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Ed mentioned this in passing in the last post but it deserves extra attention. How often do you see a guy’s favorable rating within his own party cut nearly in half in the span of two weeks? Cruz’s move, however, appears to have backfired. While 60% of Republican voters had a positive impression of the former presidential candidate before the convention, just 33% have one now.

I was driving home from work a hour ago listening to Faux news on the satellite car radio and almost drove off the road. Was I imagining it, or did I just listen to an interview of a woman who belongs to a group called "Republican women for Hillary"?? This woman who further went on to say something to the effect of "Hillary has the integrity and experience that Trump does not have" and that "the group is growing nationwide among CONSERVATIVE Republican women" I was like WHAT?? WHAT?? I almost rear ended the car in front of me from...

Moderators, I hope you'll permit the vanity. I wanted to solicit opinion from FReepers on the remaining NeverTrumpers. What amuses me is the degree to which the NeverTrumper disdain for Trump seems to be personal. It goes well beyond the superficial pettiness of a faculty lounge dispute, and seems bitter and vindictive. With some evidence (not much of which I can post here), I'll posit three motives: Personal slight against one or more NeverTrumpers, perhaps an ancient slight Trump has not paid sufficient fealty to the Conservo-sphere of writers and political consultants He has not hired Mike Murphy or Matthew...

She continued, “I’m beginning to understand why Ted Cruz has been hated by everyone every place he’s ever been from kindergarten to the United States Senate. I must tell you the only way I’m making money this year is on bar bets trying to get Donald Trump in the White House. I won all of them. I would have lost if we had made a bet on who would endorse Donald Trump first, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz. Because Marco Rubio is just sort of standard establishment. They’re very much against having borders in our country so they’re against Donald...

Ted Cruz must have a strategy of dividing the Republican Party (with full support of the Republican Oligarchs behind the scenes) to make sure Hillary wins because of the division. Somehow they are determining that Trump is not going to run again in 2020 and Cruz will then seek the nomination. With the absolute mess that Hillary will make, Cruz will be seen as the only solution by the conservative side. Good strategy, but not good for the country.

No, Senator Cruz did not have to endorse Donald Trump. If he had I would have considered it as phony as a Hillary campaign ad. We already know that the Cruz faction considers Donald Trump to be a character something this side of the father of Rosemary’s Baby; so, an endorsement by Ted, even a phony one, would have no effect on the election. Senator Cruz is a constitutionist. I am a constitutionist. I study our Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the anti-federalists and read associated writings from Algernon Sidney to Forrest McDonald. When I met Ted Cruz (after his appearance...

Former 2016 GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee says fellow former candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) betrayed Republican nominee Donald Trump last night at the Republican National Convention. Cruz opted not to endorse Trump after he vowed — as the other candidates had — to support the eventual nominee.

Ted Cruz on Thursday strongly defended his refusal to endorse Donald Trump during his Republican National Convention speech, saying he's not "in the habit" of backing politicians who attack his family. The Texas senator sensationally withheld an endorsement of Trump in his speech Wednesday, earning a chorus of boos from the floor while getting upstaged in a power play by the GOP nominee himself.

“You arrogant ass!” yelled Donald Hoffman, the former president of the American Nuclear Society, who was standing on the floor for Cruz’s remarks. Cruz continued on, his voice shaky, as the noise from delegates on the floor — and attendees in the second and third decks of the arena — all but drowned him out. The scene, watched by millions of people around the world, was an unmitigated nightmare for Cruz, who in many ways was using Wednesday’s speech as the unofficial kickoff of his 2020 campaign. Cruz knew that he was taking a risk by not endorsing Trump —...

Cruz's rebuke ignited a hot scene around the senator as soon as he left the stage. People averted their eyes from Cruz and his wife as they walked with their security detail on the skybox level of boisterous Republicans. On the donor suite level, people approached Cruz and insulted him, a source told CNN's Dana Bash. One state party chairman reacted so angrily that he had to be restrained. Cruz, who has long sought the support of GOP megadonor Sheldon Adelson, was turned away when he tried to enter Adelson's suite. Andy Abboud, a senior aide to the Las Vegas...

Cruz was stopped at the door because several attendees inside the suite were furious with his decision to not endorse Trump. An aide to Adelson then confirmed that Cruz was turned away.

SENATOR TED CRUZ REFUSED TO ENDORSE TRUMP AT RNC— WOULD NOT ENDORSE TRUMP— TOLD REPUBLICANS TO VOTE THEIR CONSCIENCE!!!

"By Ted Cruz not supporting the nominee, he's exempted himself from real conservatives," he said. "No voter gives a crap about what Ted Cruz does. The only person this hurts is Ted Cruz..." "Ted Cruz thinks he's Ronald Reagan. The problem is he's not anything near Reagan in terms of being an inspiring, likable figure," Stone said. "He's a dumb son of a bitch who thinks he's smarter than everybody else." "He's a despicable human being," he added

CLEVELAND — Hours before he was scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention, former presidential candidate Ted Cruz drew loud boos from his supporters at the mere mention of the GOP's nominee, Donald Trump. Cruz, who has not endorsed Trump despite accepting a speaking slot for the convention's Wednesday night session, chuckled and let the boos continue during a thank-you event for his delegates and supporters in Cleveland. While the crowd at the lakeside bar made their feelings clear about Trump, Cruz didn't offer any signal as to what he would say in his convention speech or whether he...

CLEVELAND — For the first time in 36 years, there was a vote on the floor of a party’s nominating convention this past Monday that actually held an element of suspense. In the hour or so ahead of a vote in which insurgents were attempting to reset the convention rules, Republican National Committee operatives circulated the floor and the back halls of Quicken Loans Arena, buttonholing delegates to argue why they should retract support for the motion, and getting them to sign their names to withdrawal forms. Trump aides, by contrast, bullied delegates with vague and ineffective threats. In one...

Ted Cruz speaks at an event in Cleveland to thank his delegates and volunteers for their support during his 2016 primary run. "I'll just confess I didn't have the strength to do that and not breakdown," Cruz told supporters. "And we had 50 T.V. cameras there and I tell you, I wasn't going to let those SOBs turn Lyin' Ted into Cryin' Ted." Full transcript and story at link.

Donald Trump's most persistent opponents from the Right believe that they can recruit a major presidential candidate to run in the fall election, perhaps even within the next several days. "We believe that it's not only possible but it is plausible that a candidate will emerge, will get on the ballot, and will fight to give Americans a better option, and so we're not giving up," Better for America chief strategist Joel Searby said Tuesday evening before a like-minded crowd in Cleveland.

Anti-Trump Republicans launched a last-ditch bid on Monday to deny the New York businessman the party’s nomination by trying to force a state-by-state vote at the Cleveland convention on the rules that bind delegates to back Donald Trump. The effort stands little chance of succeeding, but could pose a major disruption to the proceedings just as party officials were trying to smooth over divisions. The Trump camp is said to be "livid" at the revived push.

Right Side Broadcasting is reporting that the never Trumpers are staging a coup d'etat via a roll call vote

CLEVELAND--The band of Republican delegates mounting a last-ditch effort to snatch the nomination away from Donald Trump is claiming a last-minute victory in a push to force every delegate to vote on the party's rules on the convention floor. Delegates Unbound, a group of delegates that support unbinding the delegates to free them from their pledge to vote for Trump, announced Monday afternoon it had secured enough support to force that roll call vote. The delegates aim to vote down the rules package in its entirety in order to force the party back to the drawing board under pressure to...