CHRIS WALLACE (HOST): You have not endorsed a candidate, but you talk very favorably about [Sen.] Ted Cruz [(R-TX)]. In fact, the other day you said he's the closest we're going to come to Ronald Reagan in our lifetimes. Now, I didn't know Ronald Reagan as well as you did, but I did cover him for eight years as president. I've got to say that I felt that Reagan was more inclusive than Cruz is, more about trying to soften the edges to get more people inside the tent.
RUSH LIMBAUGH: I don't think that's strategic. I think you're talking about personalities. I said this on the air the other day, I think Senator Cruz's strategy is, there's four and a half, five million Republicans that didn't vote in 2012. This is the conventional wisdom. And they didn't vote because they didn't like the nominee, wasn't conservative enough, or there was a religious component. Who knows what? Anyway, Senator Cruz thinks that if he can get those voters, that -- and everybody else votes the same way they did in 2012, that he can win in a landslide. So he's tailored his message for a specific conservative evangelical. I think it's limited his appeal. I think he has the ability to appeal to everybody. That debate the other night that you guys did -- I don't mean this to be insulting to anybody, I'm just telling you what I saw -- he was on a different league. He was in a different league, on a different planet. Everybody says “we need substance in these debates,” you got it. You got it from Cruz. The other guys are doing what they were doing. At one point, [Donald] Trump even had to say, “Yeah, whatever Ted said, I agree with.” He's in a different league. He understands conservatism because he is. And he is a nice guy, he's a likable guy. He's not crazy. He's not nasty and he certainly is -- he's not a liar. He's a down the middle guy that anybody could trust. He has got plenty of integrity. This is what happens in politics. Establishment doesn't like him either. It's not just Trump. And that's because he is who he is. He is conservative. He does want to get government out of people's lives, and that, we can't have that if you're the establishment.
