When I wrote this three months ago, I figured it would end badly, but not so eerily like the actual Purple Wedding with a sadistic, incompetent child-king who cannot help but use his moment of glory to lord it over his prostrate opponents.
And then he ate the pie.
From the New York Times:
Ted Cruz Stirs Republican Fury in Pointed Snub of Donald TrumpCLEVELAND — The Republican convention erupted into tumult on Wednesday night as the bitter primary battle between Donald J. Trump and Senator Ted Cruz reignited unexpectedly, crushing hopes that the party could project unity.In the most electric moment of the convention, a clamor broke out as it became clear that Mr. Cruz was not going to endorse Mr. Trump, pointedly snubbing the party nominee from center stage on the eve of Mr. Trump’s formal acceptance speech.As hundreds of delegates chanted “Vote for Trump!” and “Keep Your Pledge,” Mr. Cruz attempted to dismiss the outburst as “enthusiasm of the New York delegation,” only to have Mr. Trump himself, stone-faced and clearly angry, suddenly appear in the back of the convention hall and flash a thumbs-up at the delegates.Mr. Cruz was all but drowned out as he asked for God’s blessing on the country and left the stage, while security personnel escorted his wife, Heidi, out of the hall. One delegate yelled “Goldman Sachs!” at her — a reference to the company that has employed her, a job that Mr. Trump attacked during the primaries...
Let's dispense with this fiction that Ted Cruz doesn't know what he's doing. Ted Cruz knows exactly what he's doing: https://t.co/GmS5Qtc3YM— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) July 21, 2016
Ted Cruz is the hero the American conservative movement deserves.— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) July 21, 2016
Tonight's convention debacle proves that Donald Trump is a terrible dealmaker. https://t.co/9oGAHGjo9e— Josh Barro (@jbarro) July 21, 2016
13 comments:
Good artwork ��
I didn't realize that making America great -again meant making the best deal with the best people.
Like making a deal with "lying Ted"/
When Trump declares, "He will win so much. We will get tired of winning"..
By my assumed idea of Trump's definition of winning. I think I reached my tolerance level for that so called winng, already.
Good morning, Mr. Glass.
Ted Cruz tells the Republican audience to vote their conscience.
I think this is how Kirk made that robot commit suicide that one time.
Be seeing you.
Wait, you mean the clown wearing the suicide vest, who calls himself an "agent of chaos," is BURNING OUR MONEY?!
Then again, Ted Cruz is only burning down HIS half of the Republican Party. So it's not that bad.
(here's hoping I don't think of some new, self-congratulatory witticism five minutes from now)
I posted this comment at Crooks and Liars, but it's apropos here as well, since it basically just borrows your analysis of the Republican base:
I was really puzzled up until this as to why Cruz had not taken a risk and made himself into a stronger magnet for the principled anti-Trump opposition. I mean, if you believe that Trump will not win in November, then you must realize that the reprogrammable killbots of the GOP base will be looking for someone to cleanse them of their sins the day after the election, someone who won't bring them to account for having tried to lift a narcissistic vulgarian to the pinnacle of power, someone who will help them go along with the charade that Trump didn't win because he wasn't a true conservative, or even someone who will let them pretend like they never, ever even heard of a man called Trump, just like the Tea Party was just a bunch of genuine Americans who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Bush Presidency. And that someone will be more likely to capture that role if he can also put some personal distance between himself and the Donald, and not be perceived as having served as his manservant (Christie) or his abused spouse during the campaign (Ryan/Pence). Ted Cruz is smart enough to know what the Republican base will be looking for, which is why I was surprised he had agreed to speak at the convention. But he is a crafty mother, and he just set himself up as Ronald fcking Reagen for 2020. And unfortunately, he will have every incentive as senator to be just as if not more obstructionist than he has been up till now.
What's that saying about there's no such thing as bad publicity? There's just publicity. My worthless speculation is that was Cruz's motivation. Clearly he's running for 2020. So Cruz set himself up as some sort of moral arbiter or something. Yes, I'll show up at the convention, but I'll speak to "my constituents" in language that they can hear.
I have family members who are huge Cruz fans (shudder). I'm sure that they noticed what he did there; agreed with it; and are singing his praises today. My rightwing fundie family members loathe Trump.
Trump played the moment in true Trumpian WWE style.
Now everyone's chattering about it. Win-win for both Trump and Cruz, if you think about it.
Of course, it'll all be gone done the memory hole in 5...4....3...
As the week has worn on, the political capital among Republicans of being anti-Trump has only increased. Likely because instead of Cleveland "burning," this is probably one of the most tepid conferences in recent memory.
We've probably at least reached the point where the political career's of the prominent pro-Trump people are over, if they weren't already.
Was just listening to Rush to see what his take was -- he seems to be hedging his bets, limiting his criticism to the timing of Cruz' "principled stand" rather than the stand itself.
But he brought up an interesting point, which is suggested by your GoT framing. How on earth did this speech make it through vetting? There seems to be three options: 1) Cruz hinted that he would endorse Trump, maybe even produced a copy that had a more explicit endorsement, but went off script. This seems very unlikely, and if it were the case, the Trump would be hammering on it from here to eternity as the crowning betrayal of Lyin' Ted. 2) They looked over the speech, but didn't realize what Ted was up to. Say what you will about Paul Manafort, but a guy who turns third world dictators and murderous warlords into Jeffersonian patriots for a living is not stupid. So I don't think he would have missed what Ted was doing. 3) They knew what ted was trying to do, and let him do it anyway. What Rush pointed out was that Trump walked into the convention at the exact moment in the speech when Ted outed himself with the "vote your conscience" line, which had to have been planned. And Manafort apparently later bragged about organizing the New York delegation booing. So what we're left with is that Donald Trump decided to use a nationally televised political event as an opportunity to set up and humiliate a rival. This is a truly Nixonian level of vindictiveness.
Number 2.
Yeah...about Ted Cruz...the guy may be creepy and smarmy but he's a smart mf'r. Karoli (I believe) said it best on a crooks and liars post, Ted Cruz is a politician in the vein of Richard Nixon and a liberal's worst nightmare. I am tending to believe it. As radical as he is, when Trump loses big in November, the republicans will continue scrambling for answers and without the benefit of looking in the mirror, they will continue moving more radically right and Cruz is laying the groundwork as a guy who has "principles". Sure he's a lying, amoral,narcissistic, power hungry neanderfuck but because he has a reputation for being hated by every politician in Washington for his political self serving stunts, the moron right wing electorate will see him as an outsider who sticks it to the establishment. Never mind that no one likes him, wants to work with him or has sensible policy ideas. He's the real right wing threat imo. After so many years of the shrub and the past two lots of republican presidential candidates with the collective brain trust of cord wood, I began believing that republican thinking leads to dumber politicians. Not so with Cruz. We'll see how he plays his role in the next four years but personally I have a bit of fear of the possibilities with that dark hearted slime ball.
Wait, didn't Christie do something similar to Romney in '12? I remember a lot of yammering about it back then. Could this just be some new kind of twisted Republican tradition?
-Doug in Oakland
Agree. I have concerns re Trump but really don't think he'll win. Cruz is scary. Agree that the moronic base will see Cruz as an outsider so they'll jump on his bandwagon. Cruz is smart enough to play that angle hard. After Trump loses, the pig people will be slavering for a new more fascistic leader. Cruz gives me the heebie jeebies. He's smart & much more disciplined than Trump. Ugh.
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