The conservative World Net Daily website performed a lengthy analysis and determined that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is not only electable – he’s basically the same as former President Ronald Reagan.

News editor Garth Kant said both conservatives were considered by “political and media elite” to be ideological extremists who lacked the intelligence, party backing, and apparent compassion to win the GOP nomination or the White House.

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“Reaction to (Cruz’s) announcement last week that he is running for president appears to have put the criticism into overdrive,” Kant wrote. “No Republican, arguably, has received such intense condemnation since Reagan.”

He reminded readers that The Nation once warned Reagan was “the most dangerous person ever to come this close to the presidency” and “a menace to the human race.”

Three decades later, The Week warned that Cruz is “so venal and self-obsessed that he’ll use genocide victims as punching bags for a domestic audience.”

Both conservatives have been heavily criticized as lacking intellect, and Kant cites California’s Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown blasting Cruz as shockingly ignorant and “unfit to be running for office,” while Reagan was known as “an amiable dunce.”

Kant cited a New York Times report showing that support from party elites was crucial because they can staff campaigns with top operatives and funnel donations and other support needed to win.

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“Cruz has argued the most important factor is actually votes, not support from the party elite,” Kant said, adding that Cruz himself has pointed out that establishment Washington hated Reagan – who “went over the heads of GOP elite and took his case straight to the people, from where his real power came.”

“I’ll point out there’s almost an inverse relationship between being liked and appreciated in Washington, D.C., and reviled back home, and being reviled in Washington and appreciated back home,” Cruz said Sunday.

Kant compared a quote by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) criticizing Cruz as a “wacko bird” to critical comments by Henry Kissinger, who wondered how anyone ever elected Reagan as California governor, “much less president.”

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Fellow Republicans, including former President Gerald Ford and former Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, were highly dubious of Reagan’s chances, dismissing him as an extremist outsider – although Kant cites largely non-partisan pundits, rather than politicians, who similarly write off Cruz.

Kant said Cruz, like Reagan, could overcome these obstacles and “have the last laugh,” pointing out the “fiery Texan” has already doubled his fundraising goal.

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“If that money is coming from the grassroots, his campaign may be catching fire, as did Reagan’s in 1980,” Kant wrote. “If it is coming from the elites, they may be coming around to his side, as they did after Reagan showed his vote-getting power.”