It’s conventional wisdom that the rise of Trump is hurting Ted Cruz. And there’s something to that. But Cruz probably believes that Trump is only borrowing his voters — i.e., when Trump loses altitude that many of his supporters will come his way. These things are always neater on paper than they are in real life — erstwhile Trump supporters could scatter in a number of directions — but certainly Cruz would be a big beneficiary, and he’s done everything he can to ensure the goodwill of Trump supporters. If Trump doesn’t lose altitude and is still as strong, say, in January as he is now, then it will begin to look more like stealing Cruz voters rather than merely borrowing them. But here’s the thing: If Trump is anywhere near this strong that late, the establishment will then be truly freaked out and will be pulling out the stops to kill Trump. So, conceivably, the establishment could do Cruz’s dirty work for him. Either way, Cruz can do what he’s doing now — wait it out and kowtow to Trump as necessary, confident that he’s playing the long game.