Trump Will Win GOP Nomination, But Ted Cruz Plans to Be the Next Republican President

The Huffington Post's Huffpost Politics The Blog ^ | March 12, 2016 | David Paul

[2ndDivisionVet]

It was not much more than a week ago that Republican insiders were having animated public discussions about how Donald Trump could be deprived the GOP nomination. The consensus was straightforward. Unlike the consensus a few weeks earlier--that Kasich and Cruz needed to drop out of the race to clear the field for a Trump-Rubio death match--the new consensus was that that they should all stay in the race. This time, the goal was not finding someone who could beat Trump to the 1,237 delegates needed for a first ballot victory in Cleveland in July, but instead simply to deny Trump a first ballot victory.

If Trump could be denied an outright majority of the delegates, the new strategy suggested, he could be defeated on the first ballot. Then cooler and wiser minds could prevail, and the GOP establishment could select someone else to lead the ticket in the fall. Lost in all of the scheming by Republican insiders, however, was any thought that one or more of those candidates might have their own plans in mind, or have priorities that might go beyond whether or not Donald Trump won the nomination. While Marco Rubio would have been delighted to have others pushed out of the race on his behalf, John Kasich made clear that he intended to live or die on the results in the Ohio primary. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, had no intention of being guided by whatever the GOP establishment might cook up.

It turned out that this new consensus strategy didn't last much longer than the previous consensus strategy....

[Randy Larsen]

Trump’s father isn’t running for president.

[Chasaway]

"...Ted the Coward, who sides with Bernie, BLM and ISIS supporters in their attempt to crush free speech, can plan all he wants..."

Aw, Travis...man, I wish you hadn't said that, dude...

I love all of your stuff, but I've got to disagree with you here.

Look, I despise the protesters and everything they have to say. Let's get that out of the way.

But, dude...they've got the right to say it in a public forum. It's despicable, it's deplorable, it's...uncivil.

But they've got the right. The RIGHT.

FURTHER, (I saw that you wrote you were going to support Cruz and I believe you. However...), you've kind of engaged in a bit of hyperbole here.

Cruz is no coward. Come on, man.

1.Look at what he (alone) has tried to do that we sent him to the Senate to do. Maybe he didn't get anywhere, but he damned well resisted and fought for it. He's a Senator, not the Senate;

2. Look at his Ethanol stance in Iowa.

3. Look at the many instances where he's said what he believes, in spite of what the 'folks' are liable to say about it.

So, he's no coward. I'd expect you, or anyone on FR, to see and respect that. Even if you disagree with him.

And the fact you'd throw him overboard because of what he said what he did befuddles me. I wonder how deep and strong your support of him truly is/was.

And that makes me wonder what I'm missing.

You know as well as I do that 8 months ago Cruz was a hero on this board. It was amazing the ubiquitous calls for Cruz to run for President. He had it all, conservative/fighter/against the establishment -wise.

A free speech matter (that he's right about, BTW) shouldn't be a deal-breaker, standing on its own.

[I understand that your point might be that Cruz is ascribing some responsiblity to Trump's rhetoric for the protests. You know as well as I do that we don't exist in a consequence-free environment. You are free to do or say whatever you like, under the law and the constitution. So is everyone else. If you throw a verbal grenade, you can expect blowback.

Part of Trump's charm is his willingness to say un-PC/outrageous things. To expect there to be NO, or little response is naive. He's throwing big punches; he should expect to receive some.

If Bernie Sanders/Hillary told their supporters to punch any protesters at their events, I'd expect there would be a significant push back to that. And I expect it would be justified by a reference to his rhetoric.]

All of this said, I don't want to argue this with you.

I'm just a little disappointed.