This is the worst political decision since Hamilton decided it would be a good idea to duel w/ Aaron Burr.
On the other hand, it was a stroke of genius for the Trump people.
If (remote as it may have been) Cruz had endorsed Trump, it would have been a positive for both (Trump +1, Cruz +1). If as what actually happened, Cruz refused to endorse Trump, it would still be a net positive for Trump (since he graciously let Cruz have the floor), but a big negative for Cruz (Trump +1, Cruz -1).
-PJ
This is the worst political decision since Hamilton decided it would be a good idea to duel w/ Aaron Burr.
Good analogy.
The duel of course was the end of the story. The truth is that Hamilton, who had already been run out of Washington because HE HAD NO FRIENDS ( like Saint Ted ) and was seen as a Machiavellian manipulator and a throwback to the defeated loyalists. He came back here to NY and tried to exert influence in the Albany-NYC corridor where local political intrigue was already rampant. He promptly reignited the trouble he was involved in a decade earlier in the Burr and Clinton camps.
Burr was not just VP, but also a NY power broker and Hamilton set about becoming his greatest thorn and excelled mightily at it. Everytime he looked around, Hamilton was there. His pride and ego was too great to refuse the duel.
The real parallel is that Hamilton tried many things in the smokey backroom to get NY electoral college electors stripped ( it is VERY complicated ) to block Burr and of course Adams in 1800 and that was the most incredible election in our history. Hamilton was right in the middle of it and pity the poor guy because he actually forced himself to support and elect Jefferson, who was his mortal enemy in the Washington cabinet and who figured out Hamilton early on and left detailed writings about his experiences with him.
Long story short, and contrary to the lionization that Broadway is doing today, Hamilton was a great schemer and was as hated as Ted is today. Once his mentor George Washington left office in 1797 and died two years later he was alone in the wilderness.
As the only non Natural Born Citizen founder he is doubly linked to Ted Cruz, for Hamilton never really quite got what it meant to be free or an American ( liberty and a neutered minimal FedGov is what the Jeffersonian republicans pressed for ). Hamilton wanted unending Federal power and growth. He was rooted in British worship for centralized power. Furthermore, he was gung ho to be assigned colors and a regiment and desired to lead an Army against someone ( the French would do, failing that, Pennsylvania whiskey rebels would have to suffice ).
Compared to patriots like Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, Henry, Samuel Adams he was a tory, loyalist or even a traitor, and those that lived long enough to witness it said so explicitly. However, if he were alive today he would be repulsed by our leftists ( directly comparable to the old Federalist party ) and would be ashamed of what he started.