Ted Cruz to announce who he's voting for, likely Trump

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Really great news!  I commend Cruz for getting over their personal differences.  I probably agree with him much more than I agree with Trump on policy, but Trump's our nominee, and he is so much better than Crooked Hillary.  We need all Republicans to reunite to make sure Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

"Personal differences"? Dude, seeing someone co-opt your political movement and remold it in their image goes far beyond "personal differences". As much as I hate the Tea Party, I honestly don't think that Cruz meant for it to become so blatantly white supremacist, and seeing Trump push it in this direction has probably, in his mind, relegated it even farther to the fringe than it had been before. This isn't a matter of "personal differences"- this is a matter of Trump taking advantage of all of the work that the Tea Party had done (as deplorable as that work was), and I think that Cruz legitimately hates him for that.

I don't feel sorry for them anymore. Jenny Beth Martin (founder of the original Tea Party group, Tea Party Patriots) also recently endorsed Trump. They might as well be fully on board with the white supremacist crap now. Martin and Cruz (and 95% of the people who were originally on board with the Tea Party when it was created as a group concerned about shrinking the size and scope of government) have totally abandoned their principles. Nobody forced them to do that.

[Wisconsin+17]

Well, I find myself in a strange place. Santorum then Cruz for me. Now I'll be leaving Cruz like I wasn't with him in December. #NeverTrump.

[PeteB]

I never particularly liked Cruz but I thought he had more integrity than this. If he was going to endorse Trump, why not do it at the Convention?

Or is the prospect of Trump actually winning and helping his primary challenger the real reason behind Cruz' decision?

[Wisconsin+17]

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Honestly, as a former Cruz supporter, this timing only makes sense because he's reading the tea leaves and seeing a Trump win.

I'm not sure what he's seeing that I'm not seeing.

[PeteB]

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Honestly, as a former Cruz supporter, this timing only makes sense because he's reading the tea leaves and seeing a Trump win.

I'm not sure what he's seeing that I'm not seeing.

In his defense (can't believe I am defending him ), Cruz was probably under intense GOP pressure to endorse. He obviously succumbed.

Then again, that same GOP pressure never bothered him in the past.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Really great news!  I commend Cruz for getting over their personal differences.  I probably agree with him much more than I agree with Trump on policy, but Trump's our nominee, and he is so much better than Crooked Hillary Secretary Clinton.  We need all Republicans to reunite to make sure Secretary Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

Our leaders and former leaders deserve our respect, even when they do ethically and morally objectionable things...
and yes republicans should unite....for now
and rid ourselves of Trump in 2020 (if he even runs for reelection)

Just like the Germans were going to get rid of Hitler in March 1933, Oedipus?

[Ebowed]

Is Donald Trump going to accept the support of this dishonest, adulterous jerk?

Ted Cruz is one of the worst people alive in the United States today.

[Blue3]

After doing a lot of soul-searching, Ted Cruz could confirm that he did indeed have no soul, and decided he had nothing to lose by supporting Trump.

[Wisconsin+17]

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This is a miscalculation. After Trump loses in September, all the Trumptanic supporters will have no say in anything.

If the singleminded goal of all the Trumpets is to try to destroy Cruz - Cruz will win in Texas as an incumbent sitting senator.

This... demoralizes folks like me who should be Cruz's base. His solid core of volunteers who see him as 'just another politician'.

It's an unfortunate move. Whether it has consequences outside of 2016 remains to be seen. It might not, in the end.

[Adam Griffin]

I call him Lyen' Ted!

Also, how appropriate.

[uti2]

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This is a miscalculation. After Trump loses in September, all the Trumptanic supporters will have no say in anything.

If the singleminded goal of all the Trumpets is to try to destroy Cruz - Cruz will win in Texas as an incumbent sitting senator.

This... demoralizes folks like me who should be Cruz's base. His solid core of volunteers who see him as 'just another politician'.

