Very nice post Jim! :-)
I think we both were enamored of the man we thought Cruz was.
If that man had turned out to be real I would still have him as my #1 choice.
Perhaps Cruz simply was not ready emotionally to make a play for the big chair and it has made him a bit unsteady.
I’d still like to see a Trump/Cruz ticket but I guess that is hopeless now...politics makes for strange bedfellows...but perhaps that ticket is too strange.
I just hope that Trump gets the 1237 so he can win on the first ballot. If he is denied and the nomination goes to another, even if that other is totally worthy (i.e. Jeff Sessions) I fear many millions of Republicans, Democrats and Independents would stay home on election day and not vote. The damage would be really bad.. Hillary (who truly is a monster) the loss of the senate and house and a ruined SCOTUS :-(
At this point, better they stay home than pick up a gun, which seems more and more likely.