If the RNC’s goal was to avoid debates that would make the entire candidate field look bad, this CNN debate was a real success. And if its goal is to prevent Donald Trump from getting the GOP nomination, it was a good first step.
Trump was the debate’s second-biggest loser. He opened with the usual personal insults for two of his fellow candidates (Rand Paul and…George Pataki?), but then never quite regained his balance after the first attack from Scott Walker.
Trump would be on the receiving end for the rest of the evening, shrinking in stature whenever issues were discussed in any detail. Carly Fiorina, the debate’s best performer, delivered him the sharpest jab of the night. He appeared to be somewhat humbled afterward — when asked immediately after the debate who had done best, he failed to deliver the obvious Donald Trump answer, “Me.”
Ben Carson was the biggest loser. For being the number-two guy in the polls, he was strangely non-existent throughout. He had one good opportunity, on the issue of vaccinations, to slap Trump hard without even coming off as negative. Instead, he only gently contradicted Trump’s belief that there is a link between vaccines and autism.
Fiorina, who won the debate, resisted the temptation to attack Trump right out of the gate. But she was more than prepared to do it when the right moment came. She offered a plausible defense of her tenure at Hewlett Packard and showed she knew what she was talking about with respect to foreign and national security policy. She clearly belonged on that stage and was right to fight for inclusion in the big kids’ debate.
Jeb Bush’s performance was adequate but by no means commanding. He handled himself pretty well, although he missed the opportunity for a fatal blow against Trump. He could have insisted that Trump apologize to his wife for comment he’d made about her ethnic origin, and to do it in English or Spanish, whichever he preferred. Instead, he kind of just dropped the issue.
Chris Christie punched above his weight (metaphorically speaking, anyway) and showed a lot of the passion he likes to talk about when describing himself. It may not be enough to make him relevant again, but it was good enough that people can at least wonder about that.
Marco Rubio performed adequately, despite taking up relatively little time. He showed he knows what he’s talking about with respect to a great number of issues. He gave the best answer on Global Warming (and Walker properly echoed him): that the proposed solutions will do almost nothing to change it but quite a bit to harm the economy. He gave a so-so answer on his sparse attendance in the Senate during his presidential run, arguing that debates in the Senate hardly matter at this point because the body’s members are so out of touch with Americans.
Walker got relatively little time on camera, but he made no errors and had his biggest moment early on against Trump, when most people were probably still watching. By confronting Trump about some of the made-up numbers he had thrown out there, Walker set the tone for the rest of the debate. But he wasn’t one of its most outstanding performers.
Some liberal journalists liked how John Kasich did, but it’s almost irrelevant. He’s the Republican candidate at the Republican debate who tells the Republican voters they’re wrong, so of course liberals are going to like him. His greatest advantage is that he is not competing with the other candidates for the same voters. That’s also his greatest disadvantage.
Cruz was not much of a factor, especially in interacting with the other candidates. He was no more platitudinous than usual. He looked a bit strange deferring to Trump when all of the other candidates were busy humbling him. By the end, it was hard to remember that he and Mike Huckabee had been on stage.
Finally, Rand Paul, who didn’t hurt himself. In an ideal world, he would be expanding his father Ron Paul’s base in this primary by preaching the unique perspectives he brought to the discussions on drug policy and foreign policy. Instead, he’s clinging to the more libertarian remnants of his father’s base, as the less libertarian elements (the homeless paleoconservatives) have mostly gone to Trump. His future, if he has one, depends entirely on Trump’s total destruction.
