I sat down tonight to watch the third Republican presidential debate. I was less than enthusiastic about the prospect of yet another debate. It did not take long, however, for that to change. The debate was interesting, informative, and surprising. Here are my conclusions:
1. The biggest loser tonight, without question, was the group of moderators from CNBC. From start to finish, the main three panelists argued with the candidates, exuded nastiness and seemed incapable of civility. It was so bad that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump and Ben Carson all mentioned it in one way or the other. The conduct of the moderators was so disgraceful that it seemed more like MSNBC than CNBC.
2. In my opinion, the biggest winner tonight, once again, was Marco Rubio. He was humorous and displayed a command of his subject matter. He did not get too far into the details of his economic plans, but that is nearly impossible to do in the one minute answers that were allowed. Rubio got in by far the best blow against Hillary Clinton of the night. He pointed out that she admitted that she had lied to the American people about Benghazi but the mainstream media (Rubio called it Hillary's SuperPAC) called her appearance before congress a triumph. Rubio got hit with three attacks and withstood and even triumphed in each. The silly attack on his missing senate votes and the hit job of some Florida newspaper calling for him to resign was the worst and it fell flat. Rubio properly pointed out that he has missed many fewer votes than was the case with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry and John McCain when they ran. Jeb Bush tried to join in the attack, but, like most of what he said, his words were clumsy and somewhat disjointed. He just looked like another politician trying for a gotcha moment that did not exist.
3. Once again, Carly Fiorina showed her great ability to thrive in this format. She was not able to stand out as much this time, however, because many of the other candidates stepped up their games.
4. Ted Cruz was also outstanding. He was the first to call out the moderators for their improper and biased behavior. It was an electric moment that won Cruz approval from most Republicans across the country. He will be helped by this debate.
5. Chris Christie also had a good debate. He was substantive and direct. He also did not take crap from the gang of moderators. His line to one that "even in New Jersey his behavior would be considered rude" was a show stopper.
6. Donald Trump was surprisingly mellow. Unlike the earlier debates, he did not dominate the time. Given that the topic was the economy, he got asked very little about it. Instead, there was yet another question about the bankruptcies of his casinos in Atlantic City, two questions about immigration and only one on Social Security and one on his tax plan. Trump's closing statement, however, was masterful and did much to salvage the night for him.
7. Mike Huckabee was his usual cheerful self. He spoke from the heart about substantive things that rang true. I doubt he had a breakout night, though.
8. That brings us to the candidates who did not do that well. The first is Ben Carson. A question about his own tax plan showed Carson getting lost in explaining how much it would raise. The good doctor double and triple counted the revenue to be raised under his plan and looked befuddled. On other questions, however, he did fine, albeit in Carson's low key style. Strangely his best moment came in response to an attack by a CNBC moderator about a company that the moderator said was connected to Carson. When Carson said he had no connection to the company, the moderator pointed out that Carson's picture used to be on the company's home page. Carson then said that if the picture had been there, it was up without his permission. In typical argumentative and idiotic fashion, the moderator then asked if the presence of the picture on the web site said something about Carson's "vetting process". At that point, the audience in the hall was so disgusted with the moderator's question that it booed so loud as to drown out everything. Carson just looked at the idiot moderator and said of the audience, "they get it."
9. Rand Paul was on the stage, but it almost seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else. It was not his night.
10. John Kasich must have taken ten shots of five hour energy drinks prior to the debate. He was so "up" that he seemed almost bizarre. Even with all that energy, however, all that Kasich seemed to say was to describe some success or another that he had gotten in Ohio. Now it's not that Kasich's record is unimportant; it is important. Nevertheless, Kasich needed to speak more about what he wants to do and a lot less about what he did in Ohio.
11. That leaves Jeb Bush. Tonight was the debate when Jeb was supposed to take command of the stage and demonstrate that he would be a good president. He did not come close to doing that. He spoke in Washington jargon (like talking about "HSA's"). He stammered in the middle of answers. He seemed to go off course in the middle of his answers. And to use Donald Trump's comment, Jeb was once again "low energy".
