Posted on 05/30/2016 8:23:43 AM PDT by conservative98
When Donald Trump collected a few unbound delegates last week, surpassing the 1,237 needed to clinch the Republican nomination for president, expectations that the national convention could be the most dramatic in modern times evaporated.
“Now, it will be the most entertaining,” said Randy Evans, a party-wise man from Georgia, with a nod to the reality TV star’s promise to “put some show biz” into the July convention in Cleveland.
But there remains an important, unscripted drama yet to unfold in the tempestuous relationship between Trump and his chief rival, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
Although Trump will arrive in Cleveland as the victor and Cruz the vanquished, the politics of the moment suggest that Trump needs Cruz — to reassure nervous conservatives — more than Cruz needs Trump, whose defeat in November would fulfill Cruz’s frequent prediction and best serve the 45-year-old Texan’s future presidential ambitions.
“If he does not endorse and Trump loses, Cruz gets to step out on Nov. 9 and say, ‘See what I said,’ ” said Evans, a member of the Republican National Committee’s Rules Committee who, as chairman of the Republican National Lawyers Association, stayed neutral in the race. +In Cleveland, Trump may need Cruz more than Cruz needs him photo Drew Angerer U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to the media as he returns to his office at the U.S. Capitol on May ... read more
“Cruz is a brilliant strategist, a long-term player. He’s got cards to play, and I fully expect him to play a few of those cards,” Evans said. “I think Cruz’s theme will be to say, `You’re the nominee, but I’m the party. You’re the name on the ballot, but I’m the one who represents, who epitomizes what it means to be a Republican.’”
Cruz ended his campaign May 3 after a bitter defeat in Indiana, dropping out shortly after lashing out at the man who had spent months calling him “Lyin’ Ted.”
“This man is a pathological liar,” Cruz said of Trump. “He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth.” +In Cleveland, Trump may need Cruz more than Cruz needs him photo Nicholas K. Geranios Jennifer Fetters of Bellevue, Wash., works the Ted Cruz booth at the Washington state GOP convention May 19.
Cruz also called Trump “utterly amoral,” adding that “morality does not exist for him.”
“I don’t see how you can take those words back, particularly if part of your appeal is that you’re not a traditional politician, that ‘I tell it like it is,’ ” University of Houston political scientist Richard Murray said. “I can’t see how that would work.”
For many admirers of Cruz, the very thought of endorsing Trump remains repugnant. +In Cleveland, Trump may need Cruz more than Cruz needs him photo Rodger Mallison Delegates cheer as Sen. Ted Cruz speaks at the Republican Party of Texas state convention in Dallas on May 14.
“Cruz should maintain his sterling conservative brand and stay far away from the Trump train and its inevitable wreckage,” said CNN contributor Amanda Carpenter, Cruz’s former communications director in the Senate. “Even if Trump wins the White House, he’ll have done it in a low-down, dirty way that no one with any integrity should be proud to endorse.”
Er, no.
Trump does not need Cruz. Cruz’s supporters will either back Trump or back Cankles. That’s the choice. There is no other.
Cruz is one of the few principled conservatives to make a serious run for the presidency.
IIRC, his UN-principled actions far outweighed his principled actions during the campaign. Stunningly. (Principled is as principled does.) He was/is a narcissistic, smarmy, self-serving snake in the grass with zero principles.
BTW, you should see the hornet’s nest I stirred up on Twitter when I nicknamed Bill Kristol “Bill Kristallnacht.” Wow. John Podhoretz called me a “filty pig.” LOL.
Cruz? Never heard of him.
“BTW, you should see the hornet’s nest I stirred up on Twitter when I nicknamed Bill Kristol “Bill Kristallnacht.” Wow. John Podhoretz called me a “filty pig.” LOL.”
Gee - can’t imagine why anyone would be insulted about using a Nazi anti-Jewish riot as a way to insult a Jewish guy would be troubling? Just my free advice, but I think you need to do some apologizing.
Insulting Jews with Nazi references is really not funny.
If Cruz was so shrewd, why is he again sitting on a back bench in the senate annoying others with his dramatic pauses?
I thought we were here to support Trump. Didn't a dictum come down or am I mistaken?
Politically speaking, I think Cruz is beyond redemption.
Trump needs Cruz to get with the program. That’s all.
Er, no. If Kristallnacht is intending to elect Cankles, he is closer to a Nazi and any “Nazi” reference in the term, because he is encouraging the destruction of Jews.
Course, nothing new: the leadership of the USSR was heavily Jewish.
May, might, could and similar bs verbs, mean the author/authors are posing their chicken scratching as a real article.
“He loves the constitution and should be a Supreme Judge.”
Would/could he even get a single vote in the Senate to confirm him as a Supreme?
If he loved the Constitution so much, he would know what ‘Natural Born Citizen’ meant....
From Politifact:
“Spokespersons for Trump’s campaign and the RNC told PolitiFact Florida that all of the GOP candidates signed a pledge, but they wouldn’t answer additional questions.
The pledge came up after Trump’s comments at the first GOP debate on Aug. 6, when Trump said he wouldn’t rule out a third-party run.
The pledge reads:
“I (name) affirm that if I do not win the 2016 Republican nomination for president of the United States I will endorse the 2016 Republican presidential nominee regardless of who it is. I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.”
The one-page document included spots for signatures from RNC chairman Reince Priebus and the candidate. Trump held a press conference at Trump Tower in Manhattan on Sept. 3 to announce he had signed the pledge (which was mistakenly dated Aug. 3, although Trump later tweeted a corrected copy).”
Sore loosers Yeb Bush and Felito Cruz both broke their word.
This is a good example of why I hate the GOP-e: they’re liars.
On the contrary, it’s the Trump cadre that continues to spew calumny about an opponent that’s been beaten, but why?
Common sense should lead you to try to convince conservatives to support Trump, rather than alienating them. Maybe you’re still trying to convince yourself you made the right choice.
“Trump needs Cruz to get with the program. That’s all.”
Precisely. bigbob. Trump won. That’s life in the grown-up world. Cruz doesn’t have to like it. It is what it is.
For any reality-challenged, bunker-dwelling, self-styled, die-hard, `real conservative’ Cruz nevertrumpers who cling to the delusion that their guy is owed some sort of consolation prize in Cleveland because Trump “needs” him there:
Cruz needs to pull up his Big Boy pants and get with the program. We’re past the stage of saying, “Give us this or that, stop being mean to us or we’ll take our ball and go home ... “.
Most of us, I suspect, are weary of Cruz Zu Zu’s complaining of bruised petals.
The only thing Trump needs now is the support of anyone who doesn’t want to see (at least) four more years of Obama.
This isn’t rocket surgery.
"Now I'm the most repugnant pariah in the history of the Republican Party."
...Cruz is a brilliant strategist, a long-term player.
.
.
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He lost me right there
I think that Cruz will come around, but if he doesn’t, not many people will notice.
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