Republicans in general have their work cut out for them. Party ID, demographics, and the electoral college all favor the generic Dem over the generic Republican. To borrow a term from sabermetrics, a replacement level GOP candidate won't win. Cruz is extremely smart and seems like he has great political intuition, which to me makes him an above replacement level candidate in my mind (Rubio is in his league as well due to charisma and immigration). Will he win? Probably not, but at least he has a puncher's chance, which is more than can be said for a lot of the candidates (Jeb, Christie, Huckabee).
Republican Debate
- Thread starter NeekReevers
- Start date
When I look at the Republican field vs. Hillary the only candidate that I think has a realistic shot to get the nomination (Trump, Carson, Rubio, Jeb, Cruz) and a realistic shot to beat Hillary is Rubio. Rubio is the best candidate in front of a camera and can negate a lot of the minority and working class advantage that a Democratic candidate has over a Republican candidate. I think Rand Paul was the only "non-establishment" Republican that could have beaten Hillary because he is on the right side of the social issues. Cruz is too Tea Party, Jeb is too Bush, Carson is too nice and doesn't speak well enough, and Trump is too Trump. That's my uniformed opinion. I absolutely hope I am wrong.
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