Here's Why Cruz Will Be the GOP Nominee

If you're still picking your jaw up off the floor after Ted Cruz unceremoniously dumped Donald Trump in the Iowa polls, well, you can put it back down on the floor. The fact is, Cruz "is the guy who looks best positioned to win" the GOP nomination, writes Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post. "Yes, you heard that right." He goes on to list the reasons Cruz "has the most direct route" to the nomination, including the fact that he's the most conservative candidate, he's raised more money than anyone other than Jeb Bush on the Republican side, and he's looking good in many of the early primary states, not just Iowa.

"Cruz has begun his ascent up the early state and national polls at just about the right time," Cillizza writes. "His campaign is perfectly positioned to make him the last man standing. Believe it." But over at Salon, Bob Cesca scoffs at the whole idea: Cillizza and others predicting Cruz's nomination suffer from a "tragically short attention span," he writes. Cruz is just another "flavor of the month," like Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina, and besides, Iowa is no bellwether. "It’s difficult to see any other Republican gaining enough momentum this close to the primaries to usurp Trump," he writes. "And one poll in Iowa isn’t nearly enough for Ted Cruz." Read Cillizza's full column here, and Cesca's here. (More Ted Cruz stories.)