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.
