I’m the only guy on the entire worldwide web that sees Ted Cruz like a champion Ethiopian Middle Distance Runner. I mean that analogy as a form of sincere flattery. I get the positive sense that [mc_name name=’Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’C001098′ ] is playing chess while his counterparts play a heated, emotional game of Parcheesi. All the media seems to love or hate Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump. Ted Cruz stockpiles money, maintains a positive outlook and keeps up the pace.

He sits in 4th early in the race. He tracks with bemused unconcern while Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Bernie Sanders and the rest “matter” for a period of time. He works his fundraising and makes his contacts the way an Ethiopian Middle Distance Champion takes three or four measured laps. He nails his stride count per quarter mile and keeps himself in contact while the front-runners tire and grow tedious. Then when this cycle’s Howard Deans give their respective “I Have a Scream” speeches, he overtakes them one-by-one in route to ultimate victory. And after his resplendently brilliant end game, nobody cares what the polls were in September 2015.

He’s run the first part of the race well, but now he needs the end game. This will have to consist of a message that acknowledges the concerns found outside the DC bubble. People will want to know how he intends to devolve Federal power out of DC. A recent poll indicated that 75% of the American People believed our government to be corrupt. That used to be an unspoken wind at the back of GOP candidates. Similar numbers existed throughout 2013 and 2014 when the issue was polled.

The conundrum outside candidates like Donald Trump and Ben Carson pose is that they create a scenario where career GOP politicians get lumped in with the corrupt set. Ted Cruz has figured that out and distanced himself from the leaders of the GOP Senate. He needs to stand a few meters clear of the grenades being chucked at the GOP-e crowd until they have been too bloodied to win.

When the GOP-e stalking horses such as Jeb and John Kasich run out of ammo, and the others (see Scott Walker, Chris Christie) run out of shelf life, those consumed by a fear and loathing of outsider candidates will have to go with the Devil that at least knows what the US Senate is. He then becomes the last “acceptable” candidate left standing, and the whole political apparatus swings his direction.

Cruz can cement this alliance right before Iowa and New Hampshire by reaching out to Governor Bobby Jindal and letting him know that whenever he decides to accept that he won’t be the nominee, Mr. Cruz would highly value both his endorsement and his advice. Cruz is then the voice of rapprochement between a grumbling, reluctant GOP-e and an offended and recalcitrant base. If Cruz pulls this off, he can blitz through the early primary calendar, all but wrap things up by the end of Super Tuesday and then probably enter Convention Season a good ten points clear of Hillary Clinton. Pay your humble respects to President Ted Cruz.