The Many Frenemies of Ted Cruz
The strategist then checked off the various other presidential candidates who, at one time or another, had briefly allied themselves with Cruz for their own strategic gain. Early in the debates, Jeb Bush’s viability required that his fellow Floridian Marco Rubio be wounded. Cruz obliged Bush bychiding Rubio for his support of the Gang of Eight immigration bill. Rubio, in turn, needed Donald Trump to lose altitude in Iowa in order for him to gain any. Cruz thus did Rubio a solid with his attacks on Trump’s sketchy allegiance to the Republican Party.
Governors Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich all needed a strong showing in New Hampshire in order to survive, and thus needed someone to deny Trump the momentum that a victory in Iowa might provide. Cruz was only too happy to help. Then, on the eve of the Feb. 6 debate hosted by ABC News, he argued that Carly Fiorina deserved a spot on the debate stage despite her low standing in the polls — a move that allowed him to look magnanimous toward a lagging challenger while also serving his own interests (because Fiorina’s speechifying would mean less time for others to be taking shots at Cruz).
.. “Then, two weeks before the general election, when we’re looking to appeal to swing voters, he tried to come into Iowa in a very crass maneuver. To a person, no one on the campaign thought that having Mr. Government Shutdown two weeks before the election was going to help anyone other than Ted Cruz. So we said no thanks.”
.. To some degree, the suggestion that Cruz is singularly off-putting is unfair. He does not have a reputation as a cold and abusive boss like some of his colleagues in the Capitol. Nor, as a candidate, is he prone to tantrums or divaesque demands (beyond not wanting a packed morning schedule).
Though Cruz is an infrequent and numbingly scripted interviewee, he is as polite to reporters one on one as he is contemptuous of them in his stump speech.
.. Trump’s schoolyard invective puts himself in a class of his own, of course. Christie and Kasich can be foul-tempered to subordinates, political colleagues and the public alike.