It finally hit me this morning as I was getting around. I had been under the impression that Trump would win most of the primaries yesterday and that Cruz, Cruz Lite, and the other no-hopes would have their usual poor showings, and the GOP would finally wake up. Finally, I thought, the adults in the GOP would get their act together and put everybody but Trump into a Royal Rumble and the winner of that would then get to face Trump one-on-one at Republicamania. Finally, the Trump freight train would be overwhelmed as his 35% peak was finally overrun by a united party, Cruz or Cruz Lite would grab the belt, and the GOP would go on to face Hillary in November.
But I realized that I'm wrong. It's not Trump that scares the crap out of most of the GOP establishment...it's Cruz. Here's a guy from Texas (electoral votes!), a minority (broadening the base!), somebody with true conservative bonafides (really, really extreme bonafides, but whatever). He's just mean enough to fight against Hillary, and maybe win back the Presidency and 'take back America from the libruls'. On paper, this guy should have had the nomination wrapped up yesterday and be planning for November.
But here's the thing...everybody in the GOP establishment HATES Ted Cruz. It did not hit me until Big Chris Christie threw his support behind Trump. Until Lindsay Graham finally endorsed Cruz (after first supporting JEB), Cruz did not have a single endorsement from the US Senate. Sure, he has a lot of people supporting him, but nobody who works with the guy likes him. On a personal level (where so much of politics really works) nobody can stand him. By all accounts, he's just not a very nice person. He's not charming by any standard, he has no charisma, and people who work with him simply don't like him. How would somebody disliked by his own people make deals as a President needs to make?
But is there more? Is his standard of extremist conservatism even too radical for even the GOP? Surely not...the GOP has gone off a cliff in recent years (and I have not gone with them); but it makes one think: instead of being afraid of Donald Trump, is the GOP more afraid of Ted Cruz?
This election season continues to be fascinating, even if its outcome is potentially terrifying. Maybe Rubio will finally win something and step up to lead as the mainstream GOP hopes that he will. But until he does, this Trump/Cruz mess is something to behold.
PS: Here's an interesting link about who endorses who. Fascinating. Kurt Angle supports Marco Rubio, but Ted DiBiase, Jerry Lawler, and Hulk Hogan support Trump.
