Stamina’s an important thing.  Going for the golden ring takes stamina.  Lots of it.  That’s why the sentient and  patriotic are betting that Hillary Clinton won’t be up for the marathon a presidential election takes.  Even as her so-called biography for multi-shekels hits the shelves, the better to grab acolytes not already inured to her astonishing flaws, failures, and flops, the apparent presidential contender might just not have the  intestinal fortitude to make it across that delicate line.

Not so Senator Ted Cruz.  He has already demonstrated tremendous integrity and resolve in his 21-hour stand-up in front of Congress, a filibuster that gave an inkling of the mettle – and metal – of this 44-year-old conservative senator from the great state of Texas.

Did you know that this man of accomplishment is only 44?  Did you know that his father, now a pastor, came to this country at 18, to get a job as dishwasher in a fast-food place, and refused to take a nickel from the U.S. government?

When we caught up with the attractive, and very personable, Senator Cruz, it was Sunday, 1 June.

Talk about stamina: he had, by the time we had the immeasurable pleasure to listen to and exchange witticisms with the man, been on the This Week with George  Stephanopoulos Sunday a.m. news and discussion program.  So that is a 10 a.m. call, with makeup and prep for an hour before airtime.  Because Sunday was the annual mega Celebrate Israel Parade beginning at 11 a.m., hard by the ABC studios, Cruz had time for a bite, perhaps, before he attended the post-parade free concert in Central Park, which we also attended.  Some 10,000+ pro-Israel Americans rocked the music venue concert in the gorgeous late spring/early summer sun, where Mort Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America; Dr. Joseph Frager, a philanthropist and physician, and gadfly lawyer and Harvard Law prof, introduced the good  senator to the myriad adults and kids waving American and Israeli flags.

From there, Cruz jockeyed to a tony restaurant for a high-ticket fundraiser, which finished somewhere just before he arrived at our meet-up, at about 8 p.m.

Cruz proved amazing.  He is the real deal.  He is fluent and articulate on all the topics conservatives and independents care about.  VA.  Health care.  Scandals.  “Amnesty.”  Coming midterms, coming 2016.  Senate and House folk.  Burritos.  Prisoner swaps.  He is a quick-witted study when one of the audience, or two, tosses him a jolly political hot potato.  He gracefully extricates himself from a potential time-bomb or social media grenade.  He deftly handles, with especial earnestness, current events as well as American history.  (Abe Lincoln long ago thumbnailed our current dilemma: "You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.”)

But the surprise of the evening was his amazing timing and his great sense of humor.  We stood up and applauded time and again during the two hours he spent with us, a crowd of some 70 interested devotees of conservative values.  He stood patiently for photographs at the end of a trying question-and-answer period that the man could easily have begged off from – it had been, by then, a more than 12-hour day, nonstop talking and rushing around this way and that here in the Apple.

Something we can share – no news, but good to hear as often as possible: the Reaganite injunction.  Republicans do not cut down other Republicans.  Infighting helps no one but the opposition.

After the presentation, his actually laugh-out-loud jokes, and the witty rejoinders to Q&A, he affably took all comers for selfies and threlfies and whatever.

There is the sense that this man is real.  Not the run-of-the-mill hypocrite and liar.  He’s demonstrated his spine.  This man has it written on his handsome, broad, and intelligent forehead.  This tough-talking yet elegant senator, father and husband, son and patriot, by the time he hits 45, might well become our most ardently desired and welcome #45.

Let’s hope we have the stamina and lifting bicepses to get him in where he will be most critical if the magnificent United States is to survive.