We will have to wait to see what the polls say about tonight's debate. In my opinion, however, they should show another boost for Marco Rubio.
1. The biggest loser tonight, without question, was the group of moderators from CNBC. From start to finish, the main three panelists argued with the candidates, exuded nastiness and seemed incapable of civility. It was so bad that Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Donald Trump and Ben Carson all mentioned it in one way or the other. The conduct of the moderators was so disgraceful that it seemed more like MSNBC than CNBC.
2. In my opinion, the biggest winner tonight, once again, was Marco Rubio. He was humorous and displayed a command of his subject matter. He did not get too far into the details of his economic plans, but that is nearly impossible to do in the one minute answers that were allowed. Rubio got in by far the best blow against Hillary Clinton of the night. He pointed out that she admitted that she had lied to the American people about Benghazi but the mainstream media (Rubio called it Hillary's SuperPAC) called her appearance before congress a triumph. Rubio got hit with three attacks and withstood and even triumphed in each. The silly attack on his missing senate votes and the hit job of some Florida newspaper calling for him to resign was the worst and it fell flat. Rubio properly pointed out that he has missed many fewer votes than was the case with Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry and John McCain when they ran. Jeb Bush tried to join in the attack, but, like most of what he said, his words were clumsy and somewhat disjointed. He just looked like another politician trying for a gotcha moment that did not exist.
3. Once again, Carly Fiorina showed her great ability to thrive in this format. She was not able to stand out as much this time, however, because many of the other candidates stepped up their games.
4. Ted Cruz was also outstanding. He was the first to call out the moderators for their improper and biased behavior. It was an electric moment that won Cruz approval from most Republicans across the country. He will be helped by this debate.
5. Chris Christie also had a good debate. He was substantive and direct. He also did not take crap from the gang of moderators. His line to one that "even in New Jersey his behavior would be considered rude" was a show stopper.
6. Donald Trump was surprisingly mellow. Unlike the earlier debates, he did not dominate the time. Given that the topic was the economy, he got asked very little about it. Instead, there was yet another question about the bankruptcies of his casinos in Atlantic City, two questions about immigration and only one on Social Security and one on his tax plan. Trump's closing statement, however, was masterful and did much to salvage the night for him.
7. Mike Huckabee was his usual cheerful self. He spoke from the heart about substantive things that rang true. I doubt he had a breakout night, though.
8. That brings us to the candidates who did not do that well. The first is Ben Carson. A question about his own tax plan showed Carson getting lost in explaining how much it would raise. The good doctor double and triple counted the revenue to be raised under his plan and looked befuddled. On other questions, however, he did fine, albeit in Carson's low key style. Strangely his best moment came in response to an attack by a CNBC moderator about a company that the moderator said was connected to Carson. When Carson said he had no connection to the company, the moderator pointed out that Carson's picture used to be on the company's home page. Carson then said that if the picture had been there, it was up without his permission. In typical argumentative and idiotic fashion, the moderator then asked if the presence of the picture on the web site said something about Carson's "vetting process". At that point, the audience in the hall was so disgusted with the moderator's question that it booed so loud as to drown out everything. Carson just looked at the idiot moderator and said of the audience, "they get it."
9. Rand Paul was on the stage, but it almost seemed like he wanted to be somewhere else. It was not his night.
10. John Kasich must have taken ten shots of five hour energy drinks prior to the debate. He was so "up" that he seemed almost bizarre. Even with all that energy, however, all that Kasich seemed to say was to describe some success or another that he had gotten in Ohio. Now it's not that Kasich's record is unimportant; it is important. Nevertheless, Kasich needed to speak more about what he wants to do and a lot less about what he did in Ohio.
11. That leaves Jeb Bush. Tonight was the debate when Jeb was supposed to take command of the stage and demonstrate that he would be a good president. He did not come close to doing that. He spoke in Washington jargon (like talking about "HSA's"). He stammered in the middle of answers. He seemed to go off course in the middle of his answers. And to use Donald Trump's comment, Jeb was once again "low energy".
We will have to wait to see what the polls say about tonight's debate. In my opinion, however, they should show another boost for Marco Rubio.
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