Do you think for one minute, if Trump was not in the race, Cruz would be? Cruz would be utterly trashed, he would be out of the race by now
You are wrong here. All of the exit polls are showing the biggest motivator is disappointment and frustration with the Republican party. Cruz has been banging this drum for a couple years now.
If this isn't a complete take down of the inept Republican leadership, I don't know what is. Cruz shares the frustration. It just doesn't play well along side Trump's over the top "outsider" status. It's hard to "out-outsider" the orange guy with crazy hair sputtering out a string of insults and swear words every night on the news.
The GOPe has been angling for a brokered convention from the beginning. They wanted Trump to be the primary winner because he will be easier to demonize and take it away from. The time between March 15 and the convention, you are going to see so much come out about Trump that even die hard supporters like you will be relieved when they take the nomination away. It will be like the last months and weeks of the Bush presidency with scandal after scandal after negative story after negative story. Cruz on the other hand would have been impossible to take it away from. He is vetted. He has been through the gauntlet of both the Republicans AND the Democrats and survived.
Personally, I don't think they are going to give it to Bush. They are going to give it to Paul Ryan. His selection as SOTH was a trial balloon to see if he could be tolerated by conservatives. He passed the test.
Cochran's "victory" was Pyrrhic to the max.