Reactions To Ted Cruz's Expected 2016 Candidacy

For all that's been said about the 2016 presidential race, no singular candidate has yet announced their intentions to run. That's all about to change with Texas Senator Ted Cruz, who will announce a presidential campaign Monday, and similar Republican candidates like Marco Rubio and Rand Paul might very well be announcing their campaigns next month. Still, it's Cruz who is generating all the buzz right now. But exactly what are people saying about Cruz as president in 2016?

Former rival and previous presidential candidate John McCain issued the following statement when asked about Cruz's viability as a candidate during an interview for CNN's State of the Union Sunday morning:

If the Republican Party nominates him, [Ted Cruz] I do. He is a valued member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and I are friendly, and I think he is a very viable candidate.

McCain goes on to endorse a different Republican, however: South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who McCain says is far more well-versed in national security. Meanwhile, Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown took to NBC's Meet the Press with a whole host of worries about Cruz that stem primarily from his thoughts — or lack thereof — on global warming. Brown said:

That man betokens such a level of ignorance, and a direct falsification of the existing scientific data. It’s shocking, and I think that man has rendered himself absolutely unfit to be running for office.

According to the Houston Chronicle, who first broke this story, anonymous senior advisers to Cruz were the ones who approached the paper with the news. Rather than undergo a vetting period, it appears that Cruz has been through the exploratory phase for sufficient enough time to simply announce his candidacy. Cruz hopes to raise between $40 and $50 million for his campaign, that number appearing to be the unofficial minimum set amount for most candidates in an ever-pricier race to the highest office in the land.

Despite the expenses, here we are with Cruz as the potential first candidate of a fast-approaching presidential election. The Internet, in true boisterous fashion, has been anything but quiet about the Cruz announcement:

In terms of legitimate criticism, it appears that the issue of Cruz's citizenship is the frontrunner for most contentious. Cruz technically wasn't even born in America; though Cruz, who was born in Alberta, has renounced his Canadian citizenship, there's still a legal gray area as to whether or not he's eligible to run. This only raises the question of the curious motives of the birther movement aimed against current president Barack Obama:

The current reaction towards Cruz's imminent announcement points to far less support than Republicans like John McCain let on. In the aforementioned CNN State of the Union interview, McCain said that Cruz could certainly beat Hillary Clinton if he were to become the Republican's nominee. In the court of public opinion, however, Cruz's political ambitions look to be a losing race.

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