Ted Cruz to skip State of the Union address but will still be 'disappointed' by it

Ted Cruz is going to stay on message (message: I hate the president) and get in a little extra campaign time in New Hampshire this Tuesday by skipping the State of the Union address:

Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told The Hill that the Texas senator will be "disappointed" by the president's speech regardless of where he'll be. “It won’t matter because he’ll be just as disappointed in New Hampshire as he will be in the chamber.” 

“It’s not a snub. He’s going to be in New Hampshire, working hard to win New Hampshire,” Tyler told The Dallas Morning News. "No disrespect. It just is going to work out this way.” 

In reality, one senator more or less doesn’t matter and it’s not like being absent will mean Cruz doesn’t know what President Obama says, but of course Cruz intends disrespect, in a carefully calculated way. This is a chance for him to show his disdain for Obama, show that he’s not a creature of Washington, and suck up to New Hampshire Republicans a little in a way that sets him apart from Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, his fellow senators and primary competitors. It’s another smart piece of campaigning from a very shrewd campaigner.