Ha Ha Whoooooooooooops!

Here is just a supercool video of Republican Senator Ted Cruz giving "a version of his standard stump speech to the International Association of Firefighters for their 'presidential summit.' It didn't go well; Cruz dished out his usual stream of over-the-top lines sure to get applause from his usual conservative audiences, but this wasn't his usual conservative audience."

Cruz: —and I'll tell you what I think is the simplest and best tax reform: We should abolish the IRS. [Cruz pauses for applause, but is met with crickets. Edit.] —and I've joked before there are right now a hundred and ten thousand IRS agents; we oughta padlock the IRS building and put those hundred and ten thousand agents all on our southern border. [Cruz pauses for laughter, but is met with crickets. Edit.] On tax reform, we right now have more words in the IRS code than there are in the Bible. [Pause; crickets. Edit.] We need to repeal every word of Obamacare. [Pause; crickets.]

OMG. Everything about this is amazing! He just stands there, looking around, waiting for approbation that never comes. He's so used to audiences that think ideas like abolishing the IRS are TERRIFIC that he is actually confused by people who don't react with ardor to proposals that sound completely absurd to all but the most extreme conservatives.

Good luck on the campaign trail for the presidency, Senator Cruz! If silence is truly golden, you will have the most enormous war chest of them all!