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Cruz’s Choice
Via the WSJ
, there may be some fireworks this evening when Sen. Ted Cruz takes the podium at the GOP convention:
The big question is what, if anything, will Mr. Cruz say about Mr. Trump. The Texan will have no trouble joining the parade of speakers prosecuting the case against Mrs. Clinton, but it remains unclear whether he will offer a formal endorsement of Mr. Trump – who has suggested Mr. Cruz’s father was complicit in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and besmirched the appearance of Mr. Cruz’s wife. Mr. Trump has never apologized or recanted for either incident in public.
Mr. Cruz, for his part, has refrained from endorsing the Trump ticket. Cruz supporters made up the core of the anti-Trump forces this week, but when it became clear they did not have the votes to even delay the process, let alone impede Mr. Trump, the Cruz backers conceded defeat. Needless to say, if Mr. Cruz endorses Mr. Trump from the stage, that will be the biggest news of the day.
What do you think, Ricochet? Is Cruz going to try to make peace or cause trouble? Regardless, what should he do?
Published in General
I wish it were that he was too calculating. He’s calculating in such a way that you can see all of calculation. It undercuts how clever he thinks he is.
Cruz is no Ronald Reagan.
Cruz should do two things.
At that point, the ball is in Trump’s court…
I don’t know what Cruz will do and I’ll wait and see what he does.
However, if I get the impression that his speech is intended more for 2020 than for 2016 then I will see that as a grievous example of Cruz taking his eye off the ball.
I plan on living during the next four years. Let’s win this one.
I hope that he focuses on attacking Hillary, and refrains from attacking Trump. I also hope that he doesn’t say anything untrue in an attempt to defend Trump. I don’t expect him to disappoint me.
I wouldn’t necessarily expect Trump to endorse Cruz, anymore than I expect any non-conservative to endorse Cruz. I couldn’t figure out why they seemed so friendly to each other early in the campaign.
That said, Cruz should avoid criticizing Trump at Trump’s convention. He shouldn’t lie, either. Hopefully, Cruz will focus on Hillary, which I hope Trump does as well. My only hope for this election is to tear Hillary down as much as possible.
He should. He could.
I am more pessimistic about it happening, though, than I’d like to be. I don’t know why, exactly, but I think there’s a large (under 50% but still within smelling distance of it) chance that Cruz will pretty unambiguously endorse Trump.
Perhaps I believe the chance large because I believe populism really matters to Cruz. I believe Cruz was trying to do a good thing by channeling populist energy into support for Constitutional conservatism, and his clumsiness at populism suggests to me he’s unwilling to make populism his top priority. But populism may be enough of a priority that at this point, he just caves to Trump.
For those who haven’t seen it, I wrote the whole thing out here:
http://ricochet.com/ted-cruzs-leaked-convention-speech/
I hope not, but that is a good argument.
Concession: I got this one wrong.
I am relieved to have been proven wrong, though. OK, technically, since I rated the probability of Cruz caving at large but still under 50%, I still believed he was more likely to hold firm than not, which means his holding firm doesn’t prove me wrong.
But I am glad to have had my doubts proven wrong.