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| Campaignspotting: The BBC's 2016 US presidential blog | |
| (3 months later) | |
| You may not be ready for the 2016 US presidential race, but the candidates are ready for you. | You may not be ready for the 2016 US presidential race, but the candidates are ready for you. |
| Imagine a speech by Ted Cruz | |
| 23 March, 2015 | |
| Back before Ted Cruz was famous, when he was just a Houston lawyer running a quixotic race for the US Senate, I wrote that the Texan's speaking style was "a cross between Atticus Finch and Tony Robbins". | |
| Cruz's particular oratory - thundering lines punctuated by emotive whispers, all delivered while prowling the stage with a wireless microphone - was on full display as he announced his presidential candidacy on Monday morning at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia | |
| Here are a few takeaways from the day's main event. | |
| Imagine that. Cruz used the word "imagine" 38 times in his speech, prompting countless John Lennon jokes, including a rather inspired musical mash from the website the Takeaway. | |
| Cruz must have read the 2011 column by political communications strategist Frank Luntz, who wrote: "'Imagine' is still the most powerful word in the English language because it is inspiring, motivating and has a unique definition for each person. When you want to inspire, imagine is the language vehicle." | |
| Rand fans crash the party. It was hard not to notice a collection of students in red T-shirts emblazoned with "I Stand With Rand" in the audience as Cruz spoke. What were supporters of Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator who will likely challenge Cruz for the presidential nomination, doing there? | |
| If they were Liberty University students, they had no choice. Cruz's announcement was made at one of the school's thrice-weekly convocations. Student attendance at such events is mandatory - and punishable by "four reprimands" and a $10 [£7] fine. | |
| A world apart. At the same time Cruz was launching his candidacy, Hillary Clinton was 180 miles away, at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning Washington, DC think tank. | |
| While economic mobility and urban policy were on the agenda, Cruz's entry into a presidential race that Clinton may soon join was the subject of much discussion among the press and policymakers in attendance. | |
| "It's what everyone was talking about," says BBC's Jon Sopel, who attended the event. He adds that the staid panel discussion, with East Coast academics and eggheads, couldn't have been a greater contrast from Cruz's church-revival-style announcement. | |
| Campaignspotting: BBC's 2016 blog |