Bill Maher to Piers Morgan: Chris Christie would lose GOP race to Ted Cruz after being seen with 'President Blackenstein'

Real Time's Bill Maher made the case on Tuesday for Tea Party Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) as the early favorite for the next Republican presidential nomination to CNN host Piers Morgan, arguing that Cruz has successfully positioned himself with traditional Republican primary voters.

"Could it be him against [New Jersey Gov.] Chris Christie [R]?" Morgan asked. "And who will prevail?"

"It's it's the primary voters, who vote every time, I think it'll be Ted Cruz," Maher said. "Chris Christie may already be toast because during Hurricane Sandy, he put his arm around President Blackenstein. He's already got Kenya cooties. He may not be able to run at all."

And despite being seen as a fringe figure in some circles, Maher continued, Cruz only fit into a longstanding GOP tradition of going as far to the right as possible when picking their ticket.

"Republicans are the masters of the 'are you kidding me?' candidate," Maher told Morgan. "When Ronald Reagan first ran, people were like, 'Are you kidding me? Ronald Reagan, the Bonzo guy, is getting into politics?"

But when Morgan played him a clip on Tuesday of pundit Ann Coulter's argument that the Democratic Party is concerned with nothing else but holding power and thinking about "how to ruin people's lives." Maher could only laugh and call it "perfectly wrong."

"Look, every politician cares about power, to a certain degree" Maher responded to Morgan. "But Democrats, I think in general, they're the policy wonks. They're the people who care about actually making government work. Republicans tell you right out front: 'We hate government.' Then why go into it? If you hate government, you shouldn't do it. That's why I'm not a priest."

Watch Maher and Morgan discuss the GOP's future prospects, as posted on Tuesday by "Conservative Lady," below.