Ted Cruz is smarter than your typical presidential candidate.

While Cruz’s political rivals chase birth certificates and point to eligibility lawsuits from political operatives with no standing to even file suit in the first place, Cruz has quietly amassed an army of over 100,000 grassroots campaign volunteers from Guam to Greenwich, Connecticut making his ground game unique in this election cycle. He’s the only candidate running a deliberately positive America first and Constitution-centered campaign. His strategy of hitting back only in response to an attack while also sticking to the issues has proven to be both brilliant and highly successful.

Much like Jimmy Stewart’s character in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Cruz has enthusiastically embraced his role as the outsider from the inside of Washington. Much to the chagrin of the political pundits or the Wizards of Smart, who up until last week were saying he had no chance at the nomination, Cruz’s favorable numbers continue to rise.

This brings me to so-called “New York Values” kerfluffle. Finally thinking they’d vanquished the Ted Cruz Gollum, the consultant class, along with the oh-so-wise political pundits on social media and cable, all began to celebrate. Yes, they celebrated right up until Ted Cruz won the straw poll in New York! Once again, Ted Cruz forced the pundit Wizards of Smart to step on the notorious rake completely embarrassing themselves. They haven’t figured out the truth: Ted Cruz is a strategical master who doesn’t do a thing without first gaming out every possible scenario. Donald Trump and his flock of flying monkeys played right into Cruz’s four-move checkmate, and they never saw it coming.

Pouncing on the perceived “insult,” Trump immediately invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks to distort what Cruz said.

In fact, The New York Daily News obligingly proved Cruz’s point with the next day’s cover:

Anyone with an IQ above 30 knows precisely what Ted Cruz meant by “New York values.” They’re the values that elect a carpetbagger senator named Hillary Clinton; a self-avowed Communist Mayor Bill de Blasio, who sides with criminals over law enforcement; and a liberal governor, Andrew Cuomo, who believes the 2nd Amendment has something to do with deer hunting.

It’s now apparent Ted Cruz knew exactly how this would all play out from the jump, and he deftly moved his pieces into position. Trump overplayed his hand, and it’s driving his unfavorable numbers sky-high. Throughout it all, Cruz keeps himself calm, cool, and collected – poll numbers rising, ground game in place. Meanwhile, as Trump implodes on Twitter, Trump’s de facto spokesperson, Ann Coulter, is still out there shrieking about eligibility—and it’s delicious.

Folks, this presidential race was over before the first vote was even cast. The rest of the field simply doesn’t know it yet.

Checkmate.