@UWedge: "If you know you're going to lose then fighting is just theatre."
Have you noticed? A huge gap has opened up in the Republican nomination race. No, not Trump and the rest of the field in national polls. The gap between candidate and Senator Ted Cruz.
In the Republican field Cruz has been last and least in
offering up any criticism of Donald Trump. As has been widely noted he’s
playing a long game which recognizes that he is the second choice for Trump
supporters. So the strategy is obvious, be patient, let the others take on
Trump and bring him down, and then be there for his supporters on the rebound.
What I haven’t seen is anyone pointing to the dilemma
implicit in this strategy. Cruz the presidential candidate opens up a
different, and highly unflattering, perspective on Cruz the Senator. Put
simply, Cruz the candidate can’t be squared with Cruz the Senator and the
reason for candidate Cruz is Senator Cruz.
Cruz is popular with conservatives because he gave them in
the Senate what they longed for. Not victories—he really doesn’t have any—but risk
taking. As Senator he embodies what the base wants. The cause! The cause! and
damn the consequences! That is his motto. He is the nothing ventured, nothing
gained rebuke to Mitch McConnell who has a habit of infuriating conservatives
with his McClellan like, maybe after the next election when we’re stronger,
approach to politics.
The ever prudent, bide your time Cruz is now asking us to
question just what Senator Cruz was up to. It doesn’t look like the exuberance
of the conviction politician so much as advertisements for Ted Cruz. It raises
the question who was less sincere, Marlon Brando playing Johnny Strabler in The
Wild One, or Ted Cruz playing Ted Cruz. I had doubts about Cruz as president
before, I have bigger doubts now.
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