CNN gets it right in the fact that Cruz and Rubio I feel are the likely candidates; but it states that Cruz could become 'Mr. Conservative'...really? Cruz is the most conservative of all the candidates and they go on to say that Rubio is a 'neo-conservative'? Good grief. Cruz stooping so low as to compare Rubio to Clinton; well he is correct ... Rubio has sided with the DEMS so many times how can he not be compared to Hillary?
It's Cruz and Rubio, not Trump and Carson(CNN)Here's something that no liberal would ever have predicted: The Republican race could be between two candidates of Hispanic origin. Two months out from the Iowa caucus and the men with the most momentum right now are Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz.
Rubio still needs to kill off the Bush candidacy to be the certified candidate of the mainstream, while surviving any late Chris Christie bump. Cruz has the tougher job of supplanting Donald Trump. But I think he can do it. Cruz is now running second in Iowa and could easily become this season's Mr. Conservative. Here's why.
First, external influences are pressing in. Immigration has consistently been THE issue in this election, thanks to Donald Trump's many pronouncements on the subject. But Trump has cast immigration as an economic matter, with a few tasteless — and unsupported -- allegations about violent crime. But after the terrorist attacks in Paris, immigration has been recast as a challenge for national security...
...In Cruz they get someone who can also attack Obama's foreign policy, who has a track record of standing up for Israel and who can say he's been talking about terrorism for a long time. So, too, has Marco Rubio: indeed he's one of the most neoconservative men in the race....
...Second, Cruz ties this foreign policy approach in nicely with an appeal to the evangelical base. The mood among conservative Christians right now is apocalyptic. They feel their brothers and sisters are being persecuted overseas while, at home in America, liberals are trying to squeeze faith out of public life. Cruz speaks up for them -- often in a very effective way.
He has mocked the nonsense of a Republican war on women, ridiculing the charge that they want to restrict access to contraception by drily noting that: "Last I checked we don't have a rubber shortage in America." He also criticized attempts to pin the Planned Parenthood shooting on pro-life rhetoric, dismissing the killer as a "deranged individual." ...
...Third, Cruz is helped by having skills that have been undervalued. Until now, voters have gravitated toward candidates who have either been inarticulate (Trump) or underwhelming (Carson) in debates or in speeches -- perhaps because these were taken as signs of honesty. But Cruz arguably won the infamous Colorado debate by displaying his Princeton debating team polish, which he used to give the "mainstream media" a lashing.
As Jeff Greenfield writes, Cruz is the master of using any given question as a chance to pivot away and onto one of his campaign's finely honed themes. He does it so well and with such studied sincerity that it's no wonder the TV audience responds.
Finally, Cruz has an ace up his sleeve when it comes to claiming the Mr. Conservative title: He is actually an ideological conservative. ...
...That's why Marco Rubio has chosen a slightly more secure route to the White House: emerge as the favorite of the big money men and the establishment. He is defining himself as the candidate most able to beat Clinton and, perhaps more importantly at this stage, able to beat Donald Trump.
And so Cruz and Rubio are now beating each other up over the two biggest issues of the moment: immigration and foreign policy. On the latter point, Cruz has stooped so low as to compare Rubio to Hillary Clinton. And in conservative circles, that's about as insulting as you can get....
http://www.cnn.com/2015/12/02/opinions/stanley-cruz-rubio-challenge-trump/?iref=obnetwork
