Fox has made it clear Sen. Ted Cruz is not their guy – but that’s no reason not to use him to bash their favorite targets! However, the reasoning – that Cruz is so much like then-candidate Barack Obama that he should get the same adulation – is so laughable, it cries out for The Daily Show treatment.

If you ask me, this was another ruse to make Fox look supportive of Cruz without having to be actually supportive.

On The O’Reilly Factor, Bill O’Reilly sneered about the left being “CRAZED” over Cruz’ announcement that he’s running for president.

“It used to be, 'OK , we don’t like you because you have opposite views,' but now, if you have opposite views, 'you’re evil, you’re a bad person, you should be in a leper colony,'” O’Reilly seethed. As if Fox doesn’t demonize everyone with opposite views 24/7. In fact, O'reilly had done just that moments before when he mocked Joy Behar criticizing Cruz for being “a climate change denier.” He called it “ridiculous in the extreme” to say that Cruz’ denial of climate change disqualified him to be president.

And yet, guest Bernard Goldberg took his own swipe at Cruz. He said that “if liberals were smart,” they’d support Cruz because if he gets the nomination, “Say hello to President Hillary Clinton.”

Goldberg also said there’s a “big difference” between Cruz and Ronald Reagan. Why? Because Reagan “had an immense ability to bring people together. Ted Cruz, like Barack Obama, is a polarizing figure.”

That was the start of much more likening Cruz to Obama.

GOLDBERG: (Cruz) is constitutionally, I think, a kind of guy who thinks – like Obama, by the way – he thinks he’s the smartest guy in the room, he’s a polarizing figure and like Obama, he’s an Ivy League guy. And like Obama, he’s a minority and unlike Obama, who the media loves, they hate him. And they hate him only because of his politics. That’s the interesting thing. …In so many ways, he’s like Barack Obama.

“Cuban American, half Cuban,” O’Reilly chimed in. “Good point.”

Because the only thing that made Obama exciting was his race, right?

Apparently, Megyn Kelly thinks so. She used almost the exact same talking points in a Kelly File segment.

In her introduction, Kelly complained that “many” noticed that Cruz’ “welcome” from the mainstream media “is very different from that that was given to then-Senator, now president Barack Obama when he first announced his run for the White House.”

Kelly’s two guests for this discussion were two Republicans: Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen and Tea Party operative Katrina Pierson (who consulted for Cruz while collecting unemployment).

KELLY:  When Barack Obama announced he was running, I mean, The Washington Post, they were so excited, they talked about how, “no matter what your political leanings are, you’re likely to feel at least a twinge of excitement about him.” But then they didn’t really feel that about Ted Cruz.

Kelly’s voice dripped with hammy sarcasm. Apparently, she missed the fact that Obama was exciting and charismatic and promising. Cruz, on the other hand is bombastic and abrasive and even Republicans dislike him. But hey, what’s the diff between a couple of minority candidates, eh?

KELLY: You would think that a publication like The New York Times would be celebrating – I mean, he would be the first Latino president ever. The same as Barack Obama was the first black president ever! And I don’t really feel that when I read the coverage.

It wasn’t until nearly four minutes into the segment that Thiessen noted that, “unlike Barack Obama, (Cruz is) taking friendly fire. A lot of the criticism of him is coming from the right. It’s one thing to have The Washington Post and The New York Times editorial page criticizing you, it’s another thing to have The Wall Street Journal editorial page saying that you’re a polarizing figure.”

Oops, off message! Kelly interrupted to say scornfully, “Yeah, but you know, Katrina, the response to that is that those are mainstream, sort of yesteryear Republicans and not true conservatives.”

Thiessen tried to argue differently but Kelly now only wanted to hear from Pierson.

Not surprisingly, Pierson agreed with Kelly that it was some of the “old school” and “good old boy network.” But, she added,  “What they fail to realize and why it’s happening from the right and the left is that Ted Cruz actually can bring people together. …The senator can sell freedom and freedom is a winning message.

Whatevs.

Watch it below, from the March 25 The O’Reilly Factor and The Kelly File.