Day Three Of The Republican Convention Got A Little Wild

The specific line Cruz added to his speech was, “I want to see the principles our party believes prevail in November.” To me, that’s emphatically not an endorsement of Trump. And given that Cruz is spending the rest of the speech articulating a traditionally movement “conservative,” not-very-Trumpian agenda, you might even read it as a subtweet about Trump, i.e., Cruz is pointing out that Trump isn’t really a conservative.

I think Rubio was always a little more confused about things than Cruz. Cruz is a true believer, in states’ rights and in himself. He seemed to know a bit more about how to handle his image vis-a-vis the Trump fight than Rubio did. I think Cruz also knows that there are a whole lot of friendly folks in this crowd for him — he was the vessel for the “Stop Trump” movement, so he’s got that going for him.