It's an unfortunate move. Whether it has consequences outside of 2016 remains to be seen. It might not, in the end.

Actually, polls had Perry beating Cruz, in theory a combined establishment + populist alliance could beat Cruz (like what happened in kansas), provided cruz wasn't well-funded to fight back against the attack. His donors threatened to back someone like Perry over him, he basically looked at what happened in KS and weighed the risks.

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

Say goodbye to that political career, creepo!

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/23/politics/ted-cruz-endorses-donald-trump/

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Is Donald Trump going to accept the support of this dishonest, adulterous jerk?

Ted Cruz is one of the worst people alive in the United States today.

Trump is the dishonest adulterous jerk not Cruz.

Prebius threatened those who won't back Trump. Those threats still don't make a bit of difference for me. #StillNeverTrump #WriteInCruz

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Cruz is a guy who's going to test one of my personal axioms.  I have always believed that a sure-fire way to political oblivion for a national politician is to refuse to endorse your party's Presidential nominee. 

I cannot think of a single Presidential contender for either major party who has ever failed to endorse his party's national ticket and succeeded as a viable contender for their party's nomination in the future.  Not a single one of the Democrats for Nixon ever put forth a viable Presidential campaign again.  Not a single Democrat who failed to endorse McGovern ever made any progress in getting support for their Presidential campaigns.  Even Jimmy Carter said in 1972 that he would vote for McGovern, even if he wouldn't campaign with him.  That's the weakest endorsement of a Presidential ticket ever by a guy who would later go on to be his party's nominee.

The GOP is no different.  All of the Republicans who refused to support Goldwater never got anywhere, and that includes Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney.  Richard Nixon was the 1968 Republican nominee in no small part because he endorsed Goldwater and actively campaigned for him.  There's a reason the GOP gangs up against Ron Paul and why Pat Buchanan is persona non grata in Republican circles.

I think Cruz has come to this conclusion; he has to at least nominally endorse Trump in order to be viable in 2020.  Cruz has been spurred in no small measure by the more likable Mike Pence moving into the role as a Conservative Fave for the future, and getting credit for taking shrapnel for Trump and helping other conservative Republicans win.  Pence knows how to make friends.  Perhaps Ted Cruz finally came to the conclusion that, at least in Republican circles, he had to stop making enemies.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Pence is likely the reason he is voting Trump. That or Prebius threats. If I vote Trump it's because of Pence. Chances of that happening is still not very high. GOP screwed up like they did in 1976. 

[Rules for me, but not for thee]

Cruz is a guy who's going to test one of my personal axioms.  I have always believed that a sure-fire way to political oblivion for a national politician is to refuse to endorse your party's Presidential nominee.  

I cannot think of a single Presidential contender for either major party who has ever failed to endorse his party's national ticket and succeeded as a viable contender for their party's nomination in the future.  Not a single one of the Democrats for Nixon ever put forth a viable Presidential campaign again.  Not a single Democrat who failed to endorse McGovern ever made any progress in getting support for their Presidential campaigns.  Even Jimmy Carter said in 1972 that he would vote for McGovern, even if he wouldn't campaign with him.  That's the weakest endorsement of a Presidential ticket ever by a guy who would later go on to be his party's nominee.

The GOP is no different.  All of the Republicans who refused to support Goldwater never got anywhere, and that includes Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney.  Richard Nixon was the 1968 Republican nominee in no small part because he endorsed Goldwater and actively campaigned for him.  There's a reason the GOP gangs up against Ron Paul and why Pat Buchanan is persona non grata in Republican circles.

I think Cruz has come to this conclusion; he has to at least nominally endorse Trump in order to be viable in 2020.  Cruz has been spurred in no small measure by the more likable Mike Pence moving into the role as a Conservative Fave for the future, and getting credit for taking shrapnel for Trump and helping other conservative Republicans win.  Pence knows how to make friends.  Perhaps Ted Cruz finally came to the conclusion that, at least in Republican circles, he had to stop making enemies.

