Regardless of the wisdom of his decision, Cruz had the right to say what he did, because: (1) Trump attacked his family in a disgusting way during the campaign; (2) the convention is for all Republicans, not just Trump supporters; and (3) Trump saw his speech in advance.
I’ve seen too much of Cruz to think that he is capable of doing anything based solely on principle. He is clearly expecting (and hoping) that Trump will not just lose, but lose by a catastrophic margin, and that he will be able to pin some of the blame for the disaster on Trump’s enablers (e.g., Rubio; Walker) in 2020.
That said, it would have been easy for him to make a pitch for his views while tepidly endorsing Trump, but he had the nerve to force a confrontation, instead. I have to admit that I’m a bit more impressed with the guy than I was at this time yesterday, but I think that his gamble will ultimately fail, because he will never regain the trust of the Trump wing of the party.
The Mike Pence speech was an island of superego in a vast sea of id. His bland competence would have fit well in 2012. Here, it sounded downright weird.
Pence tried to convince us that Trump is a standard fare Republican with a few rough edges. He isn’t, as evidenced by his interview with the NYT today.
Pence predictably framed the ultimate issue in the campaign as whether we want a third Obama term, or change. I would reframe it by asking whether we would prefer chaos to a current condition of relative peace and prosperity.