Hitting a slow news patch, but then this happened. Senator cruz i believe in you. I believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to reignite the promise of america. And that is why today i am announcing that i am running for president of the United States. [applause] this is our fight. The answer will not come from washington. It will come only from the men and women across this country from men and women, from people of faith, from lovers of liberty, from people who respect the constitution. It will only, as it has come at every other time of challenge in this country, when the American People stand together and say we will get back to the principles that have made this country great. We will get back and restore that shining city on a hill that is the United States of america. Mark that was ted cruz this morning at Liberty University in virginia, announcing that he is in. He is number one. He is number one. It is true. He is the only one officially in the race. Martin caught up with him and asked how he felt. He thought it was tiptop, the event. Senator cruz it was inspiring. The passion here at Liberty University was like 12,000 young people standing up for the principles of liberty. John so perhaps not surprisingly, ted cruz thought ted cruz did great. My question is, how do you think ted cruz did . Mark doing the announcement now and then this way was, as we say in texas wicked smart. He got more play than he would have. Performed really well. He goes into the senate, where they are going to fight about the budget, as an announced and of that, able to get attention by opposing not only the obama administration, but his own party. John one of the most mocked things president ial candidates do is say, i am exploring the idea, forming an Exploratory Committee. There is something refreshing about coming out and saying, i am in. Mark it will be hard for anyone to do either of these things now to an Exploratory Committee or perform badly. He performed well enough that he really set the pace not just ongoing first, but doing it well. John it was not a perfect event, but i have to say the things he does well, he did very well today. That is a good standard. Mark he was very good at being himself on his message. So how did senator cruz perform his act . Use a lectern . Nope. Teleprompter, no. Scripted speech . As they say in texas naw. He turned his back on many of the news cameras to play to the theater in the round crowd. No one from either party has staged an announcement event quite like this. John stylistically, mark stylistically, did they pull this off . John if you think that in her television if you think this is ideal he hit it out of the park. If you think this is less than ideal, perhaps not so much. It did not bother me that much but i think there will be some places where he is not going to adopt the perfect video he wanted. Mark but by walking around, where he is most comfortable it is a high wire act. Most people do drafts and drafts of speeches. He is great at memorizing speeches, from his background as a lawyer debater. He started slow on the biographical stuff. Are the most part, lots of applause lines on his message. John when you think about potential competitors we will talk about that in a minute. No teleprompter. A good talking point for a conservative who hates barack obama. No prepared text. That shows a level of performance skill that is an eightgame. Purely for performance, it was impressive. I think he would have been better off if he had known where all the cameras were. If you were obama, you would know exactly where those cameras were. Mark interesting he did the surprise announcement. He is going on a media blitz of television and print interviews. By doing the surprise announcement on monday, there is no news in the world that is dominating. He will get a lot of attention. Lets face it, his poll numbers are not very good. John we both agree, a little odd to have him not going in the early stage. We shall not surrender john one is the loneliest number. The candidate paul is going candidate pool is going to get deep. So his speech today was not just an announcement, but positioning. To appeal to proprivacy hounds, he said things like this. Senator cruz instead of a government that seizes your emails and your cell phones, imagine a federal government that protected the privacy rights of every american. [applause] john and to appeal to republican antijab common core haters, he said things like this. Senator cruz instead of a federal government that seeks to dictate School Curriculum through common core [applause] senator cruz imagine repealing every word of common core. [applause] john we will get our legal team on over common core, which is not a federal law. In the meantime, who were his main targets among his fellow republicans today . Mark he was to take on jeb bush and once the libertarian vote to rid main targets were religious conservative voters and iowa and the republicans who are going to compete with him huckabee, perry, gentle, santorum. Jindal, santorum. He needs the religious conservative votes. That was his big bid today. John decision on lynchburg was hugely symbolic. Not at iowa. Not in south carolina. Not in texas. Going there, broadcasting in the most blazing way possible, i am going for the evangelical voters. That is interesting. There are not a lot of jeb bush voters that are going to be swayed by ted cruz. Troubling not rand paul voters although he went after those bases. The ones he is going to get are the ones he said. Mark he is a younger guy. For young voters