Ted Cruz, starting at nearly nothing at the polls, has surged to second place, at 13%, just above Scott Walker, at 12%, and behind Jeb Bush, at 20%.

A big part of the surge undoubtedly was caused by the press attention Cruz received when he announced for president.  But he also received a lot of negative press, with many, many articles by the liberal media and Republican establishment types saying he is too "extreme" to be elected.  I think a lot of his rise is attributable to his taking very specific stands on the issues.  If you follow the link above to the Rightscoop, you'll see him in South Carolina talking about the need to abolish the IRS and fire all 90,000 of its employees.  No other candidate talks about that.  He also says we have to abolish "every word" of Obamacare.  When he talks in absolutes like that, it may sound "extreme" to some, but to me, it merely sounds specific.  I know what he stands for.

Jeb Bush is first, of course, because he has enormous name recognition.  A certain percentage of those polled might even confuse him with his brother or father.  It's soft support.  Scott Walker was displaced in second place (admittedly by only 1%), perhaps because of his changes of heart on immigration and/or his confused stance on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, while Cruz has been very clear in supporting the latter.  Rand Paul is at 9%, diabetes cure salesman Mike Huckabee is at 8%, Ben Carson and Marco Rubio are at 7%, and Chris Christie is at 6%.  Everyone else is at 1% or 2%, like Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal.  Mike Pence didn't appear in this poll, either because voters weren't asked or because he got less than 1% support.

Obviously it's very early, and numbers can change.  It would be nice to think that candidates would rise and fall based on their clear positions on the issues.

This article was produced by NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.