This is fun stuff, as Cruz articulates the skeptical position against global warming theory nearly perfectly – he did not bring in the question of falsified data or the East Anglia e-mail scandal, but otherwise it’s a pitch perfect response to a goofy lefty who accosts him about how global warming is driving lobsters away from the New Hampshire coast (it might be that lobstermen are driving them away, you never know). He’s not angry, he’s in total control, he takes the time to lay out why he doesn’t subscribe to the questioner’s point of view and he wins the argument by a mile.

Just like he owned the day a week or so ago when snarling Hollywood lesbian Ellen Page confronted him over religious freedom.

At some point the lefty hecklers are going to run away from Cruz, because he’s the worst of the Republicans they can confront. Trump will put on a show with them but sometimes sound buffoonish, Fiorina and Carson might lack a command of the intricacies of an issue they should have, Jeb Bush’s response might be boring and Mike Huckabee might sound like somebody from 1955. But Cruz can recite a cogent answer on virtually all of the hot-button, even difficult topics he’ll be confronted with, and he’ll do it effortlessly and without rancor.

This is the kind of performance and articulation that can make a president. It’s why Cruz is getting a lot of notice from the pundits even though he hasn’t started his climb in the polls just yet.