Anti-Trump Realpolitik

Jonah Goldberg who writes for National Review says it's time for Republicans who don't relish a Trump nomination to coalesce around Ted Cruz. It's fun to read the "thinking aloud" process by which he talks himself into it.

Goldberg's key points, for me, are the following:

Pretty much everyone respects his intellect. Cruz is simply one of the smartest people in Washington.

Cruz has been the only candidate to effectively respond to Trump and is arguably the only one that many Trump supporters could live with as an alternative.

Cruz is ideologically and intellectually qualified to be president (and to pick Supreme Court nominees).

Obama claimed to be a constitutional scholar while actually teaching anti-discrimination and affirmative action law as adjunct faculty. Cruz has actually argued cases before the Supreme Court after clerking for its Chief Justice.

Not incidentally, Cruz would be less often an embarrassment as President. Am I a quibbler for wondering if Goldberg has reached this conclusion too late to do much good?