Posted on 04/13/2016 8:53:07 AM PDT by Kaslin
I wouldn't say that the GOP is falling in love with Ted Cruz, but maybe it's falling in like.
In arguably the most improbable political season of our lifetimes, this fact has to rank high on the list of things no one could have seen coming. If they gave out report cards for first-term senators, Cruz would get an "F" in the "plays well with others" category. Party leaders believed that his 2013 gambit to shut down the government over Obamacare was a disaster for everyone but Cruz, and they have harbored a not-so-secret disdain for him since.
But that's all over -- at least for now.
Like Perseus pulling Medusa's head out of a sack to petrify his enemies, Cruz has been able to dangle the prospect of a President Trump to strike fear in the hearts of even his biggest detractors.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) once said choosing between Donald Trump and Cruz was like choosing between being shot or poisoned. Graham chose his poison. He's out there raising money for Cruz. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), whose hatred for Cruz was the stuff of Sicilian blood feuds, seems to have reconciled himself to the fact that Cruz is the only person who can stop Trump. McConnell's definitely not in love, but he recognizes that these are the cards we've all been dealt.
Team Cruz fears that people such as McConnell will use the convention in Cleveland this summer to reshuffle the deck and get a new deal -- a new candidate more palatable to the establishment. "There is still distrust over whether or not the party is actually willing to accept Cruz as the nominee or if they're using him to shut down Trump only to then stab Cruz in the back come summer," Erick Erickson, a conservative talk show host and Cruz backer, told the Washington Post.
The concern is understandable but overblown. Although a contested convention is likely, the "white knight" scenario, in which someone other than Cruz, Trump or John Kasich swoops in and "steals" the nomination, is not.
At an open convention, the delegates, not Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, are in charge of everything. Imagine if attendees of the great nerd conclave known as Comic-Con set the rules for Comic-Con. Now imagine someone proposed replacing a screening of the new "X-Men" movie with a mandatory daylong seminar on crop rotation in the 14th century. Would it happen?
Yes, it's theoretically possible that the delegates will choose a white knight, but that would only happen after days of deadlocked voting.
In other words, the delegates would have to really want someone other than Cruz. And given the Cruz campaign's success at lining up huge numbers of sympathetic delegates, that seems unlikely.
And would they really rally to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the most-discussed potential savior? I doubt it.
Although there is no coherent ideological agenda implied by the term "anti-establishment," it is a recognizable attitude. Trump and Cruz have very different philosophies. (For starters, Cruz has one.) But they are both avatars of the anti-establishment mood, a mood that will be well represented on the convention floor. It seems unlikely that delegates' ultimate choice would be someone so synonymous with the establishment.
There's also the fact that Paul Ryan doesn't want the nomination, and there are precious few other figures of equal stature in the party.
The most likely scenario is that should Trump lose on the first ballot, Cruz will win on the second or third. In fact, some see a path where Cruz cobbles together his own delegates, unbound delegates and, say, Marco Rubio's delegates and wins on the first ballot. He's that good at working the system.
There's some irony here, of course. Cruz spent years building his reputation as the guy who wants to tear down the system, and now it's the system, not necessarily the voters, that may put him over the top.
Nervous Republicans should find this reassuring. Yes, in a normal year, failure to win a majority of votes in the primaries would present a serious PR problem. But this isn't a normal year. Meanwhile, Cruz is demonstrating, yet again, his ability to do what is required to win. That's a skill set that will be much needed come the fall.
translation: We’re buying him, little by little.
Please, there one in the same. All are part of the uniparty.
Let me ...
ROFLMAO!
I doubt it. Trump is nasty and unforgiving guy who holds grudges. Cruz seems too childish to let go himself. Then you have supporters of the two candidates. These people absolutely hate each other. There will be no harmony or unity in the GOP this year. Only a small sect of people will be happy once there is a nominee.
That “ice” thawed weeks ago...It thawed when Cruz found out the only way he could do anything was to come out of the closet and show he was a member in good standing with the GOPe “establishment elites”
Might be thawing between Cruz and some of the GOP but
definetly not between Cruz and Trump.
snip
Senator Ted Cruz went off on Donald Trump during an interview Tuesday with host,
Glenn Beck. Cruz called the New York businessman a “Cosa Nostra” mobster...insulting all
Italian-America with his contiuing, hate lie telling!!!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3420487/posts?
‘Ice May Be Thawing Between Cruz, GOP Leaders’
Duh!
They own him. He better tow their line and PDQ.
I actually liked either Trump or Cruz for the nominee until a few weeks ago when Cruz’s true colors began to show....
Mr. Insider. What we have been saying for three months.
In order to win in November, the nominee will need to unify the party. Trump has demonstrated that not only can he NOT unify the party, he doesn’t even want to try. He is so toxic that the RNC has already taken the unprecedented step of announcing that if Trump is the nominee, he will not be allowed to put his own people in charge at the RNC.
Now Trumpkins will whine that this says that Cruz is really “establishment” (which apparently now means “does not support Trump”). But what is shows is that even though Cruz is not their favorite Republican, he CAN unify the party for November.
It is also funny to watch the Trumpkins whine about how the party supporting Cruz makes him “establishment” with one breath, and then whine because the party is not supporting Trump with the next...
Now that we know what he is, the only talk is “price”.
Actual translation: he isn't named 'Trump'.
Yes, butt will they respect him in the morning?
The GOP is copying media tactics.
They will use Ted to bump Trump and then toss him away like one of Obama’s old smoked out blunts.
They know Cruz is just lip-syncing his disgust for unfair trade and the decimation of the middle class. Also he will surely start another war for them soon.
That ship sailed. There will be no unification with the GOPe.
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