[Solson]

That is ALL conjecture. Please provide the data showing that Cruz was able pick up more Rubio, Carson, Fiorina supporters! Since they've all dropped out, Trump has gone up in the polling.

The rest is also conjecture except that certain candidates, CANDIDATES, aka Lindsay Graham and Carly Fiorina endorsed Cruz.

the bottom line is that it is an absolutely fallacy that because "50% voted against Trump" means they would vote for Cruz. It's a false assumption without any basis in reality.

[Dr. Sivana]

That is ALL conjecture. [ . . . ]Since they've all dropped out, Trump has gone up in the polling.

Trump went up, Cruz went up more. Of course to some degree this is conjecture, as we cannot recreate the election with different candidate sets at that time. Over time, Cruz went from the edge of the stage to sharing the middle. Either way, he is the last man standing. Either way, neither man has 50% of the votes cast. Cruz does better in caucuses, conventions and closed primaries. Trump does better in the northeast and primaries where Democrats and Independents can cast their votes in the Republican primary. They are all different, with different strengths and weaknesses. If Trump paid more attention (and money) to his ground game earlier, he likely would have wrapped this up by now. Cruz is actually doing Trump a favor by forcing him to understand the mechanics of the game, I hope making him a better candidate.