Rich Lowry: Cruz has a better chance than people think

Rich Lowry has a great piece on how the establishment/media is underestimating Cruz, not really thinking he has a chance for the nomination.  But guess what:

• The indications of the strength of Cruz’s operation and the shrewdness of his positioning are mounting.
• He had more cash on hand at the end of the third quarter than any other Republican.
• He has major super PAC backing.
• He assessed the anti-establishment mood in the party more accurately than any of the other traditional Republican candidates.
• He reacted to the rise of Trump very deftly for his purposes.
• He has seen a couple of key potential competitors, Scott Walker and Rand Paul, either hit a wall or badly underperform.
• He has a discernible ideological and geographic base.
• He has, relatedly, a path to the nomination that is simple and intuitive (win Iowa, consolidate the right and beat an establishment that might be too fractured and unpopular to prevail this time).
• He lights up pretty much every conservative audience he addresses.
• He is an excellent debater, and he simply doesn’t make tactical or rhetorical mistakes.

And yet, while many of these qualities are duly noted, he doesn’t really get his due.