Ted Cruz and John Kasich join forces and agree to intentionally forfeit some remaining states in effort to sabotage nationwide votes of Silent Majority and their choice, Donald Trump. Though it may be too late-Politico (In 2013 Jeffrey Lord predicted GOP Establishment would sabotage its leading 2016 candidate. 'This is what they do.')

Cruz cedes Oregon and New Mexico to Kasich who cedes Indiana to Cruz.
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Nov. 2013 prediction: In 2016 GOP Establishment will sabotage its nominee, in this case its leading candidate and presumptive nominee:
  
11/8/2013, “The Sabotage Republicans,” by Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator

"The GOP Establishment will find a way-quietly or not so quietly-to sabotage the conservative nominee if there is a conservative nominee in 2016. This is what they do."...
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4/24/16, "Cruz and Kasich team up to stop Trump," Politco, Katie Glueck, Kyle Cheney

"Ted Cruz and John Kasich have begun coordinating their campaign strategy to stop Donald Trump, an abrupt alliance announced Sunday night that includes Kasich quitting his efforts in Indiana and Cruz clearing a path for the Ohio governor in Oregon and New Mexico.

“To ensure that we nominate a Republican who can unify the Republican Party and win in November, our campaign will focus its time and resources in Indiana and in turn clear the path for Gov. Kasich to compete in Oregon and New Mexico, and we would hope that allies of both campaigns would follow our lead,” Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said in a statement.

Trump fired back late Sunday on Twitter, writing, "Wow, just announced that Lyin' Ted and Kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the Republican nomination. DESPERATION!"

The new Cruz-Kasich pact is an acknowledgment that neither man can overtake Trump in the race, and both know their best shot at preventing Trump from clinching the nomination outright is to team up to block his path and force a contested convention. And it may still be too late: Trump is closing in on the number of delegates he needs to win the nomination.

The deal also highlights the urgency the anti-Trump forces feel in Indiana, where a strong Cruz performance in the May 3 primary could deny the Manhattan billionaire 57 of the delegates he needs to reach a majority before the Republican National Convention in July. For now, Trump leads in the RealClearPolitics average of Indiana polls by 6.3 percentage points. Cruz is competing hard, however, and supportive super PACs had plans to spend more than $1 million there in an ad buy that included an anti-Kasich spot.

The move allows Kasich to focus on two smaller-market states where his limited campaign cash might be more impactful than it will be in Indiana. Kasich ended March with barely more than $1 million on hand.

But it puts Indiana's handful of pro-Kasich delegates in an awkward spot: defending a decision to back a candidate that is intentionally forfeiting their state. Kasich's field offices in Indiana are expected to shutter this week, and he canceled his remaning events there.

Tom John, one of those pro-Kasich delegates and a local GOP leader in Indiana, said he has no qualms supporting Kasich at a contested convention despite the strategy shift. "This strikes me as a choice made based on the limited campaign time and so it made sense for both campaigns to do this," he said. "Who I support is still about the best Republican option for the fall election."

Previously, the Cruz campaign had largely refused to acknowledge the Ohio governor’s presence in the race except to dismiss him as a spoiler, and had insisted that only a two-man race between Cruz and Trump would halt the real estate mogul’s momentum.

“Who?” Roe replied last week, when asked by reporters about Kasich.

The Cruz campaign had also previously planned to compete in those states, especially in New Mexico, with a memo from the campaign last month saying data showed that Cruz could win a majority of that state’s delegates.

Also Sunday, Kasich chief strategist John Weaver announced, “we will shift our campaign’s resources West and give the Cruz campaign a clear path in Indiana.”

“In turn, we will focus our time and resources in New Mexico and Oregon, both areas that are structurally similar to the Northeast politically, where Gov. Kasich is performing well,” Weaver wrote.” 

We would expect independent third-party groups to do the same and honor the commitments made by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns.”

Cruz is well ahead of Kasich in the delegate count, but both currently lag well behind Trump, and have acknowledged that at this point, their best shot at beating him would come at a contested convention.

“Our goal is to have an open convention in Cleveland, where we are confident a candidate capable of uniting the party and winning in November will emerge as the nominee,” Weaver said in the statement."

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Added:

11/8/2013, “The Sabotage Republicans,” by Jeffrey Lord, American Spectator
 
"Up until now (Nov. 2013) not much has been made of the long, disgraceful trait of Establishment Republicans to demand party unity-unless they lose a primary or a convention. In which case they simply refuse to unite behind the winning conservative. And deliberately, with malice aforethought-actively seek to sabotage that conservative....
 
The GOP Establishment will find a way — quietly or not so quietly — to sabotage the conservative nominee if there is a conservative nominee in 2016. This is what they do....

The Republican Party has two serious problems on its hands.

The first is with those like Eric Cantor’s ex-chief of staff who are invited into leadership positions in the party — when they in fact are not conservatives at all and quietly or openly seek to sabotage the party.

The second is with those Establishment Republicans who do manage to win — and then see their job as merely managing the leftist status quo. 

This time around the target was Ken Cuccinelli. But Ken Cuccinelli wasn’t the first — and he isn’t going to be the last.

That is the Republican Party’s real problem. And it’s a big one."


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Comment: The term "conservative" has been co-opted to the point that it's meaningless. The "America first candidate" more accurately describes what voters want, what the country needs, and what the donor class is determined to defeat.




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