A Cruz/Rand ticket would be incredible. I'll also settle fora Rand/CRuz ticket as well
WASHINGTON — When Ted Cruz mounted his filibuster of Obamacare in September 2013, he was joined on the Senate floor by a host of other Republican senators eager to align themselves with a tea party favorite reaching a new level of populist power.
One of those senators was Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican. At the time, Paul was seen as a likely 2016 presidential primary contender, but the idea of a Cruz presidential bid still seemed a bit far-fetched and premature. After all, the first-term Texas Republican had been sworn in to serve in his first-ever elected office only eight months earlier.
But barely over a year later, it looks increasingly likely that both men will vie for the Republican presidential nomination and launch campaigns this winter.
As Cruz games out his strategy for the new Congress, which will be controlled by his own party for the first time in his career as a senator, he and Paul are now clearly rivals, as opposed to the uneasy allies they were a year ago.
One thing's for sure: Don't expect a repeat of their 2013 alliance. An aide to Paul said that if Cruz launches another crusade against Obamacare next year, Paul will want little to do with it.
"He won't be in the middle of that fight," the Paul aide told me last week. "I don't think he's going to get all wrapped around the axle. He's supportive of the idea of repealing Obamacare, but he's not going to be the tip of the spear."
Paul is happy to let Cruz take that duty, and Cruz is eager to have it. Each man is staking out his own lane.
Where Cruz appeals more narrowly to the hard-core conservative base, Paul believes he has enough support among activists and the grassroots in Iowa and South Carolina to be able to safely make appeals to voter blocs that have traditionally supported Democrats, such as younger voters and minorities. And he's confident enough in his position to have already reached across the aisle to partner with Democrats on shared policy goals.
And unlike Cruz, Paul is well-liked in the Senate, both by Republicans and — perhaps surprisingly, considering some of his views — by Democrats.
One aide working for the Senate Democratic leadership raved about how much Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., like Paul personally.
http://news.yahoo.com/as-rand-paul-and-ted-cruz-eye-2016-runs--an-uneasy-alliance-becomes-a-rivalry-235520912.html
