Donald Trump began May 3, 2016, as he often begins the day, by calling into "Fox and Friends." This time, he called to complain that Rafael Cruz, the father of Ted, had been involved in the conspiracy to assassinate John F. Kennedy, yet so far only the National Enquirer was willing to cover the amazing story. This Trump thought a total outrage.
By the end of that day, Trump was standing on a stage in Indiana, reveling in his great victory and lauding that very same Ted Cruz as a very smart, very tough fighter with a beautiful wife and family and a great future.
No harm, no foul. Right, "Lyin' Ted"?
We have no record as of yet of how Cruz responded to the olive branch. We do know that just a few hours earlier, he had publicly blasted Trump as "utterly amoral," a "pathological liar," "a narcissist at a level I don't think this country has ever seen," "a bully," and "a serial philanderer."
Trump is indeed all those things. But as of yesterday, he is also the Republican Party's nominee to be president of the United States. Cruz suspended his campaign last night, and the final holdout, Ohio Gov. John Kasich will reportedly do the same this afternoon. That puts Cruz, Kasich and millions of other loyal Republicans in quite a nasty conundrum. Does a man who last week was utterly unfit to be president suddenly transform into a statesman by winning the nomination?
It can't be easy. For weeks now, I've been getting a steady stream of emails from people trying to come to grips with it. They begin in more or less the same fashion:
“I’m a longtime Republican, but ….”
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