So Who Won The Debate?

First of all, I’m assuming that most of my blog readers either watched the debate(s) or saw enough of the coverage and commentary about the debate(s) over the past week that I can forgo discussing in great detail who said what in response to the questions asked.  I don’t want to waste your valuable time repeating what you’ve already seen and/or heard.  I’d rather give you my (unbiased?) analysis.  So here goes.

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There’s been some criticism of FOX News, that the questions in both the first and the second debates were too negative – “when did you stop beating your wife” type questions.  I tend to agree with that criticism.  The questions sounded as if they had been prepared by a Democrat opposition research group and intended to embarrass each candidate before he or she even had the opportunity to address the question.  FOX’s response to such criticism is that if you think these were tough, wait until you have to face Vladimir Putin (or Hillary Clinton.)  My impression is that FOX News is so concerned that the mainstream press believes that FOX is in the tank for Republicans, that they overcompensated by being hyper aggressive and critical in their line of questioning.

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I do believe that the leadoff question at the main event debate, asking all ten candidates to raise their hand if they would NOT commit to support the ultimate Republican nominee, was entirely fair, and absolutely critical to know.  Donald Trump was the only one of the ten to raise his hand.
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In my opinion, this is the greatest threat to Republicans winning the White House this time around.  I am worried that Donald Trump could well be the Ross Perot of this campaign.  Back in 1992, Perot got 19% of the presidential vote as a third party candidate, most of those votes being siphoned from George H. W. Bush, and ensuring a Bill Clinton Presidency.  If Trump fails to win the Republican nomination, and runs as an independent, he won’t win the Presidency, but he’ll siphon enough Republican votes from the nominee to ensure another Clinton Presidency – this time Hillary.  And yes, I realize that many Republicans are disgruntled about Mitch McConnell, or John Boehner, or Jeb Bush, or John Kasich – but enough to risk a Hillary Clinton, or Bernie Sanders, or Joe Biden Presidency?  I certainly hope not.

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Okay, back to the debate.  In the, as Lindsey Graham called it, the Happy Hour Debate, virtually everyone (except perhaps the other six candidates) believed that Carly Fiorina hands down won the debate.  I agree with that perspective.  She was about as dominant in the debate as a participant can be.  She skewered Hillary with the statement that “Hillary Clinton lies about Benghazi, she lied about emails, she is still defending Planned Parenthood, and she is still her party’s frontrunner.”   She then turned her rapier on the current leading Republican candidate, when she said “Since Donald Trump has changed his mind on amnesty, on healthcare, and on abortion, I would just ask, what are the principles by which he will govern.”  Tough stuff.  But in both cases, I think fair.

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I thought all of the candidates in the early debate were quite good.  However, Carly was the one who truly shined, and therefore, I think will give her campaign a much needed (and deserved) boost.  None of the others hurt themselves, but I doubt any will get a significant bump as a result of this one debate.  That’s not to say one or more couldn’t shine in an upcoming debate.  Only time will tell.

As for the prime time debate, I felt that Marco Rubio’s was the best performance.  He was consistently thoughtful, articulate, and very convincing.  I particularly liked the way he suggested that a Hillary Clinton candidacy is about the past, and his candidacy is about the future.  That could be a very effective way to frame the general election campaign.

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I actually felt that all the prime time candidates did reasonably well, with Mike Huckabee, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich having particularly good nights.  Although Scott Walker hasn’t received the accolades of the political pundits for his debate performance, I thought he had one of the best lines of the night when he said “it’s sad to think that the Russian and Chinese governments know more about Hillary Clinton’s email server than do the Members of the United States Congress.”  Great line!

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And Dr. Ben Carson had the funniest line of the night, when he noted that as a neurosurgeon, he was the only one on the stage to “take out half of a brain, although you would think if you went to Washington that someone had beat me to it.”  It brought the house down.

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It’s important to note that there was great interest in the debate.  24 million Americans tuned in – which is the largest audience for a non-sport cable telecast in U.S. history.  Hopefully, this interest will translate into a lot of Republicans turning out to vote next year.  Although, to give the devil his due, Bernie Sanders has been pulling in huge crowds on the Democrat side too.  (That’s not to say that Bernie is a devil – just a socialist.)

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Anyway, that’s the way I see it.  Let me know what you think.

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