He sat for an interview with the left-leaning Texas Tribune earlier this week, and was lectured about how out of touch he is with the younger voters he’d like to energize in his campaign because his policy positions on weed, gay marriage and global warming don’t sufficiently pander to the preferences of a large number of them (one surmises Cruz is most out of touch with the most low-information and low-engagement young voters and not so much with the ones most likely to vote or volunteer for a presidential campaign.

And Cruz’ eyes lit up, as if to say “Oh? Did you mention global warming?”

Then it was on.

It’s a good four minutes of rock-solid messaging. And in it Cruz shows that no, you can’t Sarah Palin him and call him stupid; and no, you can’t Ted Cruz him and call him crazy.

Cruz is a lot more lucid describing why the global warming alarmist position is not particularly scientific and the evidence just isn’t there to support it than Jerry Brown was when he breathlessly declared that Cruz was unqualified to even run for president because he disagrees with Brown’s position.

And no, being less crazy than Jerry Brown does not sufficiently qualify one to be the leader of the free world – it’s necessary, of course, but not sufficient.

But it’s fun to notice that the people screaming the loudest about Cruz being “absurd” or other similar negative adjectives as a presidential candidate tend to possess a lot less impressive intellectual credentials than he and even have a penchant for making dopey and unwise statements.

This isn’t an endorsement of Cruz; we still lean a little toward Scott Walker based on his having a bit better resume for the job. But the howling about Cruz, particularly from the corners it comes from, certainly does lend him more and more stature. Cruz, like Walker, definitely has the right enemies – and he’s very good at putting them in their place.