In the first Republican debate, Donald Trump was able to command the conversation through his unorthodox style that many candidates didn’t know how to respond to, but on Wednesday night, as the debate turned to more substance, the billionaire provocateur seemed lost.
Carly Fiorina had another strong performance, nailing answer after answer — on foreign policy, abortion, and her own business record. She had a strong rejoinder to Trump’s comments about her face, forcing Trump to back down on attacks for the first time, calling her “beautiful.” She moved into the top tier of candidates after this performance.
Trump, who is number one in the Washington Examiner’s presidential power rankings, displayed his cluelessness on foreign policy, seeming to not know what the Syrian red line referred to. He came off like yesterday’s news, desperately trying to regurgitate lines from his announcement speech from June about the criminal element among Mexican immigrants.
His lack of knowledge was a sharp contrast to Sen. Marco Rubio, who demonstrated a clear understanding of the issues and he continues to hold steady, putting him in position if voters move away from the non-office holders in the race (Trump, Fiorina, and Ben Carson) but don’t want to settle for Jeb Bush.
As promised, Bush showed more pep this time around, but he continues to run a conventional campaign in an election cycle in which voters are rebelling against anything having to do with the establishment.
Sen. Ted Cruz continued to position himself to try and capitalize off of any fall by Trump and Carson, using Ohio Gov. John Kasich as an easy foil to condemn more moderate positions on Planned Parenthood defunding and President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie found a way to inject himself into the debate, even when he wasn’t necessarily the subject matter — such as when he responded to the Trump-Fiorina spat over their business records by arguing it was more important to discuss plans to help the middle class.
The same wasn’t true for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker needed a breakout performance to reverse some of his recent slide in the polls, yet was invisible for much of the night. When he was called on, his answers were adequate, but there was nothing spectacular enough for him to shine in such a crowded field.
Whether this debate performance will hurt Trump’s poll numbers is hard to predict — I’ve been wrong a number of times when I expected his support to fall. But it has become a lot easier tonight to see how he would fade away.
