OUR CRUZ TO BEAR:

First, Cruz doesn't have enough support from party bigwigs. To win the Republican or Democratic nomination, you need the backing of at least some of the party apparatus. At a minimum, your fellow party members shouldn't hate you. Otherwise, you end up getting the Newt Gingrich 2012 treatment. That is, you get pounced on the moment you're seen as a threat to win the nomination.

If we're ever in a world where it looks like Cruz could win the nomination, you'll very likely see such pouncing. You can read article after article about how Cruz has isolated himself in the Senate. It got so bad that he recently had to apologize to his Republican colleagues.

And the Cruz hatred doesn't stop at the edges of the Senate cloakroom. Influential party actors dislike him, too. I can't remember another Republican who united Ann Coulter, Pat Robertson, Jennifer Rubin and Thomas Sowell in opposition.

That isn't to say that Cruz is universally hated in Washington. He has a fan base in the very conservative House GOP caucus. House Republicans have, in fact, been egging Cruz on. The problem for Cruz is that endorsements from this group are likely worth about one-third to one-half as much as those from major statewide officials. Representatives usually have very little statewide sway, and most Americans cannot even name their representative.

Second, Cruz has an electability problem. You can see this on two fronts: ideology and polling.

Cruz is likely far too extreme ideologically to win the nomination. The Republican party has a habit of nominating relatively moderate candidates (see John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012). That's especially the case when the party has been out of the White House for more than one term. A Cruz nomination wouldn't just break this streak; it would throw it off a 100-floor balcony and drop a piano on it.

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