What does Ted Cruz really want?

[Indy Texas]

I do find Cruz's placing so many chips on the Christian Right's square to be an odd tactical move.

He really has no bona fides to win them over. Sure, he's a Southern Baptist, but so is Bill Clinton. He's a Princeton-and-Harvard Man who, as far as I can tell, has never really worn religion on his sleeve during his time in public office. I recall there being an interview he did before running where he said abortion is "not an animating issue for [him]." Then, of course there is the fact that one of his major benefactors is Peter Thiel, a hedonistic anarcho-capitalist and Very Rich Gay who lives in San Francisco.

Maybe he realized that he's set fire to too many things to be anywhere near Establishment (and that's a crowded boat to be in anyway), but you can't be a Tea Party Outsider when you worked in the Bush Administration and your wife works for Goldman Sachs. Maybe cobbling together a Frankenstein out of the various Pat Robertson, Gary Bauer and Mike Huckabee coalitions was the most attractive remaining option.