Jindal’s response was that “records matter”, dinging Christie for expanding food stamps and accepting Medicaid expansion with funding from the Affordable Care Act.
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I’ll be back to assess the main debate in a couple of hours. In the early event are Chris Christie, Bobby Jindal, Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. Lindsey Graham of SC and former Gov. George Pataki of NY.
In previous undercard debates, the presence of Sen. Actually, Christie has received solid marks at pretty much every debate; the only unpopular debate blip he’s really had is his push to strongly enforce the federal ban on marijuana. “We don’t make the rules, just play by them”. He said Christie’s team “anticipated” attacks from a “desperate” Jindal. “The feds should be audited, and the feds should stop playing politics with our money supply”.
“We’re Not Whiners, Or Moaners, Or Complainers In The Christie Campaign”, read the subject line of one email blast from his campaign. He also says he would abolish the Internal Revenue Service. And he blasted Christie, who had been the dominant figure in the debate’s first half, saying he did too little to cut state spending. “I don’t”, he laughs. “And obviously, Bobby wants to spend a lot of time tonight talking about that”, Christie countered. Christie used the question to declare that all Democrats are “not standing behind our police officers”, while Santorum threw out a non sequitur about highway funding. “Because mom will lose welfare benefits”, he said.
Santorum tried jumping in on the fray. Jeff Angelo of Ames, a veteran broadcaster and communications industry manager, said he viewed the preliminary debate as a tie between Christie and Jindal.
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The debate, which was hosted by Fox Business and the Wall Street Journal, focused on economic issues, giving all four candidates opportunities to highlight their conservative agendas to shrink government and lower taxes. Christie has improved his favorability numbers among Republican primary voters, and a video of Christie giving an emotional appeal for society to take better care of drug addicts has received almost 8 million views on Facebook. “If you think that Mike Huckabee won’t be a president who will cut spending, or Chris Christie or John Kasich, wait until you see what Hillary Clinton will do to this country and how she will drive us into debt”. But he sees it as crucial to protecting manufacturing jobs. “We need a real conservative in Washington”, Jindal said. “I’m running against Hillary”. Ted Cruz (Texas) – though not by name – as all talk and no action. “Nothing changes, when they go to relieve themselves, their calls and the toilets get flushed at the same time and the American people lose”. “You paid for it and you shouldn’t have to pay the penalty because the government screwed it up”. “We’ve incentivized people not to marry, we incentivized people to co-habitate, not marry”. He told the story of a woman in New Hampshire who told him how she’s always anxious. The answer, he says, isn’t more government.
