Douglas thanked his fellow nominee and co-star Matt Damon on stage, telling the audience at the at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles that he could not have done it without the man who played his on-screen lover Scott Thorson.
Cruz sought to tie Obama's record overseas to the likely Democratic nominee, who was seldom mentioned in the day's speeches.
Amid a steadily improving economy that has seen the highest pace of job creation in years, Republican attacks on Obama's handling of the country's finances were rarer than during the 2012 election campaign, when the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, styled himself as the candidate to turn around America's economic fate.
The younger Bush's move comes at a pivotal moment for the GOP, after the party's lack of success with Latino voters was cited as a primary cause for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's loss to President Barack Obama in Tuesday's general election.
On Wednesday, Barack Obama's nominee to head the Pentagon signalled his intention to push the US president in a more aggressive military direction for the remainder of his term.
The Democratic party establishment, however, is expected to unite behind Clinton as their presumptive nominee.
John McCain, the Arizona senator who was the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, said all parties should be willing to sit down and negotiate.
"Let me say this: if elected president, I will have a litmus test in terms of my nominee to be a supreme court justice.
Conservative commentator Charles Krauthammer told Fox News: "Gingrich had a terrible night … If he can't win Alabama or Mississippi, where can he win?" But Gingrich's campaign team said the strategy is to deny Romney the 1,144 delegates to the party convention he needs to become the nominee and force him to make a deal with Santorum, Gingrich and Ron Paul, who have all picked up delegates.
"I was excited just to maybe be invited along to the event and see some of the stars, but the fact they've put us up there as a nominee, alongside the boxing and the football and the motor sport and the golf, I was like, wow.
Kasich, who was frequently talked about as a presidential nominee last year but then faded from view, almost pleaded with Republicans in Nashua not to forget him.
