By all rights, Ted Cruz should be the leading Reagan Coalition candidate at this point in the campaign. He ticks all of the boxes: he’s impeccably evangelical; his righteous rage is palpable; notwithstanding his Rick Perry moment at the last debate, his intelligence is unquestionable; he looks reasonably Reaganesque; and he couldn’t be more despised by the GOP establishment if he tried (and he probably does). He also has plenty of money. For all of this, he is currently stuck far behind Trump and Carson. Why?
There are two potential reasons. First, even though his battles with the GOP leadership are the stuff of legend, he is still a politician, and as such he has failed to stop Obama. In other words, he can’t portray himself as a white knight untainted by Washington corruption and stupidity as convincingly as the two complete outsider candidates. Second, it is perfectly possible that people just dislike the guy; he exudes gloom, anger, and ambition from every pore. Can you imagine seeing that on TV every night for four years? Me, neither.