1. Small Table Debate:
The small table debate, held first, was moderated by Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum and consisted of Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Jim Gilmore.
There is only one clear winner: Carly Fiorina. Period. The three others simply need to go away as rapidly as possible. I think that may be a self-fulfilling prophecy within, say, two weeks max. None of them are going to pull Iowa.
2. Main Debate:
In the second debate, Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly moderated, and the big table cast included Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Rand Paul and Jim Gilmore. Who?
As expected, Gilmore was entirely unimpressive. One must also question his sanity as, at this late stage, he somehow thinks he has a chance at becoming the GOP nominee for president.
Kasich was acidic and unlikeable. Carson was likeable but vastly over his pate. Paul is going nowhere. His fans are even more annoying than he is. All three need to go away.
Christie was the healing assembler he’s tended to be in the past. I could live with Christie. “The days of the Clintons in public housing are over.” “That is why you need the Washinton-to-English converter.”
The focus this time around revolved around the nascent sorting-out of Cruz and Rubio. Both made points. Both were confronted by Megyn Kelly with prior statements in conflict with their current positions. Both stammered and both came through. Conventional wisdom is that Rubio is ascending. I go along with that.
Jeb Bush did well overall; certainly better than previous debates. But Bush is still who he is, a squish. I will not put another Bush in the White House as I will never put another Clinton in the White House.
I am biased. I just like Cruz. He’s extremely smart and even pisses off Republicans because he is single-minded. Yes, Cruz got bopped, Cruz got testy, Cruz got booed. Cruz had his opportunity to shine more, but didn’t quite pull that off. Call me wacky. I am biased.
My top three descend in this order:
- Cruz
- Rubio
- Christie
Statistics from a current Drudge Report poll post-debate.
Cruz #2, Rubio #3.
Finally, did Trump leaving the debate affect the results? In terms of the debaters themselves, not so much. Ted Cruz got the insults out of the way early. However, for Fox News, they now state Thursday’s FNC debate was the second highest rated telecast in the channel’s history with 12.5 million viewers. Conventional wisdom said this wouldn’t occur. Though not present, the moderators and debaters still mentioned him. And people say the “entertainment” factor of Trump was missed.
But one thing most definitely: Trump would not have cared for the way Megyn Kelly would have gone after him, if her tenacity with Rubio and Cruz was any indicator. Megyn Kelly can indeed shred.
Did Trump pull off his tactic? In a word, yes. I don’t think he “lost” anything by not attending. But I still enjoyed the debate because it was substantial and topic-driven for the most part.
BZ
Trump did not lose a thing and clearly he is the front runner whether people like this or not. That said, I wish Richard Nixon was still around as I dislike all of those who are currently running. Nixon, while a bit on the loon side of reality, understood how to terrorize our enemies and make them piss themselves and then lick it up while saying thank you. He also had the decency to resign and step down. No one died directly from Watergate and the same canny be said about Benghazi nor now Malheur with the blatant murder of LaVoy Finicum. Lest I go off the rails here, I best stop and leave me words as such.
As to the debate, meh and was interesting and I would give a nod towards Cruz.
Trump won and didn’t even show up… But he DID raise $6M for Veterans in his absence.. #Trump2016…