That last point has been true for a while, but it still seems strange to type.
Cruz needed to win the Republican primary in Indiana to even have a chance of winning the nomination, but he got slaughtered. The race was called by every major network as soon as polls closed and, with 60 percent of precincts reporting, he trails Trump by over 16 points.
Cruz’s speech showed that he had learned very little from this race, in which voters largely rejected his deeply conservative platform. Instead, Cruz spoke to the conservative movement itself, in largely apocalyptic language, emphasizing the ongoing war for the soul of America and threats from abroad, particularly terrorism. It was, for a concession, a speech full of stuff that would have been expected on the stump—the only difference is that Cruz was speaking in the past tense.
Cruz even ended on a triumphant note, saying he is suspending his campaign, but not suspending his various fights—to defend the Judo-Christian values that founded America, to defend the Constitution, etc. In many ways, though, this wasn’t a concession speech: This was a speech about how Ted Cruz will be back in 2020.