I just watched the speech from the PBS broadcast (on YouTube). Trump came out after the crowd was already yelling at Cruz and even then remained in the kind of tunnel thing under some seating. Everyone had turned and cheered and he was waving to everyone but he did not make his way to his VIP area until after the speech.
This article says "vote your conscience" was a Rorschach test, and Trumpers failed because they took "vote your conscience" to be anti-Trump. http://thefederalist.com/2016/07/21...chach-test-and-donald-trumps-campaign-failed/ I mean, Cruz did congratulate Trump, he said lots of conservative stuff, and "vote your conscience." That's not offensive to Trump, on the face of it, unless your conscience tells you not to vote for Trump. Why is everyone so pissed at the idea of voting your conscience?
He said "I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night." That sounds pretty good. Well, if Cruz did wrong, again that's another Trump f-up that's not his fault. Plagiarism: not Trump's fault! "Lyin' Ted" only said "congratulations": not Trump's fault! Poor Trump! The "winner" keeps turning out to be a loser, coz the losers keep messing up his big party. Mean world! Mean mean world!
Cruz was quite obviously 1) dog-whistling and 2) trolling. If his feelings were not clear on the podium last night, he made them clear this morning. He's still carrying a grudge (and justifiably so, I think) about Trump's personal attacks on his father and wife. The "conscience" thing is a code word for the "free the delegates" convention rules fight led by the Never Trump people. Anyway, I don't know that there is a substantial number of Cruz dead-enders who will now not vote for Trump in November as a result of Cruz's speech. In a tight election, thought, even a small number might make a difference. The more telling part of this is as a window into Trump team's competence. How do they handle planning an event and managing a PR situation. In this, they don't look like professionals. When did they find out about what Cruz was going to say and/or that Cruz wouldn't endorse Trump? What's the thinking in letting Cruz not only go on stage but also get one of the coveted prime time spots? Last night was supposed to be "Make America First Again" Night (whatever that means) and the introduction of Mike Pence to the electorate. But now the whole news cycle is about Ted Cruz.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">'Republican source' leaks <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump">@realDonaldTrump</a> speech to Democrats <a href="https://t.co/k6tzkUcaGo">https://t.co/k6tzkUcaGo</a> | Getty <a href="https://t.co/UgO7de6UvC">pic.twitter.com/UgO7de6UvC</a></p>— POLITICO (@politico) <a href="https://twitter.com/politico/status/756271970640101376">July 21, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> Do the Democrats have Woj working for them or what? Man, the Jon Snow plot line had better secrecy.
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