The GOP
frontrunner is master of the one liner and the
angry rhetoric.
Posted
December 15, 2016
Donald Trump Loses A Terrible GOP Debate
By
Zogby
Actually we
all lost the GOP debate Thursday night. The event
went a full 71 minutes before any substance was
discussed. We suffered embarrassing exchanges
between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz on natural born
citizenship. That one lasted far too long but Cruz
got the better of it. He dismissed Trump’s charges
as false and came back with a previously unknown
fact that Trump’s mother was Scottish and a better
known fact that Trump never raised the “birther”
issue on Cruz until the polls between the two
actually tightened. A stupid rejoinder to a stupid
issue. Judging by the audience’s response, Trump
received a lot of boos on this one. Point for Cruz.
The second
bout of stupidity was an exchange between Marco
Rubio and Chris Christie. To be fair, a candidate
cannot always control what one of its support PACs
say in a commercial, but Rubio honestly supported
the charges that Christie was an Obama-like liberal
because he allegedly “wrote a check for Planned
Parenthood” as well as supported gun control and
Common Core. Christie was able to deftly dismiss
these charges and the factual record is on
Christie’s side.
Donald
Trump did not like the comments made earlier in the
week by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley who
warned against anger by admitting he “likes Nikki
but I am angry about the mess we are in.” And Cruz
scored against Trump again by reminding the audience
that Trump once supported gun control because “I am
from New York” – neither the position nor the
geography things that play well in South Carolina.
Silly
stuff. Goofy to be sure. But then the debate moved
to some substance and the candidates performed a lot
better.
All the
candidates got a fair amount of time because only
seven of them were on the stage. All stated
conservative positions adequately but there were
some substantial differences in demeanor (the angry
vs. the steady) and policy. Here is how I see the
results based solely on who I can picture as a GOP
President.
Chris Christie:The
New Jersey governor was the winner. He emerges as
the leader of the establishment and a forceful
representative of the moderate, conservative
establishment. He has a successful alternative
governance model to consider.
John Kasich:
He got the chance to state and
restate his successful experience in both Congress
and in Ohio. He, like Christie, has a solid mantra
about making government work for people and a force
for good.
Jeb Bush:
This was his best debate and moment.
He came off as the steady hand and as a reminder
that anger is not a platform. He stood up to Trump’s
comments on banning all Muslims by offering a more
reasonable policy of tweaking the US vetting policy
for refugees.
Ted Cruz:
Cruz scored a lot of points and is
the leader of the conservative wing. He is a
seasoned debater and made Trump look like a minor
league bench warmer by reminding him (and everybody
else) that he argued for the Constitution at the
Supreme Court for many years.
Marco Rubio:
Rubio was eloquent and focused as
usual but we are getting closer to voters casting a
ballot but he took his hits in this debate. He
effectively went after Cruz and held his ground on
defense. But Cruz wounded him too. Are either of
them ready to really be President of the United
States?
Donald Trump:
The GOP frontrunner is master of the
one liner and the angry rhetoric. No doubt he has
support but he got a lot of boos and hisses tonight.
Corporate raider Carl Icahn as a negotiator for the
United States against China? Angry voters are also
angry against Wall Street, too. I am not sure what
happens in the polls. I am sure he has a lot of
support among those who want to punch someone –
especially a public servant – in the nose. But there
was some vulnerability tonight.
Ben Carson:
Carson fading in the polls because there is just no
there there.
The
Republican Debate: Seven Trumped-Up Survivors
By
Robert Borosage
Seven contenders lined up in the main
Republican debate Thursday night in
Charleston, South Carolina. Donald
Trump, still leading in national polls,
may not have won the night, but he has
surely dictated its terms.
The candidates were trumped-up, the
vitriol hot, the rhetoric over the top.
Occasional efforts to introduce common
sense – usually by John Kasich and Jeb
Bush from the far wings of the stage –
were lost amid the tumult.
Obama is “gutting our military.” (Bush).
Hillary isn’t “just a disaster. She’s
disqualified from being
commander-in-chief” (Rubio). The
president “doesn’t believe in the
Constitution” or in “free enterprise”
(Marco Rubio). The president is a
“petulant child” (Chris Christie – who
is the last person who should call
someone else “petulant”). And of course
Trump outdid them all: our military is a
“disaster”; our health care “a horror
show;” “we have no borders;” illegal
immigration is “beyond belief,” our vets
are “treated horribly.” No wonder gentle
Dr. Ben Carson asked “Is this America?”
With the Iowa caucuses impending, the
insults were directed not just at the
president and Hillary Clinton but at
each other as well. Bush scorned the
quibbling of “backbench senators,”
reiterated that Trump’s comments were
“unhinged.” Trump once more called Bush
a “weak person.” Rubio dissed Christie
as a liberal, Cruz as a flip-flopper.
Trump doubled down on Cruz’s
citizenship. Cruz scorned Trump’s “New
York values” (gays, abortion, money,
media). Trump trumped that by invoking
the courage of New Yorkers in the face
of 9/11.
Lost in all this was any glimmer of a
program or an idea about dealing with
real challenges facing the country. Like
an affable grandfather in his cups at
the end of a bar, Gov. Kasich kept
peddling the old remedies – lower taxes,
less regulation, balanced budgets, a
“cool” head at the helm. But he sounded
wistful, not wise. No, according to
these folks, America needs more muscle,
more guns, more inequality, more venom.
Climate change, the way the rules are
rigged for the few, the way our politics
are corrupted, our criminal injustice
system and more got little or no
mention.
Who won? Most pundits award the prize to
Rubio, but he mostly reprised old speech
lines with new intensity. He struck me
as the definition of callow. Carson,
Bush and Kasich fade in the bombast.
Christie was off his game. Trump was
more active than he normally is, but I’d
say Cruz had the best of the night. He
is smart, slick, devious and shameless.
The right mix for this cage match.
Robert L.
Borosage is the founder and president of the
Institute for America’s Future and co-director of
its sister organization, the
Campaign for
America’s Future.
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