Frankly, I believe she did the calculation and determined she came up short.
I can't blame her for that.
I think Cruz knows he has as much chance as Pataki, but he's playing position. We'll know if he jumps on the Trash Trump Bandwagon.
I agree with your first sentence, though I doubt we'll see Cruz bash Trump during this campaign.
Remember that Ted was the first candidate to come to Trump's support when he first began talking about illegal immigration and the border fence. In fact, I'm not sure if any others ever did.
Later, Trump and Cruz had a private closed door meeting at Trump Tower. No one knows what they discussed, but the consensus is they cemented some sort of alliance.
As far as the race is concerned, if you look at it like a major league playoff situation, there's only one team that is capable of beating the establishment, and that's Team Trump.
If he falls by the wayside for any reason, I think we're sunk as a country. The Dems and RINOs will import so many new foreigners to America, we'll never win the presidency again.