The first CNN Republican Debate Wednesday evening featured true discourse, with candidates Sen.
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But his best moments weren’t all singers: Graham also took his opponents and party to task for valuing celebrity and partisanship over governance. Santorum, who yelled most of his responses to questions, said Republicans should champion a minimum wage increase. Lindsey Graham, who was loose, funny, angry and unpredictable. Santorum: “We need to win fighting for Americans”.
The biggest winning tactic?
“This is an important election with an enormous number of challenges facing the American people and the first four questions are about Donald Trump”, Pataki, the former governor of New York, complained. Amusing and often pushing the other candidates on foreign policy, Graham had a solid outing even as he continued to return to worldwide policy.
“I just want to say, I’ve had seven kids”. It doesn’t matter, he says, “if you don’t win”. “If you’re not ready to do these things, than you’re not read to be commander in chief”. “We have one right now”. This time, amusing and sarcastic Graham showed up. “I would argue that what the Supreme Court did is against natural law [and] it’s against God’s law”.
It’s a major return to form for Graham.
Who won the “happy hour” debate?
“These are religious Nazis running wild, and President Obama has made one mistake after another and it has caught up to us”. “I’ve done my part”. We owned a liquor store, a restaurant, and a bar and we lived in the back.
As for the candidates left behind this time, well, at least we’ll have the memories. “Today I’m 60, I’m not married, I don’t have any kids”.
But thanks to “outsider” appeal that has resonated with voters far more than decades of public service the four candidates relegated to the early debates by low polling numbers and Donald Trump’s resilience in the GOP contest so far, Graham’s improved debate performance is unlikely to do anything for his struggling campaign.
Graham also trashed Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton in eyebrow-raising terms.
“Let’s stop treating Donald Trump like a Republican”, said Jindal, the governor of Louisiana, who has been particularly vocal in his criticism of the real estate mogul on the campaign trail.
In the first debate, Fiorina’s strong performance moved her to the main stage and while tonight might not be enough to propel Graham into the top 10, he did score some points with those who had dismissed him as a lightweight.
Graham’s mild-mannered approach on the topic Wednesday, however, wasn’t flawless.
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All that interest may not translate into votes. But following a brief bump in the polls, Kasich remains mired in the bottom third of the crowded Republican field.
