Memo to Ted Cruz: Donald Trump Doesn’t Need You

Let’s be honest. Ted Cruz wants Hillary Clinton to become president, so he can run against her in 2020. He assumes that if Democrats hold the Oval Office for an unusual four more years, voters will tire of liberal policies. They will also tire of Clinton, who will assume office as an extremely unpopular president. Enter Cruz, who sees himself as the future hope of the GOP.

That’s his vision, and his ambition. And that is why he chose to accept a speaking slot at the Republican convention but did not endorse Donald Trump. For this, he should be branded unpatriotic. He knows that the next president will appoint one and possibly three or four Supreme Court justices in the next few years; if that president is Clinton, the liberal agenda of Barack Obama and his successor will set the country’s path for decades to come. That means that decisions on immigration, energy policy, health care, financial regulation, labor rules, voting rights and so much more will be determined by a liberal court.

This is Ted Cruz’s decision, and his perfidy. His backers should ask them themselves, how can Cruz be a man of principle if he is willing to put his own ambition ahead of his country? The answer is, he is not a man of principle. He cozied up to Trump early in the primary season, when it was useful to him, and then ended the bromance when it became inconvenient. If nothing else, creating a negative sideshow at the convention was not the act of a gentleman.

Cruz is, instead, a sore loser. He won a total of 559 delegates, against 1,543 for Donald Trump — almost three times as many. That’s not close. Hillary Clinton topped Bernie Sanders 2,807 to 1,894. By comparison, the Democrat race was a squeaker.

Not only is Cruz a sore loser, he is a deluded loser. Somehow, he thinks that the voters’ clear preference for Trump was a twitch, a goof, and that given a second chance, they will realize their error and hoist him up on their shoulders instead. Sorry, Mr. Cruz, no such luck. You may consider Trump to be an imperfect candidate, and indeed he is. His unfavorables are high, and he is an amateur. Nonetheless, he did better than you, and will likely also outscore you in facing off against Hillary. Trump said Friday that he doesn’t want your endorsement and wouldn’t accept it if offered. Put plainly: He doesn’t need it.

Trump has a favorable/unfavorable comparison of -25, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. Though Cruz’ polling is not as up to date (because he, ahem, lost), the last reading of this measure put him in exactly the same place as Trump — at -25. What makes Cruz think he’s a better standard-bearer than The Donald? The most recent polling shows him neck and neck with Hillary. Before he dropped out of the race, Hillary was ahead in a hypothetical match up by an average of five points.

In short, it is only in Cruz’s mind that he is the better candidate. The voters had a chance to come out for him; they failed to do so. Even though his ground game and his highly touted organization were much superior. At the end, the Texas senator’s message failed to resonate, and his history left many Republicans cold. His constant showboating on the floor of the Senate and eagerness to topple GOP leaders never achieved any results; he didn’t defund Obamacare or achieve any real policy goals. He only highlighted himself, and quickly became known to American voters, who do not like what they see.

They were not impressed that his charming story recounted to The New York Times — when he said “Sweetheart, I’d like us to liquidate our entire net worth, liquid net worth, and put it into the campaign,” and she says ‘Absolutely,’ with no hesitation” — turned out to be a flat-out lie. The truth was he borrowed from Goldman Sachs, and then “forgot” to report the loan. That was a violation of the law, and a deliberate deception.

There are also the odd details about his mother’s divorce from her first husband, which he claimed in his memoir was caused by her misery at the death of a baby. But it turns out the child died several years after the divorce, and that the father claims the child was not his. For someone who lectures others on the importance of marriage and is keen to win over Evangelicals, these details get a tad messy. People are not happy to be deceived.

At the core, Cruz’s posturing as an outsider candidate is also a deception. He graduated from Princeton, Harvard Law School, clerked for a Supreme Court justice, worked as a big-time corporate lawyer and is married to a Goldman Sachs banker. That makes him Essence of Establishment.

Mr. Cruz, your stunt at the GOP convention was unforgivable. You distracted from the introduction of Mike Pence, who is a conservative of the type you pretend to admire. How could you do that? We know the answer, you don’t want Trump-Pence to win.

There’s a joke in D.C.: Why do people take an immediate dislike to Ted Cruz? The answer: It saves time.

Published here.