Ted Cruz was not known to me until today, when a bevy of news reports came out about a number of conservative heavy hitters stumping for him in the next few days, including Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and Jim DeMint.
I thought, "Wow, what's up here?". Sarah Palin hasn't gotten out in a while. And Glenn Beck always shows up with a flash of brimstone and a whif of sulfur. This should be interesting.
A quick google and dkos search tells me he's a Tea Party darling, favored to upset the Republican establishment by winning the primary in a safe Texas seat.
Hmm, Tea Party darling, relatively young and Hispanic to boot? Sounds like a perfect 2012 VP pick, a combination of pandering to the Tea Party base and a blatant attempt to play on voting block sympathies. Why not? Sarah Palin fit the bill in 2008, but she was Governor, a traditional stepping stone to the presidential ticket.
Cruz was Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to 2008, and is only now back on the political stage. Not much detail on what he's done in the last four years, but he's running for Senate now. And the right-wing loves him. George Will called him "a candidate as good as it gets". Sounds like someone is being groomed.
He's short on national experience, but right about now I think Mitt Romney, and Republicans voting for Mitt, are looking for a hail mary pass. Sure it didn't work in 2008, but "this time it's different" they might say. With the Tea Party leadership in motion, they may be looking for a way to boost their favored son and leaven the bland dough that is the Romney campaign.
Of course, that assumes Romney survives the convention.