The mainstream media are all too ready to go with the "Republicans accept Trump" narrative, if only because they cannot wait to get on with the Trump vs. Hillary Clinton brawl. The unlikability of Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, general fatigue with the GOP race and creeping fatalism in some GOP quarters -- not to mention Trump crowning himself the "presumptive nominee" -- serve to reinforce the media story line.
But what if, and it is still very possible, the Carly Fiorina Hail Mary, Our Principles PAC's $2 million ad buy in Indiana (making the case that Trump's nomination will assure Clinton's victory in November), the Make America Awesome ad buy (asking what Trump is hiding by not releasing his tax returns), the endorsement (albeit tepid) from Gov. Mike Pence (R) and second thoughts about Trump's fitness for the presidency deliver the state to Cruz?
The new story line will then be "Cruz comeback" or at least "Cruz survives." With that will come more money flowing into his coffers and the coffers of anti-Trump PACs. Buzz about a third candidate will die down a bit. New pressure will be brought to bear on Ohio Gov. John Kasich (who has demonstrated he is incapable of winning a single state other than his own) to leave before the California primary where a record amount likely will be spent for a primary that would be decisive. The GOP donor class and elected leaders might give Cruz his due and show some support, despite their animosity toward him.
Cruz would next make a big push to win Nebraska the following week and then most likely focus all his attention on California, where he should camp out until June 7. He will want to enlist every known Republican he can to make one final stop-Trump push.
Cruz, I would suggest, would be wise to give a major speech explaining what Fiorina has called a battle for the soul of the GOP and for the country. Why is Trump unfit for office? Why is he a danger to our constitutional order and to our standing in the world? In other words, he should do what Mitt Romney did in his anti-Trump speech many weeks ago, with more detail and with more focus on attacking Trump's awful foreign policy address.
That is also the point for Cruz to make his pitch directly to moderates and somewhat conservative voters, who have every reason to be skeptical, if not downright hostile to him, after four years of being on the receiving end of Cruz's barbs and self-serving antics. Cruz needs to show he respects the intellectual diversity of Republicans from moderate to very conservative and understands his role as president would be to seek agreement, not divide and castigate. He should make clear he understands that, in governing, the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good and that the country is exhausted and disgusted with hyper-partisan infighting. Here is where some humility would go a long way. And finally, whereas Fiorina came very close to saying it, Cruz should be emphatic (although he has hinted as such) that he, too, is in the #NeverTrump camp.
In making that case Cruz must depart from his melodramatic tone and penchant for dramatic pauses. He too often sounds phony and turns people off. Someone close to him has to tell him, bluntly, to look in the camera and talk like a regular person in conversational tones with all the sincerity he can muster. It is a shame he has not done that so far, but perhaps if he survives Indiana he can give it a go before California.
Bare his soul and let Americans know that, as flawed as he is, there is simply nothing worse than nominating Trump. That'll be his best and last chance to stop Trump. Before all that, however, he really must win on Tuesday.
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