WATCH: Jon Stewart handicaps Sen. Ted Cruz's presidential ambitions

(Image credit: The Daily Show)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Wednsday, supporters of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) floated the idea of the conservative Cuban-American freshman lawmaker running for president in 2016. Most commentators weren't terribly impressed with Cruz's chances, and it's pretty safe to say that the 2016 presidential hopefuls in the Democratic Party weren't shaking with fear.

But political scientist Jonathan Bernstein was more bullish on Cruz. "Yes, Ted Cruz could win the presidency," he says on his Plain Blog About Politics. Cruz seems to be "more or less within the ideological mainstream of his party," and probably closer to the activist base on issues like immigration reform (he's opposed) than his 2016 GOP rivals. In the general election, "Cruz is likely to be perceived as an ideological outlier, but that's a penalty, not a disqualification — it didn't, for example, prevent Ronald Reagan from winning." The bottom line is that Cruz could win the GOP nod, "and pretty much anyone who could win a major party nomination has a reasonable chance of winning the presidency."

Jon Stewart at The Daily Show has a less-nuanced take: Cruz is hated by colleagues in both parties, and he was born in Canada. Would the birthers really let a "dirty syrup-guzzler" become president? (Watch above.)

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.