For anyone who missed it, the first entrant into the 2016 GOP presidential clown car, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, appeared on CBS This Morning earlier this week and treated their audience to this bit of blatant political pandering: Ted Cruz: I Started Listening To Country Music Because Of 9/11:

Leaving no political stone unturned, newly-declared presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) had a very particular answer on Tuesday when asked about his taste in music.

"You know, music is interesting," he said on CBS "This Morning." "I grew up listening to classic rock, and I'll tell you sort of an odd story."

"My music taste changed on 9/11," he said, followed by a pause.

Co-host Gayle King nodded.

"I actually intellectually find this very curious, but on 9/11, I didn't like how rock music responded," the senator went on. "And country music, collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me."

Cruz did not specify which rock artists "responded" to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in a way that led him to switch genres. But he repeated that he's been firmly country ever since.

"I had an emotional reaction that said, 'these are my people.' So ever since 2001 I listen to country music," he concluded.

Watching that clip had me wondering what was worse, Cruz or the hosts of the show sitting there nodding with him in agreement instead of asking him what the hell he was talking about.

The Majority Report's Sam Seder weighed in on the segment in the clip above and Sam did a nice job of reminding everyone just how godawful a lot of the country music was that came out right after 9-11.

Sam's segment was funny, but it's Charlie Pierce with the win when it comes to taking apart Tailgunner Cruz and his claim that his musical taste suddenly changed:

And then there's his brief -- and genuinely weird -- foray into music criticism.

"My music taste changed on 9/11," Cruz said. "I actually intellectually find this very curious, but on 9/11, I didn't like how rock music responded," he said. "And country music, collectively, the way they responded, it resonated with me."

Let us assume for the moment that the optimal age for the beginning of a person's interest in pop music is 13. Ted Cruz was 13 in 1983, and he was living in Texas. By then, the Austin music scene was into its second generation. Willie Nelson had released Red Headed Stranger almost a decade earlier. Steve Earle was bouncing back and forth from Austin to Nashville and warming up to release Guitar Town. Townes Van Zandt was at the peak of his powers, so much so that Bob Dylan was hankering to meet him, and Guy Clark already had two Greatest Hits albums. Hell, Loretta Lynn had broken through so thoroughly that Sissy Spacek won an Oscar playing Ms. Lynn in a movie. And yet it took 18 more years, and 13 murderous Saudi fanatics, to clue the Tailgunner into country music. And why do I think the pivotal point in his esthetic evolution came the first time he heard Toby Keith's idiotic "Courtesy Of The Red, White, and Blue"?

And Ted? Here's how rock and roll "responded" to those events, dipwad. The late Mr. Entwistle alone puts paid to your nonsense, lad.

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