I keep asking people...

...to name one state -- one state -- that Ted Cruz could win in the general election that Mitt Romney didn't in 2012. And all I keep hearing is *crickets*.

Both Nate Silver and Ross Douthat have very persuasive pieces this week on how Cruz could get the Republican nomination at a contested convention this summer.

I've also been thinking lately that Cruz would be the most conservative GOP candidate since Goldwater. And the other day FiveThirtyEight ran a piece that essentially confirmed my suspicion.

Now the world has changed -- I get that. And, unlike Goldwater, any Republican nominee today would carry a bunch of reliable red states. But my question remains, Which state(s) could Cruz win that Romney didn't? And if the answer is indeed *crickets*, what the heck is the Republican Party thinking?