Sen. Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican closing the gap on Donald Trump's tremendous lead for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, could well win in the Iowa primary, says Bill Kristol, founder and editor of The Weekly Standard.
"I think Cruz had a very careful steady strategy trying to emerge as the conservative alternative," Kristol said Tuesday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"Certainly to the establishment candidates, to [former Florida Gov. Jeb] Bush and [Sen. Marco] Rubio [of Florida], and those folks, but also to Trump who isn't acceptable to a lot of conservatives."
A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday shows:
- Donald Trump, 25 percent
- Sen. Ted Cruz, 23 percent
- Dr. Ben Carson, 18 percent
- Sen. Marco Rubio, 13 percent
"Cruz could well win in Iowa. That certainly would make him one of the final three or four [GOP candidates]. Things can change so quickly as we know, but if you have to look now you've got to say it looks like Trump, Cruz, Rubio and maybe Carson," Kristol said.
"Carson is at most risk because his virtues, which are considerable [and] a personal matter. [They] probably aren't really what people might be looking for as a kind of war leader and someone who can deal with this chaos around the world."
"Trump's a tough guy, Rubio knows foreign policy, Cruz knows foreign policy as well. You can sort of see how those two would emerge. That would be a very unpredictable race among those three."
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