So far, I’m liking a lot of what I’m hearing from Cruz, Walker, Kasich, Rubio. Of those, Rubio and Cruz are on message and nailing it.
Jeb is doing OK but not as well as the ones that I mentioned above.
Carson is a little bla and slow in his responses.
Trump is not doing very well. He comes across as having poor command of the issues and poor self control.
Christie and Paul got into a heated exchange over the NSA…neither came out looking very good.
I tried finding it on a channel up here in the liberalland of Seattle. Couldn’t find it on TV.
Fox News
I vote Megyn Kelly for POTUS.
This feels like a bar fight but with sober patrons.
With that said, this is one of the best fields we’ve had in a long time, including with Christy. I think Trump will take a hit after tonight. Trump’s response have not been stellar, or really polished.
Cruz, Rubio, Bush, and even Huckabee has had awesome responses. Walker seems to bring up thecrear, which is unfortunate considering his early polling before Trump jumped in.
Of the Tea party candidates: Cruz=Walker>Paul
Of the moderates: Rubio>Huckabee>Kasich>Bush=Christie
Of the non-politicians: Carson>>Trump
Trump had a bad night and came off as an ass and with poor control of the issues. Carly Fiorina did one hell of a job at 5 pm and should replace Trump as the business candidate.
Odd I thought Trump won, he was attacked all night and counter punched well.
I agree with you on your assessment. Paul, though, came off more like Trump than Trump.
Carly needs to replace Carson or Christy.
The questions tonight we’re just fantastic. Too bad the Democrat debates won’t get them.
He did counter well, (I wouldn’t expect him to get a Christmas card from Kelly), but his tone was on par to a junk yard dog to his owner. I agree with him that we need to stop being political correct, but save that for the general election.
Carson picked it up towards the end. I suspect that he will hold steady in the polls or maybe gain some of Trump’s lost ground.
I think that either Christie or Paul will drop off the next debate stage and be replaced by Fiorina. Both of those guys were damaged by their exchange. Paul was perhaps damaged a little less than Christie. However, Paul has other issues with is close campaign associates getting indicted yesterday - that doesn’t look good.
The winners were Cruz, Rubio, and maybe Huckabee or Carson.
The big loser was the combover.
I don;t mean this to sound like anything other than simply the question… did you watch the debate or listen to the debate? I had to listen to it on radio. I was not totally focused. I had other things I was doing… but I couldn’t actually watch it.
I remember Trump for sure and he was harsh but I can’t say it hasn’t come to my mind to feel the same way.
Bush seemed like a Bush… or a Clinton… or a Gore, or an Obama
Christie seemed like a little girl… which is really bizarre considering his visual size.
Carson seemed like the older knowledgeable guy but let’s not do what he says. The adult in a room of teenagers… not that’s he’s right, but he’s got a solid point.
I have ZERO recollection of any of the others. I know they talked, no idea what they said or what impression they presented. They were no more than a babbling void.
Watched it.
I agree with most of this, but I think Paul came out pretty good. The conservative base of the GOP does NOT want to hear that the 4th Amendment can be ignored whenever the government deems it necessary, or that everyone needs to be treated as a suspect for the sake of national security. He also knows that his dad’s fan club has pretty much sat out the last two elections and is probably doing what he can to get them at least a little bit excited.
As much as I like Walker’s positions, I don’t think he did a good job of answering any of the questions very directly.
Carson seemed to be the most genuine of the bunch. However, as much as I would like to see someone other than a career politician, a candidate needs to show that he at least has some working knowledge of how the government works (or rather, doesn’t). He answered everything very vaguely, didn’t put forth any real feasible ideas, and threw out buzz phrases like “make America great again” and such.
Trump, predictably, came out with what he had, which was pretty much his attitude and not much else. A lot of blustery bullshit with little substance other than his Gordon Gekko-esque rants about America being a second rate power. I will say, I like his anti-PC crusade and his go F yourself attitude to the left; it is needed, and I’m sick of people being afraid of the Thought Police. I also liked that he admitted that he has changed his mind on things. I f@&#ing HATE when politicians claim they’ve never changed their mind when records clearly show that they did. There should be nothing wrong with admitting that you’re now older and wiser. I’d support him if not for one thing: He’s Donald Trump. 'Nuff said.
Christie and Jeb solidified their position in my “Oh please God no” category. Both just told every side of the spectrum just what they wanted to hear.
