#10, Chris Christie (#9).
Yea so Christie entered the debate barely treading water as it was, and well turned in a natural disaster of a debate performance. His only memorable performance came when Rand Paul verbally bitch smacked the hell out of him over warrantless surveillance, which Christie claimed he understood the vital need for better Paul, having been appointed US attorney for the District of NJ the day before 9/11....which sounds good maybe, but isnt in fact true.
Also when taunted by Paul for hugging President Obama, Christie once again tried to pull from the 9/11 well with the extremely odd line of
"Senator Paul, you know, the hugs that I remember are the hugs that I gave to the families who lost their people on September 11th. Those are the hugs I remember, and those had nothing to do — and those had nothing to do with politics"
With that, I think we can all safely hug Christie good bye, I dont expect to see him at the next debate, he will instead likely be replaced by someone from the "undercard debate"
#9 Dr. Ben Carson (#5).
So originally Carson was supposed to be this elections Herman Cain, the poltical outsider who is supposed smart but comes off as a political moron......and he was getting some support with that too (as Cain did in 2008), at least until Donald Trump came in and out "Cain'ed" Carson. And sadly for the good doctor nothing in his debate performance looks like thats going to chance. In his first chance to speak, the good Doctor decided to duck a question about "is he stupid"? Now I'm not political expert, but seems to me if you cant come up with an answer to "are you dumb?" you are way way way way way over your head. And I half expect Carson agrees with me, given that his closing argument half focused on how cool it was to be a brain surgeon.
Still, Doc Carson is another candidate that I expect we have heard the last of....and unlike Christie and Huckabee, who i expect to fight on long after hope has passed, I expect the Doc will be the first of the 17 to drop out.
#8 Marco Rubio (#7).
So how did Marco Rubio do in this debate? well first he gave Hilary Clinton the soundbite that will run in every single one of her general elections ads, claiming that he believed her to be the most experienced and on paper qualified candidate, then he ducked a question on if he supports abortion exceptions for rape and incest.
A duck made much worse by two facts. Namely that, Rubio DOES in fact support those exceptions (and has sponsored legislation that says as much), and that (according to polls as recent as last week) 76% of republicans AGREE with him on that.
Which means Rubio lacked the balls to support a position that he, and the vast majority of his party support. Which probably also means you just saw him duck out of the race (its a good thing the GOP has a deep bench of undercard candidates :P )
#7 Mike Huckabee (#4)
So Mike Huckabee has a master plan for overturning the Roe v Wade, and it hinges on people being unable to read 3 words into the 14th amendment (in which rights attach at birth). He also admits that Social Security is failing because we dont tax capitol gains to pay for it.......which could be solved by taxing some of the people who make the most capitol gains.....whores. Finally he also added that Obama was stealing 700 million dollars from Social Security to pay for Obamacare, which was untrue to the point of being named the "lie of year" by multiple fact checking organizations when Mitt Romney made that up in the last election.
His only saving grace is that the average republican primary voter is too uninformed and/or stupid to know any of that, so he will likely be back for the next couple debates, but I cant see anyone getting behind him with serious money after the debate, so while he may stagger on, I think what little chance he had is already over.
#6 Ted Cruz. (#6)
So there was a debate, and Ted Cruz was there. And thats really all I got. Dude basically didnt get any chance to talk, and I honestly forgot he was there a few times. But as he didnt do anything to hurt himself (or get the chance to), or help himself I guess I have to give him this spot since it doesnt fit anyone else.
#5 Scott Walker (#3)
So the upside for Gov Walker is that he avoided saying anything too stupid. The downside for him was that he ducked every single question on his record, and his only defense is that he was elected 3 times in 4 years...which is going to look bad if he ever gains enough traction for people to care about the fact over a half dozen of his top aides have been convicted of breaking the law to help him steal those elections.
Still since that downside hasnt happened yet, I have to stick him here, mostly, like Cruz, for seceding at not self destructing, but failing to do anything to make himself known.
