But aside from the fact that Cruz has a better chance of beating Hillary Clinton than Donald Trump, I’m constantly hearing from Republicans who believe he is more cunning and “flexible” than he is an ideologue. The good news it that this might mean he can pivot and run a more centrist General Election campaign in 2016.

The suggestion is that his bluster in the U.S. Senate and on the campaign trail has been the product of a very smart and calculating politician who might eventually move to the center—when that suits his interests. (The fact that Cruz formerly worked in the Bush administration is cited as evidence that at least some of his current image is a reinvention—which suggests he might one day reinvent himself again.)

One smart conservative even recently suggested to me that Ted Cruz is a modern Richard Nixon.

No—nobody is suggesting Cruz is “Nixonian” in the sweaty, paranoid Watergate burglary sense of the term. Instead, the idea is that Cruz might follow Nixon’s path—which was to be an ambitious young conservative in a hurry, who then transformed into a savvy centrist in order to win the White House and govern.