Political junkies eyeing the upcoming Iowa caucus are stunned by a new poll in Iowa which places Sen. Ted Cruz well ahead of juggernaut Donald Trump — by ten points.

A Bloomberg/Des Moines Register Iowa poll found that Cruz commands the backing of 31 percent of likely Iowa caucus attendees as opposed to 21 percent for Trump. The caucus will occur on February 1st and launch the presidential primary season.

What’s really eye-opening is this graphic by Bloomberg/Des Moines Register showing the dramatic trajectory of Cruz’s favorability among Republicans.

And of course Trump is crying in his beer. Or in his case, his Dom Pérignon.

New CNN Iowa poll — Trump 33, Cruz 20. Everyone else way down! Don't trust Des Moines Register poll- biased towards Trump!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 12, 2015

Trump took to casting doubt on Cruz’s evangelical Christianity, saying that “Catholics come out of Cuba, not evangelicals,” but Cruz didn’t take the bait. His continued refusal to punch back at Trump has set Cruz apart from the rest of the Republican pack, denying Trump the fuel to launch further attacks.

Even Democratic operative John Podesta has taken notice of the ‘Cruz missile,’ telling attendees at a private fundraiser in Berkeley, California, that he predicts Ted Cruz will be the likely nominee.

Cornell University Law Professor and blogger William A. Jacobson, writing at Legal Insurrection, suggests that this may be a function of the “Overton Window,” a political theory that refers to the range of policies the public will accept.

David French, writing in National Review, suggests that Trump may have moved the Overton Window.

The key to shifting policy lies not so much in changing politicians but in changing the terms of the debate. In other words, the window shifts to include different policy options not when ideas change among politicians, but when ideas change in the society that elects them. . . . Then along came Donald Trump. On key issues, he didn’t just move the Overton Window, he smashed it, scattered the shards, and rolled over them with a steamroller. On issues like immigration, national security, and even the manner of political debate itself, there’s no window left. Registration of Muslims? On the table. Bans on Muslims entering the country? On the table. Mass deportation? On the table. Walling off our southern border at Mexico’s expense? On the table. The current GOP front-runner is advocating policies that represent the mirror-image extremism to the Left’s race and identity-soaked politics.

Rising from the shards of the broken window: Ted Cruz.

New York Magazine writer Jonathan Chait writes:

At the beginning of this year — back when the notion that Donald Trump might dominate the presidential race was a dystopian scenario as unimaginably remote as The Man in the High Castle — the most horrifying thing Republican insiders could imagine was a Ted Cruz nomination. In much the same way that Trump has set the terms of the presidential debate in ways that discomfited the party’s leadership and fired up the base, Cruz did the same in Washington. The intense loathing Cruz inspired among every professional Republican politician not named Ted Cruz made his nomination difficult to fathom. But the rise of Trump has changed many things, and one of them may be to grant Republican insiders a new perspective on just what unacceptable means.

Jacobson concludes: “Iowa may not represent the entire Republican electorate, but with the Overton Window having been shifted or smashed by Trump, it may be wide open for Cruz . . .”

With Trump dominating the political scene, any prognostications on the GOP race have been rendered worthless. This is like no election season in recent history. Fasten your seat belts, everyone. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.