Ted Cruz is incredibly popular and a frontrunner for the 2016 presidential nomination. If he isn't representative of the modern Republican party, who is?
Front-runners this early in the game have a very reliable tendency to implode before the primaries. Being the dark horse at this point in time is not a problem.
Obama had a 17% nod from Democrats two years before the 2008 election. It was all Gore, Edwards, and Kerry in that year.
I'm sorry, I think I'm going to need a citation for that "incredibly popular" claim. Or is it that I run in the more moderate circles, so I am unaware? Is he popular among everyone, or popular among tea-party nutter butters?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/page/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/...