Friday on PBS’ “NewsHour,” while comparing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s wins in last Tuesday’s primaries with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) announcing Carly Fiorina as his choice for vice president, and his deal to target their resources in different states with his rival Gov. John Kasich (R-OH), New York Times columnist David Brooks said, “Cruz is collapsing and Trump is surging.”
Brooks said, “[I]t was a convincing win for Donald Trump, and if he doesn’t hit the majority number, he’s going to be close enough, so it’ll be super hard to deny. And one of the things we’ve seen in focus groups, among Republican voters, even those rank and file who support Cruz or Kasich, they don’t really like the idea that if Trump comes so close, that their man would be superseded over him. And so, there’s not much willpower among the Republicans, either at the elite, or the mass level, to deny Trump if he’s close, which it looks almost certain like he’s going to be close.”
He continued, “The second thing that’s happened is not only Trump is strong, but Cruz looks a lot weaker, and flailing about with Carly Fiorina, and the alleged Kasich deal, that looks like the acts of a drowning man. And, so, just in terms of the moral rigor, the motivation force, the morale, Cruz is collapsing and Trump is surging.”