Ted Cruz probably wishes Donald Trump had attended the debate last night.Because without Trump, all of the focus on Thursday night turned to Ted Cruz, who is in second place behind the billionaire real estate mogul.As seven Republicans took the stage for the official debate in Iowa last night, Trump held his own competing event. One would think that would especially benefit Ted Cruz, but he failed to deliver and the Des Moines Register declared that he had a  rough night. In other words, without Trump, Cruz took over the spotlight and everyone was able to witness him fall on his face as the other candidates and the moderators turned their attention on him because The Donald was not there to be a distraction. If that is what Trump planned for all along, his strategy to skip the debate was a masterstroke.Ted Cruz ended up being plastered on the front page of the Register on Friday morning with a headline that will be hard to swallow for the Cruz campaign, but the main story didn t go any better for the Texas Senator either. Without the dominant national front-runner in the room, the target was the candidate who inherited center stage for the night: Ted Cruz,  the front page read.  But the Texas U.S. senator largely forfeited this golden opportunity. Indeed, even Iowa Republican activists believe Cruz was the loser in this debate. Candidates and voters are not putting up with him tonight,  said Emily Grimm, a 22-year-old Republican activist from Des Moines.  I don t think there was a clear winner at this debate. But I think the clear loser was Cruz. Cruz always knows how to use standard Republican sound bites to garner applause. The moment he senses that he might be losing the crowd with policy, he just throws in a few grand words to gain applause,  said Grimm, a fiscal conservative who worked for Mark Jacobs  2014 U.S. Senate campaign.At one point in the debate, Cruz channeled Trump by complaining about the moderators like a toddler and threatened to leave the stage. If you guys ask one more mean question, I may have to leave the stage,  Cruz said.And that didn t go over very well at all.University of Iowa political science professor Tim Hagle said the attack  fell really flat. He seemed plastic and insincere,  said another Iowa Republican, according to Politico. His entanglement with the moderators was one of the worst moments for a candidate in any of the debates,  a New Hampshire Republican told Politico.And yet another Iowa Republican explained why Trump made a good move by sitting out while Cruz got hammered. Trump got exactly what he wanted. Nobody lays a glove on him, while the rest of the field beat each other up. Better yet, Trump got both former caucus winners to attend his event, and his main competitor, Ted Cruz, might have had his worst debate performance of the campaign. Ted Cruz clearly has his presidential aspirations tied to Iowa. Should he lose, he would be faced with overcoming Trump s 19-point lead in New Hampshire and his 16-point lead in South Carolina.Make no mistake, losing the last debate before Iowa votes is a disaster for Cruz and as previously stated, he probably wishes Trump had been present at the debate. Because if he had been, Cruz would not be the butt of embarrassing headlines today.Featured Image: Twitter