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I agree in general that it would have been better to hear an unambiguous endorsement. However, I don’t think it gives Hillary Clinton any real opportunity because if she tries to exploit the Cruz ambivalence, it will lead back to what Cruz said about Obama and Clinton (I don’t have a transcript handy but I’m pretty sure there was a bleak overview of what a Clinton presidency would mean).

I really have no idea what Ted Cruz is really trying to signal to his “ardent followers” who have largely made the trek over to Trump Central already anyway. Perhaps it was a thinly veiled plea to write Ted’s name in, or to vote for some as yet unknown alternative. I don’t think the Libertarian option is what we’re meant to assume here.

But also he left some room for future clarification by saying that one could and should vote the entire ticket up and down. That technically means an endorsement of all nominated Republicans. He could tweet or otherwise signal down the road that he was misunderstood and meant that as an endorsement. Maybe he’s trying to force Trump to declare more openly his views on the limitations of power.

But the one place where I disagree is that Cruz will have much impact on the outcome. This will fade from view rather quickly and become part of the general background noise about mainstream old school Republicans not flocking to support Trump. The public have generally turned the page on the old school Republicans by now. It’s not that the party has deserted Trump, more like the party has evaporated in a cloud of its own irrelevance and ineffectuality, and Trump has replaced it. What we see now is the Trump Party, and the only thing that really fits from the past is the elephant symbol.

I believe that this new Trump Party will retain the name but perhaps it should become an eyebrow-raiser to use the terminology GOP because this is no grand old party, it is a grand new party with new priorities. Yes, vote your conscience by all means, but engage your brain too. This would be my response if I were lucky enough to be a Trump.