Big reason why Cruz is struggling: reputation among GOP voters has collapsed in 7 weeks. https://t.co/r1ChGoEKIU pic.twitter.com/CTqY77BZPU
— Taniel (@Taniel) February 28, 2016
Sessions endorsement is an absolute kidney punch for Cruz. He frequently cites his team-up with Sessions on immigration.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) February 28, 2016
If Sessions thought Cruz could win, he wouldn't be making this endorsement. That's the message here.
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) February 28, 2016
As he's done throughout the day, Cruz says he believes he and Trump will take a "big chunk" of delegates tomorrow + others won't come close.
— Patrick Svitek (@PatrickSvitek) March 1, 2016
According to the Texas Tribune, Cruz might not win his home state tomorrow, although of course he’s conceding nothing. Donald Trump is riding high, the GOP “Establishment” has chosen Rubio as its Official Not-Trump Candidate, but short of assassination Ted Cruz will never go away.
As a lazy blogger, I’d say he’s got too much invested in his old man’s phantasy of Ted Cruz, God-King come to save America from Satan and his liberal minions… not to mention the sweet grift available to any semi-plausible national candidate in this weird election cycle. Bloomberg Politics has a more pedestrian explanation of “Why Ted Cruz Probably Won’t Drop Out, No Matter What”:
Ted Cruz has had a disappointing few weeks since winning the Iowa GOP caucuses. He was outshone by John Kasich in New Hampshire. Then he lost South Carolina to Donald Trump, a state rich in the conservative evangelical voters who were supposed to be his ticket to the nomination, before placing third in Nevada’s caucuses. Cruz was overshadowed by Marco Rubio in Thursday’s debate. And talk is rife on cable news that he soon could, and probably should, drop out of the race.
But dropping out would violate the logic of Cruz’s whole political career. And anyone acquainted with his character and ambition should probably assume, as I do, that he won’t. Although his odds of winning the nomination are long, Cruz is bound to do what’s best for Cruz…
Read the whole thing, but: Ted’s in it for Ted, not ‘principle’ or ‘the good of the party’; he’s made so many enemies within that party he knows they won’t offer him any sweeteners if he does quit, but hanging in until the convention might give him leverage; worse comes to worst, a full-scale ‘practice’ run might be useful in the future…
… It’s very possible that, if he becomes the Republican nominee, Trump would get shellacked in November, setting off a period of anguished introspection for the party. Conservatives would vow never again to nominate a non-conservative for the highest office. “This is Ted Cruz’s ace card,” says Steele. “Going back to 1996, conservatives in the party have always felt that we’ve lost these presidential contests because we’ve not been true to the cause by nominating someone who will fight for the cause.”
For a large segment of the party, the savior would be obvious. And Cruz, having never wavered, would find himself right where he wanted to be, once he realized, in March 2016, that he wouldn’t be the 2016 Republican nominee: at the front of the pack to challenge Hillary Clinton in 2020.
Just in case you needed to feel any worse about the future of our battered republic.