There are only two options: Trump wins, or the flunky wins.
There is no path, in any universe, for Cruz now to be president. He should have thought of that when he turned on Trump. Whatever support he has from the GOPe is as fleeting as Juan McCain’s support from the media in 2008. They will never, ever permit him to get the nomination. Meanwhile, anyone but Trump getting the nomination will basically send those (so far) 7.5 million Trump voters home on election day.
“NeverTrump?” LOL. It will be never GOP, ever again. You will see massive, and I mean massive GOP defections the day after Trump is denied the nomination-—IF it is by chicanery. I agree that if he doesn’t have the 1237, they will find a way to screw him. But I do think if he goes in short of 1237, therefore leaving some semblance of “honesty” to the process, the damage to the GOP will be slightly less.
While I expect Trump to win this thing simply by getting the 1237 delegates I'm pretty sure that a failure to do do will be fatal to his candidacy.
OTOH, if Cruz is the benefactor I really don't think that there will be a mass defection of the Trump fans. But I agree that this a debatable position and not widely supported here at FR AKA Trump Country.
I also do not believe that the GOPe can stop Cruz if we go to a second ballot. For me the fact that Trump is really trouncing the GOPe is proof enough that these guys are not the overpowering force that you and admittedly many others here at Good Old FR believe they are. So I don't buy the argument that they can steer over 1000 delegates to Kasich or, God forbid, Romney. That, I believe, would be a fatal mistake and is, IMHO, the reason we are starting to see the GOPe endorsements for Cruz.