That might be true...if he endorsed Trump at the RNC it would've been maybe viewed as a gracious defeat.  Now it's just running late to catch the train and he'll be stuck in the back of the caboose for the rest of his career.

[ElectionsGuy]

Gross.

[Wisconsin+17]

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That the Trump folks would seek to primary Cruz and not Cornyn is a miscalculation. I like Perry, and I like Cruz. I like Perry and Cruz a helluva lot more than I like Trump.

They will try to primary Cruz anyways, because they've done the math and they've realized that Cruz is in his 50s and Trump/Perry in their 70s. They've realized that after this election, they aren't going to be able to stop Cruz.

[Wisconsin+17]

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Cruz has done well by making the right enemies. Trump is the right enemy here. Cruz is younger and has a future. Rockefeller didn't have a future not because he fought against the party, but rather, that the party shifted away from him.

I find it intriguing that the same people that have fought Cruz relentlessly aren't going to just give up now that Cruz has endorsed Trump. They are going to hang it on Cruz's neck when Trump loses anyways. It's really a no-win situation. The only way to win is not to play. Cruz didn't have to endorse. Cruz could have gone and said, "I'm not endorsing anybody", let Trump crash and burn and then in November say, "I was right to oppose him".

THEN - you go over to all the ex-Trumpists and tell them that Trump is not the way.

Cruz has forgotten that his real enemy is the GOP establishment, not Trump's people. They can huff and puff, but in the end, Cruz has already beaten Perry straight up.

[uti2]

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Cruz has done well by making the right enemies. Trump is the right enemy here. Cruz is younger and has a future. Rockefeller didn't have a future not because he fought against the party, but rather, that the party shifted away from him.

I find it intriguing that the same people that have fought Cruz relentlessly aren't going to just give up now that Cruz has endorsed Trump. They are going to hang it on Cruz's neck when Trump loses anyways. It's really a no-win situation. The only way to win is not to play. Cruz didn't have to endorse. Cruz could have gone and said, "I'm not endorsing anybody", let Trump crash and burn and then in November say, "I was right to oppose him".

THEN - you go over to all the ex-Trumpists and tell them that Trump is not the way.

Cruz has forgotten that his real enemy is the GOP establishment, not Trump's people. They can huff and puff, but in the end, Cruz has already beaten Perry straight up.

That's not what Nixon did, he reached out to Goldwater's people and tried to form a compromise with them and the other GOP factions, that's the historical precedent, and depending on the type of establishment candidate with the level of funding and support vs. himself, they had a chance of unseating him that was probably too uncomfortable for him to tolerate, and he'd rather just keep his seat safe.

[Indy Texas]

Really great news!  I commend Cruz for getting over their personal differences.  I probably agree with him much more than I agree with Trump on policy, but Trump's our nominee, and he is so much better than Crooked Hillary.  We need all Republicans to reunite to make sure Hillary Clinton never becomes President of the United States.

"Personal differences"? Dude, seeing someone co-opt your political movement and remold it in their image goes far beyond "personal differences". As much as I hate the Tea Party, I honestly don't think that Cruz meant for it to become so blatantly white supremacist, and seeing Trump push it in this direction has probably, in his mind, relegated it even farther to the fringe than it had been before. This isn't a matter of "personal differences"- this is a matter of Trump taking advantage of all of the work that the Tea Party had done (as deplorable as that work was), and I think that Cruz legitimately hates him for that.

I don't feel sorry for them anymore. Jenny Beth Martin (founder of the original Tea Party group, Tea Party Patriots) also recently endorsed Trump. They might as well be fully on board with the white supremacist crap now. Martin and Cruz (and 95% of the people who were originally on board with the Tea Party when it was created as a group concerned about shrinking the size and scope of government) have totally abandoned their principles. Nobody forced them to do that.

This year has proven that the Tea Party was never about small government. It was always just angry white people who hate people who aren't like them.