#4 Rand Paul (#8)
Rand Paul was also at this debate. I know this because pretty early on, he attacked Donald Trump as being in the Clinton's pocket, then as previously mentioned, he bitch smacked Chris Christe. However the fact that he didnt do or say much of anything of any importance after hurts him a bit. Still effectively ending another candidates chance has to get you some kind of gain, and he did better because of that then the 2 below him
#3 Jeb Bush (#2)
Well one things for sure, he earned the name Jeb....whatever the fuck that means. but honestly excusing that one odd statement Jeb didnt say anything instantly noticeable as bad. However should commoncore get more attention, and people realize what the program is, his trying to have it both ways answer here will hurt him.
In short, Jeb tried to make it look like he opposed Common Core (opposing federal involvement in education) in favor of a state based approach....without ever mentioning that Common Core IS a state based approach. It was by far the best "polticked" answer of the debate, but trying to walk that tightrope for much longer may have people think the name he earned wasnt Jeb...but Mitt
#2 John Kasich (#10)
So yea, basically the more I think about it, the more I think this guy won the debate. Now why isnt he number 1? i'll get into that with my number 1 pick, but for now I have to applaud this guy.
So right out the box the moderators tried to trip him up over his decision to expand medicaid (which the GOP opposes) he not only had to balls to defend, he envoked Reagan's expansions of it while doing so. Point Kasich. Then the moderators pretty outright asked him to pick a fight with Trump, he declined, dismissed Trump in the most respectful and complimentary way, and made his pitch on having balanced the budget while running the House Budget committee in the Clinton years. he repeated the act when the Moderators tried to get him to attack Clinton.
Finally he navigated the "minefield" of gay marriage, stating his personal opposition, but support of the law allowing for it, support of any gay family he might have and his willingness to go to and prior attendance at gay marriages....which was capped off by cheers from the crowd, basically making him unassailable on this position by anyone again (an attack from the right, demanding he come out against the laws would make the attacker look like a bigot, an attack from the left demanding he change his personal opinion looks like the thought police).
So yea, in terms of proving he can handle thr big questions, hang with the big boys, appear conservative and court moderates...John Kasich was your big winner
#1 Donald Trump (#1)
So why isnt Kasich set up the best coming out of the first deabate? Because Republicans LOVE their crazy, and this early on they LOVE their anti establishment candidate. So this debate was AMAZING for trump.
Think about it, he got attacked by the moderators, and the moderators tried to get other candidates to attack him. He didnt say anything any more stupid than he normally does, and he was seen as smacking down the moderators at the same time. His post debate twitter rant against the "menstruating and hormonal" megyn kelly only helped him even more as the establishment has scrambled to get as far away from him as possible.
And he even said he was open to the idea of running 3rd party, if you know, he didnt win, which is the pipe dream for the far right wackjob faction who supports him.
Now of course, the common wisdom is correct here, Trump has no future and at some point will flame out fast and hard. Thing is, its a 17 person race, so his wingnut faction holds a plurality at this point, assuring he will stay at the top for a long while.
Once other candidates drop out though, and their supporters coagulate around a smaller batch of other options, the non nutjobs will make a plurality for someone else, Trump will hit the wall and vanish. But thats not going to happen for a long time.
And that will be the MAJOR problem for the republicans going forward. As long as Trump is around he himself is a momentum killing wall for any of his 16 rivals. None of them can get any steam or airtime as trump goes around finding new groups to insult. He's already gone after Blacks, Hispanics, and now Women.....3 groups without, at least some of, the Republicans CAN NOT WIN.
And those attacks get the attention, and even once the attacks fade, the story becomes the perception of a weak feckless ineffective RNC that can not rid themselves of a nut job, and the perception that the entire party must be racist sexists bigots like Trump, the frontrunner.
So yea, the longer Trump is around the more momentum he will take from whoever will eventually be the nominee, the weaker and more bigoted the party looks.
But hey, at least he came out on top in the debate right?
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