A couple of words on a couple of posts, below. I have a bias where Ted Cruz is concerned — as a friend and helper of his — but I must say I find his stance on ethanol, in Iowa, downright noble.

There’s a reason that Governor Branstad has singled out Ted, and no other candidate, as a man who should be unacceptable to Iowans: Ted has taken a principled conservative stance on subsidies.

At the debate in Des Moines the other night, a moderator, Chris Wallace, made sure to highlight Branstad. He called him “the popular governor of Iowa” who, moreover, “is in the hall tonight.” The cameras showed Branstad. There was big applause for him. Then Wallace asked Cruz why Iowa voters should “side with you over the six-term governor of the state.”

I thought Ted answered logically, compassionately, bravely, persuasively, and, again, downright nobly.

Today in Iowa, he’s getting hammered on ethanol. And also on birtherism, or by birtherism: the charge that he is ineligible to run for president on account of his mother’s presence in Canada. (Can’t you tell Ted is Canadian? He is so self-effacing and modulated.)

If you can know a man by the attacks on him, these attacks are pretty complimentary.

And let me give you a little campaign rhetoric, on the subject of ethanol: If you can’t stand up to the special interests in Iowa — or Florida or any other individual state — how in the world are you going to stand up to special interests in Washington?

In the U.K., David Cameron calls the Conservative party the trade union for the British people. (In his view, and mine, Labour is controlled to a large extent by trade unions.) Who will regard America at large as a “special interest”? Cruz is such a politician, I think.

And now to Donald Trump — who says that Ted doesn’t have a heart. Which is interesting: from a man who physically mocks the handicapped. Ted would rather pray with them, and for them.

(I’m still doing campaign rhetoric, I see.)

The man with the heart, Trump, brags about the women he has banged. Married women. The man with the heart denigrates the looks of a female opponent, Carly Fiorina. The man with the heart says vile things about a woman he was apparently unable to date, Megyn Kelly.

The man with the heart plows over the homes of little old ladies to make room for the parking lots of his casinos.

(More campaign rhetoric — though quite true.)

The man with the heart likens Dr. Ben Carson to a child molester. (Carson, by the way, really does have a heart.) The man with the heart is utterly blasé about Vladimir Putin’s victims. Actually, the man with the heart doesn’t even acknowledge that Putin has victims. Does the man with the heart have a brain, or a conscience?

I could go on for pages, but will stop at this: During the Vietnam War, Trump took several student deferments. Which is fine. But, decades later, he slammed the Vietnam record of … John McCain. Because the aviator had the temerity to get shot down on his 23rd bombing mission over North Vietnam.

Then, of course, McCain endured five and a half years of torture. I don’t think Trump could have endured five and a half minutes. I’m not sure I would have held out till three minutes.

As a youth, Trump was sent to a military academy. So, “I always felt that I was in the military,” he has said. Uh-huh. Tell it to McCain.

Politics is sort of funny. The Right hates Mitt Romney, or some of it does. The Right loves Donald Trump, or some of it does. In the 2012 cycle, Governor Perry of Texas slammed Romney for opposing the Texas DREAM Act. “I don’t think you have a heart,” said Perry.

Man, did the Right hate that. What will the Trump-supporting Right say about their man now? Nothing bad, you can bank on that. What do they say about Trump’s brags that he can “reach across the aisle,” unlike Cruz? Usually they hate talk about reaching across the aisle and making deals.

Trump himself said that he could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone, and his supporters wouldn’t waver. True? Probably.

P.S. I’ll say what I’ve said a million times: Maybe the thing I most dislike, and resent, about the 2016 election is that it has made me anti-Trump. I am not naturally that. I’ve always defended him, and liked him. Warts and all. It’s just that the presidency is … something else. And, again, as I indicated up top, I have a bias. (And I know that Trump has a heart. And that Ted does.)