I did watch the speech. Overall, I liked what I heard. Quite inspiring in places and reminded me of why I did (and still do) support him.
As for the reaction to Cruz’s non-endorsement, how could anybody be surprised? Between the Heidi pic tweet and the Rafael Cruz conspiracy nonsense, Trump had basically dropped several nukes on a possible congenial relationship with Cruz. He should have publicly apologized or walked that stuff back. When he didn’t, I knew the cake was baked. Sometimes you can cross too many lines, even in a political campaign.
Even the speech itself, with Cruz congratulating Trump, Cruz’s statement of some of Trump’s key points (like building the wall), heck even saying “vote your conscience,” could easily have been co-opted by the Trump campaign and touted it as a quasi-endorsement. They should have done that. They shouldn’t have even acknowledged it as a non-endorsement. And given that Trump okayed the speech in the advance just makes things even stranger. If the speech was so bad, why would Trump *himself* let it be made?
Overall, it’s just a bunch of wasted fury. I’m voting for Trump, but there are things he could have done to make bringing the party together a whole lot easier.
I need to watch the speech for my own edification to come to a personal conclusion, I’m just reluctant to do so.