who want strong Foreign Policy in his mode, but that libertarian streak on technological privacy i think he can get some of them. He has to cobble together a coalition that does not include establishment voters. That means he has to fish in every other pond available. John that is true, but for most libertarian voters, you have to be libertarian on more things, and across the board on things like samesex marriage and immigration. Mark almost nobody is going to be there. John you can get closer than ted cruz is going to be. We shall Never Surrender mark we talked a lot about style, and some of our viewers will be distraught about that. There was plenty of substance. You could slap it on the back of matt millers porsche. Which is to say, he has bumper stickers that imagine effortless change. Senator cruz imagine in 2017 a new president signing legislation repealing every word of obamacare. Imagine abolishing the irs. Imagine a president that finally, finally, i na li secures the borders. In finally secures the borders. Imagine a president that stands unapologetically with the nation of israel. Imagine a president who says, we will defeat radical islamic terrorism. [applause] mark a lot of lofty goals, but no specifics about how to get there. After today, the you have any idea what president cruise would do in office to get those things done . President cruz would do in office to get those things done . John even if you are a republican and not a liberal his message is still, even though he draped a bunch of reagan rhetoric around it his message is thin on is still fundamentally negative. Antiirs antiobama. He needs to project a positive affirmative vision on policy. I do not see any of that yet from him. It is his biggest weakness. Mark you look at the people who are ahead on policy specifics marco rubio and jeb bush. Then you go to people like Chris Christie and scott walker, not very specific. In cruzs lane, huckabee, santorum. Very few specifics. A blank slate. Fascinating to see when he gives major policy goals. Today, greatest hits of his rhetoric. John if people want to know mark if people want tocynically what a candidate is going to do, ted cruz did not satisfy them. John george bush and bill clinton announced detailed policy proposals before they announced, and maine and you knew their positions. Mark here is what is wrong. Here is what i would do about it. Not just wave my magic wand and get there. John some degree of skepticism about my policy would be. Not seen that from any of the candidates, and particularly ted cruz. Mark clinton, bush, and obama give speeches that told you about their inauguration addresses. This is not a template for ted cruz if he does get elected president. John coming up, three great tastes that taste great together cruz comedy, and take. The right back. And cake. Be right back. Mark ted cruzs Campaign Announcement was a symphony in many movements. We will break it down for you starting with Movement Number one, a cover of john lennons classic, imagine. Senator cruz i want to ask each of you to imagine. Imagine millions of courageous conservatives all across america, rising up together to say in unison, we demand our liberty. [applause] senator cruz today, millions of young people are scared worried about the future, worried what the future will hold. Imagine millions of young people coming together and standing together saying, we will stand for liberty. [applause] senator cruz imagine instead of economic stagnation booming economic growth. [applause] senator cruz instead of Small Businesses going out of business in record numbers, imagine Small Businesses growing and prospering. Imagine young people coming out of school with 4, 5, 6 job offers. [applause] senator cruz imagine innovation thriving on the internet as government like your letters government regulators and tax collectors are kept at bay, and more opportunity is created. Imagine america finally becoming energy selfsufficient as millions and millions of highpaying jobs are created. Mark imagine is a great word. It allows you to have a refrain in all your stump speeches that is optimistic and does exactly what you want to do, which is make things about the future. I thought that was one of the best parts of his speech. John he used the word 38 times. You know who agrees about it being a great word is a republican pundit who says it is the most powerful word in the english language because it is motivating and has unique definition for each person. I think the question is when you think about barack obama hope and change. These words are powerful, but they are also empty in some ways. And barack obama got away with it in 2008, being about hope and change. Ted cruz is going to face a lot of scrutiny, because imagine suggests something you talked about earlier. By a snap of a finger, we will have jobs waiting for us. There is you have to go a little further on that. It is not a bad rejoinder. Mark i assume he is going to make this the center of his stone speech. You can use this to adapt to changing circumstances. Imagine a president who would do this and that. He has talked about anticipation. He has to be more optimistic. Double the trouble with ted cruz is, he was appealing to people who currently support him, and people who are likeminded but do not know him yet. If he is ever going to do well, he will have to expand his base. Optimism is one way to do it. John you have to be the imagine guy or the world is on fire guy. Movement number two if all that revolved around a man we all know well, a man who needs no introduction, a man named