Cruz isn’t stupid, though he has done some stupid things this election cycle. However, every human had done some stupid things, no matter how intelligent they are.
The problem with Cruz in this drawn out refusing to leave, to me, just shows he’s a lawyer, he thinks like a lawyer. He knew he had no shot at 1237 long before he was mathematically eliminated, so what did he do? Instead of dropping out, he decided he would act like a lawyer and go for some other way to win.... As a lawyer, this is standard practice, if you know you are going to lose the trial, you immediately begin setting the groundwork for your appeal, in hopes that you will get a more favorable outcome from a different court... This was Cruz’s whole contested convention nonsense. Only a lawyer would even think this would be a viable thing to try, especially when its pretty evident the end tally wasn’t likely to be very close even if you managed to pull off a contested convention. This is how lawyers thing, its how lawyers act...
Cruz’s actions to try to get delegates for the 2nd and third votes, I am sure generally never broke any rules, but to the typical person out in the electorate who lives their lives and understand you win or you lose, and when you lose, that it.. his actions, while within the bounds of the rules come across as slimey and underhanded. The more he did it, the more he lost support.. because it was obvious to the electorate, he wasn’t playing to win... at least not to win the way most people deal with winning and losing....
Cruz’s actions in this regard are much like Al Gore’s. Gore lost the election in 2000... and he should have conceded election night, but instead put the country through weeks of legal nonsense and dangling chads.... It didn’t change the end result, but it forever destroyed Gore as ever having another shot at the presidency, because he put himself and his party first over the good of the nation.
Nixon who the left loves to hate, if he had behaved in 1960, the way gore did in 2000, JFK would have never been president, because the dems engaged in fraud to hand JFK the presidency and Nixon knew it and under legal examination certainly could have won, but he also knew it would be detrimental to the nation... so he didn’t fight it.
Cruz has done some very serious long term damage to himself with his actions and behaviors politically. Personally I think he’s on the verge of putting his senate re-election in jeopardy, if he hasn’t already. I really don’t think he’s going to be able to be a serious contender for the presidency again, and largely that’s from his own self inflicted wounds. He’s a young man, he would have had plenty of time to try again, but his behavior in many ways this campaign I think will relegate him to rapidly out of the picture should he try to make another run later.
I think he has put his future in politics severely at risk in the past couple of months.
I also think he's going to hear that loud and clear if he loses tomorrow.
I've said this multiple times in the past couple of weeks: If his twisted strategy were actually to work: He is in danger of becoming the most hated man on the right, by the right, for a generation.
I hope he understands that, it's hard for me to believe he won't see it if tomorrow is a loss. He will want to go to plan C (as a lawyer), and come out as if he was a hero all along. If he doesn't, he may not have that opportunity again.