Ted Cruz: Idiot or Panderer?

I saw that leading Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has joined the crackpot brigade, going for the cheap "Al Gore said we wouldn't ever get cold weather again" laugh line. The question is whether he is an idiot or a panderer. He's Ivy League educated, so we can assume he knows that isolated incidents and events constitute data points and by themselves tell us nothing about trends that play out over decades, centuries, and millennia. Actually, it doesn't even take a college degree to get this. I would think this would be a good science concept for an 8th or 9th grader to grasp. This means that Cruz must be a panderer of the most predictable sort.

The lure of a laugh line is strong, and when it comes to this kind of science-denial, it would seem it's one that few Republicans can resist. A good laugh line should at least reside in proximity to some kind of truth, though, or else it's simply childish. If Republicans see this kind of thing as the route back to the White House, they are probably mistaken. (OK, this last sentence qualifies as a bit of "concern trolling.")