Your main point, about the NE allegations forming a “cloud” of doubt about Ted Cruz with “millions” of people is what I will address now. I believe that’s all you’ve essentially said, and all you’ve offered as a reason to continue bringing up that garbage.
For reasonable people, the National Enquirer is a known cesspool of gossip and innuendo. So no one takes what they say seriously. Never mind the fact that no one bothers to sue them for libel much less slander, not because they don’t care about their reputation but because the Enquirer writes their articles in such a way as to hide behind weasel words, making it impossible to prove any intent of libel or slander. Lawyers know this. This is why Cruz hasn’t bothered wasting his time. Again, reasonable (and informed) people know this.
Even when they were later proven correct in a few of their “expose’s”, it was only because other sources of data confirmed their allegations. And they’ve only reached that level of credibility a few times. A few times out of the hudreds of thousands of stories they’ve run. So to say “they were right about John Edwards” as some kind of reason to give this or any other story consideration is like saying the time of day is whatever a stopped clock says it is, since it’s right two times a day.
If Hillary dares bring this up in a debate all Ted has to do in reply is ask, “So how’s that brain tumor working out for you Hillary?”, because that and other rediculous stories are also courtesy of the Enquirer. And then people will laugh (at her for being stupid to bring an Enquirer story into a debate) and everyone will move on. It won’t hurt him in the slightest in any debate.
The only people who are swayed by that salacious story are those who are either too stupid to realize the Enquirer is a rag, fish wrap not worthy of most fish, and those who already hate Cruz for other reasons and are too evil already to realize how much they rely upon gossip to make their own lives worth living.
In conclusion this “cloud” only matters to those Cruz would never win anyway: the gossiping clucking hens of this country who have no moral compass of their own and live for stories such as this to hide from their own inadequacies.
***
Sorry, you're outa luck Fourty. Like all the others before you, you can be seated now:
***
"Unfortunately for Ted, it's not whether these allegations are true...or not true. But it's the perception! ..there is now...a cloud hanging over Ted. This damning cloud / perception is stuck over Ted and will remain so for the rest of this life."