Ted Cruz, presidential bids, and why being 1st is worst

U.S. presidential history has not favoured the likes of declared Republican candidate Ted Cruz. Historically, Washington strategists say, the Texas senator may have doomed his chances to assume the Oval Office because he belongs to that class of unenviable keeners: viable candidates who were the first to declare their bid for the White House. The stats look bad, said Mercedes Schlapp, a Republican strategist and a former spokesperson for president George H.W. Bush. No Republican candidate on rec