I think of all the candidates, Rubio and Cruz had the best balance of explaining their positions, being uncompromising to the leftist bullshit, and actually sounding like they know what they’re talking about. I hope to see Cruz jump up in the polls. But my prediction is that Trump will score the highest in the polls for the time being, if not for any reason other than the public’s morbid curiosity.
Honestly, I think if you are for Paul you probably feel Paul won or at least did “ok.”
If you are for Cruz you probably feel Cruz won or at least did “ok.”
If you are for Walker you probably feel Walker won or at least did “ok.”
Debates today aren’t really debates. They are popularity contests to see who can provide the best “sound bite” and “snappy comeback.”
Once upon a long time ago, debates were about who had the best PLAN to FIX the most significant problems of the day. There was a general consensus about what problems were most important and candidates debated which solution would be the most effective.
Today debates aren’t about the the most significant problems we are facing aka “issues” (boring) and they certainly aren’t about solutions aka “addressing the issues” (more boring). Debates today are about who can say the things that will earn them the greatest broad support (bunch of morons at home yelling “THAT’S RIGHT DAMMIT !!!” at their TV sets). This includes espousing pointless platitudes such as “hope, change, sunshine, fair, etc.” and impossible solutions to to the few issues they are willing to address like “Windmill technology will create jobs…thus ending unemployment…which will fix the economy…and give us unlimited clean and free energy…which will allow us to end our dependence upon fossil fuels…which will end funding of hostile OPEC countries.”
So in conclusion…windmill cars for everyone. It could work, we won’t know unless we try.
Although I think the size of the debate and format really makes it hard to declare a winner of the debate especially since it really wasn’t a debate. That said, I do think some candidates performed better than expectations, some largely met expectations, and some performed lower than expectations. The following is how I would rate the candidates out.
Performed better than expectations:
Carson: For someone who has zero political experience, I though Carson did extremely well
Walker: Did very well and felt comfortable that he could govern from day one
Rubio: Have to admit wasn’t the biggest Rubio fan, but he was on point, prepared, and acted Presidential
Average range
Higher end of Average:
Kasich: Didn’t know much about Kasich going into the debate but felt he performed well
Cruz: I like Cruz and although he is close to the first tier performance wise, I simply didn’t think he was in the top 3
Lower end of Average
Paul: Again I like many of the things Rand Paul represents but performance wise had an average debate
Huckabee: Huckabee is sharp but I think his ship has already sailed
Bottom tier performance:
Trump: I like Trump’s aggressiveness and straight talk but he does need to get much stronger on policy issues and I thought he handled the first question in the debate poorly. That said I think Trump still has the ability to go the distance if he gets smarter on policy specifics and dials down his ego a little
Christie: Not a big fan of Christie and he did nothing in the debate to change my mind
Bush: Every time I see Jeb I think that if he wasn’t born a Bush he would have probably been a fine postmaster, tax lawyer, or auditor. He is simply not that compelling as a leader.
Quite frankly I was disappointed in the debate. I had a meeting so asked the wife to dvr it and just got done watching it.
I was disappointed because very few of the questions were actually answered, instead we got sound bites. Next debate should have a panel of three judges, each with a red and a green light. Each question starts with all three green lights on, when the judge feels the candidates statements are not responsive to the question they flip their light to red. When there are two red lights the candidates mic is cut and we move to the next guy.
Aside from that, in terms of likeability - in order - Carson, Kasich, Rubio; I just flat don’t care for either Cruz or Walker, just something about them. Trump is a buffoon, he needs to fire his makeup guy and hairstylist, based on his answers if he had served in the military, he wouldn’t have had high enough scores to be a unit diary clerk, much less the President.
Christie eliminated himself from my radar with his vehement defense of the NSA. Huckabee has never been on my radar this cycle.
As I mentioned, none were particularly responsive to the questions asked. If I had to vote based simply on this debate it would be Rubio, Kasich, Carson, Paul, Bush. For some reason I think there is a lot more to Carson than was apparent during the debate - he seemed deliberate and soft spoken and I think it probably requires more base intellect and analytical ability to be a brain surgeon than it does to take your daddy’s 1/4 billion and turn it into a fortune, going bankrupt 4 times in the process. Just saying.
I think the debate would have been better if they had set the stage up like The Hollywood Squares.
I’d salute her.
If you know what I mean.
I’m going with Paul Lynde for Foreign Policy.
I’m going back to my original pick of Cruz and Rubio.
I was expecting Christie to shine but he did not.
Bush did nothing for me.
Trump blew it but seems to do better with one on one interviews.
Huckabee shined and I didn’t expect it.
Carson ended with a bang.
Fieorina should get bumped up.