The best thing Ted Cruz has going for him in the presidential campaign is that Donald Trump personally threatened to “spill the beans”  about Cruz’s wife and then doubled down by posting an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz juxtaposed with a glamour shot of Melania Trump.  (This from a guy who has been photographed looking like this, and this, and this,  and this).

These unfair attacks by Trump allowed Cruz to pull out the time-honored politician’s ploy of standing up for his woman (as if she cannot defend herself) while simultaneously declaring her to be strong and “way out of [Trump’s] league.”

This played out so well for Cruz that he has told aides, “I’m really hoping he goes after my mother next.”  In an effort to bait Trump into doing so, Cruz surrounded himself onstage at a recent campaign event in Wisconsin with the women in his family — his wife, daughters, and mother.  Who trots out his mother in the middle of a campaign (unless she’s a former first lady), except as part of a grand strategy?

As a connoisseur of pop culture, perhaps Cruz had Paul McCartney’s “Teddy Boy”  running through his head as a campaign strategy:

“‘Teddy don’t worry, now mummy is here,
Taking good care of you.
Teddy don’t worry, your mummy is here,
Mummy’s gonna see you through.’
. . .
“This is the story of a boy named Ted,
If his mother said, ‘Ted, be good.’
He would.”

Cruz admitted that he has been practicing his righteous indignation in case Trump rose to the bait and attacked his mother.

“How’s this?” he asked his campaign manager.  “I look hurt and angry at the same time, and I say with mock outrage, ‘Donald, you lay off my mother, you sonofabitch!'”

“You realize that you would be insulting Trump’s mother right back, if you said that, right?”

“How so?”

“Well, calling his mother a bitch is pretty insulting, isn’t it?”

“Oh, yeah.  But I doubt  that anybody would focus on that.”

“I do like the “lay off my mother” part, though.  That will remind people of Mitt “The Layoff King” Romney and will evoke his strong denunciation of Trump.”

So, after much strategizing and careful calculation, the clever trap was laid.  Much to Cruz’s chagrin, however, Trump did not fall for it.  When asked what he thought of Cruz’s mom’s appearance with him, Trump said, “I’m sure Ted Cruz’s mother is very nice,” he said.  Then he paused, before slyly adding, “As are most Canadians!”