Best debate ever, right?
But entertainment value aside, there were a handful of foundational clarifications about the candidates, if not the race itself. Quickly:
Donald Trump: Mark Hemingway joked:
Donald Trump is essentially @NormMacDonald’s Burt Reynolds impression from the Celebrity Jeopardy sketch running for president.
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) August 7, 2015
And holy cow is that dead-on. You’ll never look at him the same way again.
I was taken aback by how nimble Trump was. He was able to think on his feet. He didn’t get rattled. He was funny! (The Rosie O’Donnell line killed—especially because it was obvious that he was making a joke and not trying to excuse himself.) Was he ridiculous at times? Oh sure. But he was better than anyone could have reasonably expected.
The most important moment of the debate, however, came right at the top when Trump refused to pledge not to run a third-party challenge.
Marco Rubio: The second most important development of the debate was Rubio’s ability to put the Gang of 8 to bed. Rubio was good all night—if we were doing a sabermetric ranking of the candidates, he lead the field. Easily. But the important thing for the long-term is that he’s squared the immigration circle. With that figured out, he really does look like Clinton ’92.
Ted Cruz: Helped himself by sounding the two themes he needs if he’s going to pick up Trump supporters down the line—that he tells the truth and that he fights.
Rand Paul: The least attractive human being on the stage. By a mile. Hard to see how he outmaneuvers Cruz from here on out.
The rest of the field didn’t do much to clarify their positions in the race. Bush and Walker were fine, but didn’t really register. Christie was substantive and Huckabee was smooth, but we knew that. Kasich was less Huntsman-ish than he could have been. And Ben Carson will (or should) be replaced by Carly Fiorina at the next debate.
Jonathan V. Last is a senior writer at The Weekly Standard.