jesus. Senator cruz there are people who wonder if faith is real. I can tell you, in my family there is not a second of doubt because were it not for the transformative love of jesus christ, i would have been saved, and i would have been raised by a single mom without my father in the household. For so Many Americans the promise of america seems more and more distant. What is the promise of america . The idea that the revolutionary idea that this country was founded upon, which is that our rights, they dont come from man. They come from god almighty. [applause] john lets say one simple thing. We know he is appealing to evangelical voters. This will be music to their ears. But for some moderate republicans that overt and excessive to some years emphasis on religion in politics is a little discordant. He is running some risk. He runs a risk of losing some moderate republicans by playing the religion card that hard. Mark there are other people who wear their faith on their sleeve as much as ted cruz, or close to it. That has not historically been the kind of person the Republican Party has nominated. This cycle might be different. You have to take into account the venue and what he needs to do politically. I think part of the strength of the speech started slow with the biographical stuff. What he did speak from the heart. People underestimate his intelligence and the degree to which aspects of his message are pretty genuine and therefore, i think, powerful. It is easy in some ways to do that in this event, which was kind of like a mega church sermon. Can he do that to good effect in a living room in iowa . And will he do that in a living room in new hampshire. If he does not, will he get called on . John i think a mega Church Environment like this can also come off as phony. He has a reputation of being a bit of a charlatan, so he is walking a tightrope. Mark finally, the finale of ted cruz presenting the chronicles of heidi, his wife. Senator cruz she starts a Small Business when she is in grade school, baking bread. She calls it heidis bakery. She and her brother compete baking bread. They bake thousands of loaves of bread and go to the local apple orchard, where they sell the bread to people coming to pick apples. She goes on to a career in business, excelling and rising to the highest pinnacles. And then heidi becomes my wifes and my very best friend in the world. My wife and my very best friend in the world. [applause] senator cruz heidi becomes an incredible mom to our two precious little girls, caroline and kathryn, the joys and loves of our life. Mark incredible moment at the end when heidi and the two girls came on stage. What could be more charming than a president ial candidate who is the bakers husband . John heidi has brought a lot of bread for that family in a variety of ways. Successful in business. A managing director at goldman sachs. Not sure that will come up in a lot of his speeches. The populist maine is not psyched. Populist wi is not psyched. Nmark coming up, comedian ted cruz grabs the mic. John stark a star trek impression . Check. Dr. Seuss impression . Check. The selfstyled standup comic and selfproclaimed nerd ted cruz. Senator cruz every time i get out, they keep pulling me back in. I am one of the many people who is not a fan of shutting down the government. Throughout this whole thing i understand reading that dr. Seuss thing. Jay leno the dr. Seuss thing . Senator cruz there is only one member of the u. S. Senate who is known for green eggs and ham. Your demo is very trendy. Senator cruz i pull very well in the 36 demographic. I picked up the mouse from the computer and began speaking into it, going, computer, and i said, a keyboard, how quaint. Not one of the twentysomethings in the room knew what i was doing. You know what that is . John immediately on hearing that phrase, i wondered if we would see a tall gentleman in a mechanical breathing apparatus come forward and say, in a deep voice, mike lee, i am your father. John i know you may think ted cruz is a funny guy. I am not sure where you get the idea from, but i trust you on many things. Mark he is funnier than he lets on. I think in the debates, it is going to be so crowded that cutting humor is going to work well. It is one area he did not show much in the speech. He will have to show more to excel in a crowded field. John if he actually is funny and you are right, he should employ that tool, because he has to live in some of the angry edge he has and make himself a little more i hate the word relatable. Mark five of the last times i shook his hand, he was wearing a joy buzzer. John ice cream, you scream, we all scream for after the break. John thanks to haagendazs for rushing this cake. It is melting rapidly. We hope your campaign lasts longer than this confection. Mark tomorrow, there is not going to be a ted cruz cake, but we will have the real ted cruz live here for an interview. We will also have more of our texas twostep, an interview with rick perry in houston. Oath of them right here. Taking stock is next. Pimm i am pimm fox, and this is what i am taking stock of. Human chancellor Angela Merkel met today in berlin with greek Prime MinisterAlexis Tsipras trying to get a little unity. The leaders are working on political and Financial Solutions to greeces money problems. At this time we should not destroy the positives from the past five years. But we need to change the political mix in order to face these maladies. Pimm investors are listening to every word spoken by members of the federal reserve. Fed vice chairman stanley fischer