As Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz announced on March 23 that he is running for president, his Virginia audience cheered. He dropped applause line after applause line on some 10,000 students at Liberty University, which bills itself as the largest Christian university in the world.
Cruz riffed, unimaginatively, on an "imagine" theme, asking the young audience to "imagine a president" who would repeal Obamacare and perform other feats. There was applause throughout. But one line prompted the students to erupt into a roaring, 30-second, standing ovation: "Instead of a president who boycotts Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, imagine a president who stands unapologetically with the nation of Israel."
It brought down the house.