Lincoln Reagan dinner, Grafton County

This is a fund raiser that we hold every year.  For a lotta years we have been holding it at the Indian Head resort (fairly tony for northern NH) at Franconia Notch.  I've been going to this event for quite a few years now, to the point where I know by name a lot of the guests. 
  Weather was miserable, it snowed all day, putting down 5-6 inches by 3 PM when it let up.  Trusty Mercury charged out of the garage, up my steep driveway, and crashed thru the foot high snowdrift at the street.  Getting thru the notch was tedious, lot of out of state cars creeping along at walking pace. The road was OK, but a tad slippery.  Being New Hampshire, just about everyone showed up, dispite the weather,  except the guest of honor, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who was coming up from Manchester by car.  Fortunately he had a native driver who got him upcountry all in one piece. 
   Cruz is sufficiently famous to attract TV troops with a satellite truck, which they parked out behind the Indian Head with the dish pointed up at a satellite and filling up with snow.  Cruz is a good speaker.  His English is plain American, no hint of a Texas accent, or a Spanish accent.  Speaking to a Republican audience, he connected.  He spoke of supporting freedom of religion, freedom from federal snoopers, local control of education as opposed to Common Core, the Constitution, love of country, his background.  He did not propose any new federal benefit programs.  He connected with the audience, and gained standing ovations.  This guy is a good speaker.  He would make mince meat of Hillary in a debate.  He took questions from the audience.  The questions were friendly, mostly asking him to expand upon themes he had previously touched upon.  The questioners were all bone fide New Hampshire folk, known to me.  He did not say anything about immigration, but given his background as the son of a Cuban refugee, I would expect him to be fairly sympathetic to immigrants.  Anyhow, this guy is worth watching.  He speaks well, he talks about concrete issues that matter to Republicans,  he would be a very competitive Republican presidential candidate.  He talked about conservative issues, but they are important issues, which many voters cherish.  He avoided wedge issues like abortion and gay marriage.