If you didn’t know better, you would think Barack Obama has pulled an FDR, running for a third term. All the problems facing America today lead only to one place … President Obama’s front door. While Obama-bashing may have been the main course, Hillary-hating was the appetizer. It appears most of the Republican contenders believe they will be facing the lady in the pant suit for the presidency.
Did the current Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, help or hurt himself? I would say neither. From my perspective he held his own. His supporters will remain his supporters. The most impressive performance of the night was that of the only female candidate in the contest, Carly Fiorina. She was strong, confident and thoughtful. She handled well Trump’s patronizing comment, “She has a beautiful face.” She didn’t respond. Fiorina not only answered the questions asked of her, but she provided commentary as the debate was unfolding… “We just spent 12 minutes on that unimportant topic.” My only criticism is that she needs to smile more; not be so businesslike.
I don’t know if it is just me, but it seemed as if Dr. Ben Carson forgot to take his afternoon nap. Mr. Dynamite he is not. Will he lose some support? Probably.
Some of the more memorable comments of the night included Jeb Bush’s defense of his brother … “He kept us safe.” I think little brother forgot the United States was attacked on Dubya’s watch! Then there was Ted Cruz’s description of his friend, Chief Justice John Roberts, as a liberal. Yes, he is liberal compared to Genghis Kahn, perhaps. Gov. Scott Walker took a jab at Trump’s political inexperience when he said, “We don’t need an apprentice in the White House”; a very weak, sophomoric punch.
Of all the “Trumpisms” that came out of The Donald’s mouth, he did make a very cogent, valid point. When interviewed after the debate, Trump observed, “Three hours is too long.”
John: To me, the only adult in the room was John Kesich, who clearly will be the VP choice of whoever gets the nomination, which will NOT be him. I think that Trump proved again to be bombastic and without apology (Bush’s wife). It would have been easy for him to say, “if there is anything I said that offended you, I am truly sorry”, but he just couldn’t bring himself to apologize for anything. Cruz is frighteningly scary, as is Huckleberry, Walker and Rubio. Loved Paul who spoke up against the war in Iraq and for dope. Christie proved he’s a dope, again. He brought up Afghanistran, when the issue is whether we should have gone into Iraq, not Afghanistan. Carly, I agree, needs to smile. She is as wooden as there is. Carson, while a nice man, is only qualified to unconjoin twins, not run the country. Bush held his own tonight, except when he said “his brother kept us safe” (other than 9/11 of course). Plus got us into a war that his evil leader, Cheney, made billions for Halliburton. He should be the one prosecuted, not Clinton. It would have been great for one of the candidates (Paul or Trump) to have said that. All in all, unimpressed but at least Kesich doesn’t scare me. In the JV, at least Pataki and Graham had the balls to say that Kim, the bigot, Davis should have been fired and follow the law of the land.
I agree with you about Kasich. Compared to the others, he came across as “reasonable.” Look for Carly as a VP pick, She did herself well. I’m waiting for Romney to get into the race. Ha!
While the others were hitting singles and doubles. Carly hit every question out of the park. I agree with you about her being a possible VP pick… for Jeb!
I agree Barb. And some of the singles were bunt singles to boot!
“Trump observed, “Three hours is too long.”” – Trump is the only one who recognizes this time as what it really was – entertainment. Americans don’t want movies that last more than 2 hours, and these “debates” had nothing to do with politics but everything to do with keeping the public “coming back” as in television.
Yes, most viewers can’t muster up that long of an attention span.