Since the sitting president wasn’t assassinated last November, I fail to see the similarity.
Cruz just doesn't have that important advantage. That doesn't mean that we should nominate only big-name candidates. Because Jeb has a big name, yet he's a complete dud.
Nevertheless, Cruz has a problem here. He will lose as Goldwater did. Goldwater was a good man, and a patriot. But Goldwater couldn't overcome media bias to get his message across. The exact same thing will happen to Cruz.