[Fuzzy Says: "Abolish NPR!"]

Cruz is a guy who's going to test one of my personal axioms.  I have always believed that a sure-fire way to political oblivion for a national politician is to refuse to endorse your party's Presidential nominee.  

I cannot think of a single Presidential contender for either major party who has ever failed to endorse his party's national ticket and succeeded as a viable contender for their party's nomination in the future.  Not a single one of the Democrats for Nixon ever put forth a viable Presidential campaign again.  Not a single Democrat who failed to endorse McGovern ever made any progress in getting support for their Presidential campaigns.  Even Jimmy Carter said in 1972 that he would vote for McGovern, even if he wouldn't campaign with him.  That's the weakest endorsement of a Presidential ticket ever by a guy who would later go on to be his party's nominee.

The GOP is no different.  All of the Republicans who refused to support Goldwater never got anywhere, and that includes Nelson Rockefeller and George Romney.  Richard Nixon was the 1968 Republican nominee in no small part because he endorsed Goldwater and actively campaigned for him.  There's a reason the GOP gangs up against Ron Paul and why Pat Buchanan is persona non grata in Republican circles.

I think Cruz has come to this conclusion; he has to at least nominally endorse Trump in order to be viable in 2020.  Cruz has been spurred in no small measure by the more likable Mike Pence moving into the role as a Conservative Fave for the future, and getting credit for taking shrapnel for Trump and helping other conservative Republicans win.  Pence knows how to make friends.  Perhaps Ted Cruz finally came to the conclusion that, at least in Republican circles, he had to stop making enemies.

That might be true...if he endorsed Trump at the RNC it would've been maybe viewed as a gracious defeat.  Now it's just running late to catch the train and he'll be stuck in the back of the caboose for the rest of his career.

Cruz came to his senses when he realized that Mike Pence was about to be the new leader of the "True Conservatives".  This would have put the unpopular Cruz out of the role of the Tea Party Express Chief Engineer.

The GOP Establishment and the Movement Conservatives have no use for Trump, as Trump engineered a hostile takeover of the GOP's Presidential Nomination Division.  These factions probably cut Cruz a bit of slack given the insults dealt him by Trump.  (I must admit that the linking of Cruz's father to the JFK Assasination was the MOST over-the-top thing Trump ever said.)  Endorsing Trump now, I believe, made it right with these groups for Cruz; he's not disqualified for 2020. 

I also think Cruz endorsed Trump because of Marco Rubio.  Rubio, who had said he was retiring, re-entered Florida's Senate Race, and is favored for re-election.  Cruz had supplanted Rubio as the GOP's leading Hispanic politician, but now, Rubio re-enters that competition, and the GOP very much needs diversity in its lineup.  If he was seen as a ticket-bolter, Cruz would not be in a good position for 2020, and Rubio might be seen as a viable alternative.   

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

Buh Bye 2020 Cruz run....or at least I hope.

[Roemerista]

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Honestly, as a former Cruz supporter, this timing only makes sense because he's reading the tea leaves and seeing a Trump win.

I'm not sure what he's seeing that I'm not seeing.

In his defense (can't believe I am defending him ), Cruz was probably under intense GOP pressure to endorse. He obviously succumbed.

Then again, that same GOP pressure never bothered him in the past.

That's the point. Cruz's whole thing was being principled. You don't cave into pressure to support a man who insulted your wife, and openly engaged in conspiracy theories that your father was involved in the assassination of a president.

Cruz just proved he is as guided by principle as the rest of his favorite punching bag "the establishment." As much of an empty huckster as we all knew him to be.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I never particularly liked Cruz but I thought he had more integrity than this. If he was going to endorse Trump, why not do it at the Convention?

Or is the prospect of Trump actually winning and helping his primary challenger the real reason behind Cruz' decision?

Doubtless Cruz folded when Trump threatened to have his father jailed and tortured for Cruz Sr's participation in the murder of President Kennedy.