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At first I thought the crowd was so thrilled by Sen. Ted Cruz’s rousing speech at the Republican National Convention that they were calling his name:

“Cruz! Cruz! Cru-u-u-u-u-uuuuuzzz…!!!”

But, no, the delegates, led by the hu-u-uge contingent from Donald Trump’s home state of New York, was booing.

Looking down — the best way for reporters to observe politicians, H.L. Mencken said — from the press gallery, I was jolted by the room’s sudden mood shift.

Cruz, a skilled orator who has argued before the Supreme Court, had been doing remarkably well. He blended conservative orthodoxy, Republican history and even a few applause-worthy lines of minority outreach — a sadly rare topic in the Party of Lincoln these days.

But the beef of his boo-birds was in what Cruz did not deliver: a full-throated endorsement of the Grand Old Party’s presidential nominee, Trump — even though he had taken the pledge to support the party’s nominee.

He didn’t deliver even a half-throated endorsement. He barely even mentioned Trump’s name.

Instead, Cruz filled the climax of his speech, the point at which an endorsement traditionally is inserted, by saying “vote for conservative values” and, more pointedly, “vote your conscience,” a slogan of the GOP establishment’s “Stop Trump” movement.

“What about Trump?” shouted a Pennsylvania delegate.

Cries of “Endorse Trump! Endorse Trump!” broke through the booing.

Adding to the commotion, nominee Trump himself chose that moment to enter with his family and a Secret Service entourage to take seats on the opposite side of the arena. Cheers in one part of the room mixed with boos in the rest as television cameras turned to focus on the Trumps — and miss the sight of Cruz getting booed off the stage — a sight Trump reported later with mock surprise in a tweet:

“Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn’t honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!”

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Balderdash. This was a huge deal, huge enough to make one wonder: Why did Trump approve Cruz’s speech in the first place?

This, after all, was Trump’s convention. He saw the speech ahead of time. He could have scratched Cruz instead of letting the Texas senator play skunk at the picnic — and add another negative note for us media workers to headline.

Maybe Trump expected Cruz’s non-endorsement to backfire, which it apparently did. But by how much? To some, Cruz had blown an opportunity to help unite a party that was divided on just about everything but the need to defeat presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

But to others, Cruz took a principled stand against a nominee who was an opportunist, a come-lately Republican and a paper conservative who deserved a good comeuppance.

Besides, Cruz pointed out, this was personal. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” he said at a news conference. He was not going to be “a servile puppy dog.” I told you he was a good orator.

The immediate reaction was a backlash against Cruz. He was barred from a post-speech reception by mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, according to various news reports.

And Thursday morning he was greeted with boos from upset fellow Texans at a breakfast for delegates from the Lone Star State.

Traditional politicians, regardless of party, find ways to work out disputes like this, perhaps with a bottle of the rival’s favorite beverage. Instead Cruz showed himself to be no less of a stubborn slugger than Trump.

There’s little doubt that Cruz hopes Trump will lose and leave a path for the Texan to resume his own White House quest. Cruz also is behaving like a man who expects Trump to not only lose but lose big. After all, a narrow loss will lead Republicans to blame Cruz. The bigger the loss, the more blame there is to spread around.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune Editorial Board, blogs at www.chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

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