Romney came within a couple of percentage points of winning against a popular incumbent. He lost Florida by 60k votes, that’s very close. Virginia was very close, too. Someone in that mold this year would have walked away with this election.
Cruz would have had zero chance of beating Clinton, you are completely right about that.
He did come close and with an honest impartial press he would’ve annihilated BO.
Cruz would have crushed Hilary Clinton easy. Cruz did consistently better in head to head polls against Hilary Clinton than Trump ever did.