You Keep Using These Words...

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."
If there's one thing you need to know about Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, it's that he is a terrible nightmare person who should never be allowed anywhere near the Oval Office. And if there's a second thing you need to know about him, it's that his favorite movie is The Princess Bride, and he constantly quotes it on the campaign trail.

One of his favorites is: "Allo, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." And Mandy Patinkin, the actor who played Inigo Montoya, isn't happy about it.

"I would like to be with Senator Cruz for a moment and I would like to respectfully ask him, since he quotes all the lines from 'The Princess Bride' and certainly all of my character, Inigo Montoya's, lines, I would like to know why he doesn't quote my favorite line?" That line, Mr. Patinkin said, was among the last his character utters in a movie that essentially taught that love conquers all.

..."After the princess flies out the window and falls into Andre the Giant's arms," Mr. Patinkin said, "Inigo says to the Man in Black, 'I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.'"

Mr. Cruz, in Mr. Patinkin's heavily left-leaning worldview, is trafficking in the revenge business, appealing to anxious voters by saying of the Islamic State, "We will carpet-bomb them into oblivion," and by exploiting fears about immigrants and Muslims.

"Senator Cruz, if you're going to say those lines, you've got to say the other line, too," Mr. Patinkin said.

Sounding increasingly vexed, he added: "This man is not putting forth ideas that are at the heart of what that movie is all about. I would love for Senator Cruz, and everyone creating fear mongering and hatred, to consider creating hope, optimism and love. Open your arms to these people, these refugees trying to get into our country, and open your hearts."

The only appropriate response, Senator Cruz, is: "As you wish."