I can’t think of anyone less like Bill Clinton than Ted Cruz, other than they both have in common that skin-meltingly-high-IQ and ambition.
Bill was — and still is, to a remarkable extent — glowingly charismatic. You will look long and hard for anyone who won’t say they didn’t love Clinton on first meeting him, pretty much regardless of what they think of his politics. He’s a shmoozer and a go-along-to-get-along guy par excellence. The entire point of his political rise was to be a middle-way centrist post-ideologue marginalizing the Jesse Jackson extremist and Mondale / Dukakis yankee left tendencies of the Democratic Party.
Ted ain’t that. He’s awkward in person and on the stump. He’s legendary for the instant and lasting dislike he inspires in many people who meet him. He won’t play nice in institutions like the US Senate. He’s a proud ideologue.
Bill Clinton scored a 1032 on the SAT, which may have been top 10 percentile for Arkansas but was well behind that dufus George W. Bush who had a 1206. Bill is a great salesman but not at all brilliant.