Sen. Rand Paul is a unique player, the anti-Trump, and his passionate, articulate defense of constitutionalism earned him at least one more round of looks from the anti-big government purists of the tea party movement that elected him.
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Struggling former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush found his footing in trying to discredit Trump’s qualifications for the White House, chiding the brash billionaire for trying to “insult your way to the presidency”. Instead, the candidates went after one another: Jeb Bush went after Donald Trump, Ted Cruz tangled with Marco Rubio, Chris Christie tried to take on all of the above. Front-runner Donald Trump stood firmly behind his provocative call for banning Muslims from the United States, saying, “We are not talking about religion, we are talking about security”.
So why does Trump get his own winners/losers category? It took five debates, but Bush finally delivered the performance his supporters have waited for, full of gusto and gravitas. It was the first debate to use early-state polls as a way for candidates to qualify for the main stage.
On MSNBC’s “Morning Joe”, Bush tore into Trump’s plan to ban on Muslims from entering the United States. Democrats have shown some of the same weaknesses in their debates.
Tuesday night’s undercard debate may be even less consequential than usual, since the two politicians whose battles defined the last undercard – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal – will be absent this time. Christie on Cruz and Rubio.
“That’s not what we’re going to do”, he said.
The prime time Republican presidential debate is underway and the nine candidates are giving opening statements. Rubio was a co-author of comprehensive Senate legislation in 2013 that would have created that pathway, but he has since said the nation’s immigration crisis must be addressed in piecemeal fashion, with legalization only an option after the U.S.-Mexico border is secured. His opponents say the retired neurosurgeon is not qualified to deal with foreign policy issues but he handled those questions well Tuesday night.
It was Paul who argued most vociferously against regime change in foreign countries, noting the chaos, uncertainty and bad consequences that so often results from American efforts to remake political maps. Will it be enough to revive his campaign?
“He’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president”.
Most of the candidates agree on who is to blame, other than the extremists.
So that’s where we sit at the end of debate week. When you are letting people in, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation can’t vet them, it puts American citizens at risk. Doesn’t mean they don’t have good ideas or can’t play a role in the future but it’s time to go so the GOP field can be narrowed.
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Carly Fiorina says all of the country’s problems and wounds can be healed by a tested leader such as herself, citing her experiences beating breast cancer, burying a child and climbing the corporate ranks to eventually become CEO of Hewlett-Packard. The debate lasted too long and a lot of what was discussed will be unhelpful for the party in a general election. He was vintage Christie, staring into the camera and emphasizing his D.C. outsider status. Before this year, the previous high for a Republican primary debate was ABC’s telecast on December 10, 2011, scoring 7.6 million viewers according to Nielsen. Perhaps Trump’s poll numbers will rise after this debate.
