Even rival camps thought Rubio shined

But Rubio shined more than most, making the most of the limited time afforded each candidate given how crowded the stage was, and perhaps more than any contender used the nationally televised debate to present the strongest argument for his candidacy. The senator is a dynamic communicator and fluent on major domestic and foreign policy issues who, as the son of poor Cuban immigrants, could cause presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton fits.

“Marco Rubio did very well,” Robert C. O’Brien, an adviser to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, told reporters after the debate. O’Brien emphasized, of course, that he believes his candidate was the clear winner. “I don’t think there’s any way that anyone can go away from the debate and not realize that Scott Walker won the debate.”

Rubio set the tone early, volleying a challenging question about his lack of experience into an answer that satisfied an audience of about 5,000 Republican voters who snagged tickets to Quicken Loans Arena, site of the Republican Party’s 2016 presidential nominating convention, to watch the faceoff live.

Rubio, 44, conceded that his resume doesn’t match Clinton’s, a former first lady, senator and President Obama’s first secretary of state. But the ex-speaker of the Florida House of Representatives said he brings something more valuable to the race than resume: A change agenda that is future-oriented and a political appeal that can help Republicans appeal to white middle class and nonwhite voters that rejected his party in droves four years ago.

“If I’m our nominee, how is Hillary going to lecture me about living paycheck to paycheck. I was raised paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

Rubio was hardly the only candidate who gained, however. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has cultivated the image of a conservative fighter. He’s called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., a “liar” and dumped all over his own party in a new book. But Cruz knows that he can’t win the nomination as a far-right brawler alone, that he needs to present an optimistic vision that can garner support among more mainstream Republicans.

Cruz is still running behind the top tier of candidates in most polls, although his numbers have been on the rise. But he deliberately chose not to confront his Republican opponents, despite his experience as a competitive collegiate debater and litigator before the U.S. Supreme Court and instead to focus on his record. He chose to the role of a leader, declining to ding Rubio when he criticized Sen. “Chuck Schumer’s” “Gang of Eight” immigration overhaul, and his campaign was pleased.

“He came across as a statesman,” Cruz adviser Rick Tyler said. “He didn’t engage in the back and forth bickering and arguing.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also might have done himself some good.

The one-time front-runner for the Republican nomination, before he was felled by scandal involving top aides in his gubernatorial administration, reminded the audience why they used to like him. Christie was direct, pugnacious and showed some of his trademark charisma. One the more fiery moments of the debate came when he battled with Rand Paul over the Kentucky senator’s opposition to aggressive domestic intelligence gathering by the National Security Agency.

Chief Christie adviser Mike DuHaime downplayed the immediate impact the governor’s performance might have on the campaign. Indeed, it will take a few days to see if voters respond positively, particularly to his aggressive parry with Paul, and reward Christie with a bounce in the polls and a boost in fundraising and grassroots support. The governor barely qualified for the national debate, registering around 3 percent in recent surveys. Still, DuHaime was noticeably pleased.

“I feel great; I think Gov. Christie did a great job,” DuHaime told the Washington Examiner. “I think he came out showing himself as the strong leader that he is and doing better than anybody else.”

The three question marks of the evening, aside from whether Trump has finally crossed the line and will lose the No. 1 spot in national polls that he’s held for weeks, were perhaps former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Paul and Walker.

Walker had a workmanlike outing, he avoided campaign killing gaffes and shined in moments, particularly when discussing foreign policy, an area that he stumbled on early in the year when he first began exploring a run for president. But Walker’s potential to win the nomination is considered high — and so the bar has been set that much higher than it has been for some of the other contenders.

He appeared to pass the competence test. But did the modest Walker, who has been accused of being too bland to inspire Americans to vote for him, pass the other crucial test unique to him, which was to project to the television viewer the presence of a commander in chief? Some political analysts said Walker has more work to do on this front. But Walker’s campaign thinks he did what he needed to do.

“I thought he came off strong and got stronger as the night went on,” Ed Goeas, Walker’s pollster, said to reporters gathered in “spin alley” to get the campaigns’ perspective of the debate.

The anticipation ahead of the debate centered around Trump and whether he would go on the attack. But it was Paul who was arguably the aggressor of the night. In fact, the first attack of the night was leveled by Paul, against Trump, after the at-times bombastic billionaire refused to join the other candidates in pledging to support the 2016 GOP nominee, whomever it may be.

And it was no accident. The senator’s aides dismissed suggestions that Paul decided to hit hard to re-establish a campaign that has been stuck in neutral, but conceded that the libertarian-leaning Republican felt it was important that he make a splash.

“He thinks it’s important to show differences,” Paul adviser Doug Stafford said.

Finally, Bush.

The son of the last two Republican presidents was generally left alone by the other candidates, who are going to have to supplant the Floridian as a front-runner at some point to win the nomination. But Bush was confronted by the moderators, and on just about everything: dynastic politics, illegal immigration, Common Core and the Iraq war launched by his brother, former President George W. Bush, to name just a few topics that have caused Jeb trouble on the stump.

Bush handled the questions with ease, and projected the image of a politician in command of the issues and comfortable with his positions, however unpopular some of them might be in certain quarters of the Republican base. But Bush’s biggest selling point, what he has that others don’t (in addition to superior fundraising) is that he is a serious, conservative reformer who has the experience and temperament to be an effective president from his first day in office.

Bush’s team was confident that that was the image he projected Thursday evening. Whether the voters agree will become evident over the next days and weeks.

“I think Jeb nailed it,” said House Majority Chief Deputy Whip Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, a Bush backer. “He hit his marks, he did what he needed to do. He broke through with the audience on his record.”

Disclosure: The author’s wife works as an adviser to Scott Walker.