makedclisten,” Erickson, the RedState honcho, was suddenly moved to do something he had not done for any of the other speakers on the program. “Folks, let’s pray for Senator Cruz,” he said.

Erickson gripped the podium with both hands while Cruz, standing to one side, leaned over and braced one hand against it. “Father, there are those who hear Senator Cruz and his voice and his leadership inspires them,” Erickson said, his eyes squinted tightly shut. “There are others, Father, that turn from him, and we pray, Father, for your protection upon them. We pray, Father, that he can be a beacon to this country.”

I think I’m getting a headache.