Hey, GOP: You Don't Want Cruz, You Want Rubio

Marco Rubio is the person the Republicans should want on their presidential ticket come 2016: Upon reading both Rubio's memoir and a biography of the Florida senator, Peter Beinart was left "with the queasy feeling many Republicans must have had when they began reading Obama books in 2007 or 2008: This isn’t the guy you want to see on the other side of the line." But Rubio, thanks to his work on the Senate immigration bill that offers a path to citizenship, is dropping in the polls and finding himself eclipsed by Ted Cruz. The GOP, however, is making the wrong move by embracing Cruz, Beinart writes in the Daily Beast.

Cruz "combines Sarah Palin’s worldview, Richard Nixon’s commitment to fair play, and Al Gore’s folksy charm." But he wins the day because, "unlike Rubio, Cruz’s convictions just happen to match up perfectly with the animal spirits of the Republican base he’s courting for president," Beinart writes. "Which is to say, during his time in Washington, he’s never done anything politically brave." Cruz is an extreme figure, at a time when Americans have said the Republican party is too extreme. Rubio, on the other hand, "offers the chance to partially undo the GOP’s reputation as a party beholden to blue bloods and bigots." And he, not Cruz, could win in 2016. Click for Beinart's full column. (More Ted Cruz stories.)