If charts could win election, where is President Perot? He never did a press event without charts! IMHO, Cruz’s main problem is he can’t resonate with most voters.
You know, I actually LIKE Ted Cruz, but what you've said here pretty much nails it.
Let's face it - Ted Cruz IS smart, he's knowledgable, he's informed, he knows the Constitution, etc. etc. etc.
But none of that means diddly to the average voter. The average voter isn't going to ooh and ahh over a candidate just because he can expound at length on the original intent of the Commerce Clause. Such a candidate is going to come across as the smarmy nerd on the debate team in high school who always got beat up by the football players. Maybe that shouldn't be the case...but it is.
Ted Cruz would be GREAT in a role where he can essentially serve as an ideological "whip" - setting the direction for a group to go and trying to up the knowledge base of the group so that they know more about what they're talking about. But that's a supporting role, not a leadership role.