Cruz Outshines Trump on the Trail

CONCORD, N.H. -- Donald Trump says Ted Cruz is a "nasty guy." The Texan's Senate colleagues agree. Yet here's the surprise from watching Cruz on the campaign trail: Ideology aside, he comes off as ... rather likable.

To watch Trump and Cruz campaign here is to witness the difference between a reality TV performer and a disciplined politician. With apologies to the artists, Trump is Jackson Pollock to Cruz's Rembrandt. One splatters paint with no coherent pattern, the other dabs with evident skill, albeit in notably dark tones.

Trump's riff of a stump speech is all poll numbers (terrific) and crowd sizes (record), interspersed with millimeter-deep detours into policy. Common Core is terrible; the border wall will be great; he knows how to negotiate trade deals.

At one point at Concord High School on Monday, Trump paused when interrupted by a loud, high-pitched yelp. "What was that, was that a dog?" he asked. "Hillary," an audience member shouted.

A more experienced politician -- a more politically correct one, Trump would say -- would have known to stand down. Not Trump. "Uh oh, it's Hillary," Trump repeated, laughing and smiling. "Aaah," shaking his head, "only in New Hampshire, huh?"

Still, Trump being Trump, he couldn't let it rest. "First, it was a screechy dog, then it was a very serious dog, right?" he said. "Anyway that's all right. Take good care of your dogs."

I'm not sure exactly what Trump meant -- he probably didn't know what he meant, except that to realize, belatedly, that he ought to back himself out of this line of non-thought, pronto. But there was nothing funny about the supporter's shout, and nothing acceptable about Trump's laugh-along response.

Cruz on the campaign trail has a set piece, a strict sonnet compared to Trumpian free verse. In New Hampshire, it begins with a well-placed geographic pander, one that also happens to involve Clinton.

"For the record, Tom Brady was framed," he says, to inevitable cheers about the Patriots quarterback. "I'm not willing to pander on much" -- laughter -- "but on that, Tom Brady was framed, and I have it on good authority that Hillary Clinton was responsible." More cheers. "Why else do you think she destroyed her emails?" This is not actually funny, but for New Hampshire Republicans, it amounts to a double-stuffed serving of red meat.

I knew before seeing Cruz on the stump that he is smart, dangerously so from my ideological perspective. I knew from watching him operate in Washington that he is ruthlessly ambitious. Seeing him in action, it's clear he's adept at retail politics as well.

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