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If you did not see Ted Cruz address the Texas delegation at a breakfast meeting in Cleveland this morning, watch for excerpts to be replayed on cable news channels, and look for (hopefully) a video of the entire thing to be posted sometime soon.

He doubled-down and made it absolutely clear that the race remains personal to him, and that he does not support Donald Trump. Even some of the Texas delegates questioned him on, my words, taking a hammer to the wedge he's trying to drive into the Republican Party schism.

(Edited to add a link to a YouTube video of most of the Texas delegation breakfast address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA9H3HLB5H4. I won't embed it for playing here because we're trying to wind down this Topic. Click if you want to watch, but please let's not include new comments here in this Topic.)

Charles L. Cotton wrote:He didn't have to "endorse" him, he could have taken the Ronald Reagan approach. When Reagan lost to Gerald Ford, he stood on the podium with Ford at the convention and gave a great speech unifying the Party around the one candidate. Cruz should have done the same.

But he was invited to speak, and the campaign stood by that invitation. And it was not required that Trump campaign officials vet his speech. They let him take the podium without editing his text.

That says more to me, now, about Trump than it does about Ted.

Skiprr wrote:My expectation is that Cruz (also my vote in the primary) will focus on conservative values and precepts and on Constitutionalism. Plus 1.

I expect him to continue to highlight the abominable disaster that would be Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office. Nope; never mention Hillary by name. Minus 1.

He may call for Republican Party cohesion and solidarity, though I doubt he will do so in those words. Plus 1. He did not call for party cohesion and solidarity.

I do not expect him to ever actually state an endorsement of Donald Trump. Plus 1.

I have crows continually visiting my backyard if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

No crow dinner tonight for me. Net 2.

I think Cruz, much as I respect his ideals, did himself a disservice tonight. I hope he didn't completely shut-down his political aspirations tonight.

Interview with convention protester about two blocks away:

"So you're protesting because you think the Republicans are fascists?"

"Absolutely!"

"That Donald Trump would install a fascist government?"

"No question. It would destroy our country's principles and the Constitution."

"Do you know what fascism means?"

Dear-in-the-headlights...pause. "It's like a conservative ideology revolution or something."

"Actually, it means a radical authoritarian nationalism. Key word "authoritarian." Do you know that the Republican Party stands for smaller federal government and greater empowerment of the people and the individual states? That it stands strongly and strictly for the U.S. Constitution precisely so that no such authoritarianism can ever overtake our country?"

Blank look.

"And that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party stand for bigger federal government, more federal spending, more federal debt (which currently stands at 105% of the U.S. gross domestic product and would require $154,344 from every single household in the U.S. to pay off, even if it weren't increasing every day), more control over states' rights, and fewer individual rights under the Constitution?"

"That...that can't be right."

"Look it up, son. Do some research. If you're gonna protest, at least do your homework."

My expectation is that Cruz (also my vote in the primary) will focus on conservative values and precepts and on Constitutionalism. I expect him to continue to highlight the abominable disaster that would be Hillary Clinton in the Oval Office.

He may call for Republican Party cohesion and solidarity, though I doubt he will do so in those words. I do not expect him to ever actually state an endorsement of Donald Trump.

I have crows continually visiting my backyard if I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

NBC Nightly News opened with this line: "The Republican National Convention erupts into chaos."

Tagline at the bottom of the screen during the piece: "GOP Civil War Erupts at Convention."