Bottom line:
Bush is rusty.
Rubio is inspiriting.
Huckabee is a great debater.
Kasich is a serious candidate.
Rubio is very, very charismatic and must be Clinton’s nightmare.
Christie and Paul demolished themselves.
Trump is Trump.
Carson is a swell guy that I hope becomes my friend.
Walker was not memorable.
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Kasich: resume rehearsal. Weak.
Christie: I am America.
Paul: I am different. Yes, yes, you are.
Good close.
Rubio: Cuba. Family. New American Century.
Cruz: I will kill people and ideas.
Carson: I am a great doctor.
Huckabee: Trump. . .no Clinton. One nation under God.
Walker: has a wife, two kids, and a harlot?
Jeb: I will speak.
Trump: We are losers. Vote for me and prove it.
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Ben Carson:
Dear Ben,
This was a good debate answer, but you are not your brain.
Love,
Philosophy
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Marco Rubio:
with Jeb the most likeable candidate says our room. This is good.
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A word from God:
Cruz: kills this question. Good job. He tells the truth about his family and talks about consistent conservatives.
Kasich: Dear John Kasich- please never tell me your Dad was a mailman again. I hate the post office. It does a rotten job and I fear that you might be like it.
Love,
Most of us.
Walker: A good answer to this stupid question.
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Carson: defends a strong military and says we are not ready. This is his best answer. I am now comfortable with Carson as Surgeon General.
Walker: takes on Obama. Steel not mush. Arms to Ukraine. Missile defense to Poland. This was great! An actual answer!
Huckabee: kill people and break things. He owns this question.
Rand Paul: is an innocent abroad.
Chris Christie: will defend our borders by personally killing all our foes.
________
Cruz: leading from behind is a disaster. Cruz is strong here.
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Trump will be mean to Rosie O’Donnel and not Obama. Reverse this.
________
Ted Cruz is in the witness protection program.
————
Kasich: “I am going to love my daughters no matter what they do.”
Paul: “I don’t my marriage or my guns registered in Washington.” And so Rand Paul refuses to ever calm down.
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Jeb: He wants to lift people up. He wants to give hope.
Trump: “Bush is a true gentleman.”
“We don’t have time for tone. . . .”
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Rubio: “exception” clause.
Takes on questioner in Newt style. Owns question. Interesting.
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Bush on Planned Parenthood: gave money? Meaningful educational reform . . . I voted for the budget . . . I refunded Planned Parenthood.
Strongest answer of the night.
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Deal with Iran:
Walker- terminate the deal. Reinstate the sanctions. Platitudes.
Paul- oppose the Iranian deal. Don’t discount negotiations.
Huckabee: “trust but vilify” is Obama. “By god,” Huckabee swears!
In our room, some feel that Huckabee is unclear. Some feel he is centered on the economy. He is a “great talking head” . . . has he sold his soul to Fox News.
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Rubio: manages to bring the debate back to reality and advocate actual policies.
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Donald Trump is such an ass in this debate that I do not know how to respond to the his Platonic form of Ass.
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Christie on Huckabee: I am a loutish oaf.
Huckabee on entitlement reform:
Huckabee is a good fellow. He defends the poor people and attacks pimps. This is a good idea.
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Walker on economics: given your record in Wisconsin . . . rehearses economics and then . . . we all started talking about other things.
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Bush will pull of 4% growth by “pulling up our spirits.” This may be the worst platitude of the night.
Talisker? Which spirit?
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Ben Carson runs for Glen Beck vote by hitting buzz words: Alinsky, useful idiots. Sigh.
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Kasich is a serious man. There are other keys than economics, however, unless you are a Marxist governor.
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Bush, Kasich, Rubio, and Huckabee do not seem to dislike people. This is a good trait.
————
Bush on Common Core: he ducks but says many good things on education. He was excited about this topic.
Rubio: agrees with Bush and refuses to attack him. Common Core will go from a suggestion to a mandate.
———-
Is the government too big to shrink?
Huckabee: Wall Street to Washington nexus. He attacks corruption and asks for things to be sent back to the states.
Carson advocates the flat tax by invoking a tithe. This is odd.
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Trump manages to say nothing in an entertaining way if enjoy a train wreck.
————
Ben Carson would not fight a “politically correct war.” Does this means ethics or just war theory are out? Carson should avoid the Bob Dole habit of talking about himself in the third person.
————
Walker much more concise on foreign policy than Bush.
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Bush would not go to war in Iraq today. We left a void in Iraq and now we have a void in debate interest.
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Ted Cruz will kill people and utter the right words.
————
Christie: “I am the only person on this stage who. . . ” He has jailed terrorists and . . . managed to say that he won the War on Terror by himself.
Christie is a loutish oaf with the Barefoot Boy who shouts about the Constitution.
Christie manages to be a childish loutish oaf in attacking Rand Paul. Generally, he is only a loutish oaf.
————
Cruz: he reminds me of Marco Rubio’s evil twin in this debate. Not fair. But there you go.
———-
Walker: he listens to the American people. He is a good guy and he has good energy, but for an unknown reason he makes me eyes glaze over.
————
Rubio on Trump: he likes evidence. What will Trump do with this? Is evidence stupid? Every time Rubio is on . . . he sounds like he is Presidential timber.
————
Kasich points out that people are frustrated and that we should not just tune out the frustrations. Kasich has “his solutions” . . . one my kids said: good solutions.
———–
Rubio looked Presidential, Jeb a collection of platitudes in search of a personality.
———–
Kasich should use Medicaid funding to get Trump help.
———–
On Immigration:
Bush- sensible answer. We are not going to deport immigrants and we need a plan. He seems to have one. Well done. Biblical love of the immigrant is key.
Trump- claims he is the reason we are discussing illegal immigration. We need to build a wall to keep Donald Trump out of the Republican Party. Evidently “people” are a specific bit of evidence. . . as opposed to talking beasts.
———–
John Kasich went for the Obama plan for Medicaid. Reagan invoked. Kasich gives a sensible answer to the actual question. Impressive if dull.
————
Rand Paul does not want to arm the allies in Isis or use hair gel. He is shrill
————-
Scott Walker gets to be pro-life. He dodges the question and talks about defunding Planned Parenthood. It is tedious.
————
The oafish lout manages to sound like he would like to sell me home siding.
————
Cruz: “I will always tell the truth and do what I said I will do.” Good line, but he was slow to get to it. Question got him. I saw that happen at a University forum. He is not as quick on the up take as you might think.
————
Donald Trunp: “the big problem” is being politically correct? Racism? Misogyny? He isn’t politically incorrect, he is incorrect.
————-
“The last thing the country needs is another Bush in the Oval Office.” He is more his Dad than his brother. He responded well to the question and then drifted off into mumbling.
————
Rubio: the future not the past. He is very good. Gets to Clinton and is the first person to sound like President.
———–
Ben Carson is slow to respond but responds well by eliminating the brainless from contention. Trump refused to agree.
————
Rand Paul points out that Donald Trump buys and sells politicians.
———–
Trump will not pledge to support the nominee. “He fully understands.” Trump is a bad man.
———–
John Kasich has home field, but manages to look like the paradigm Vice Presidential nominee.
———-
We will get 40,000 questions tonight. I think not.
———–
Carley gets a shout out without being there. A bit unfair. . .
————
We have too little time and the FOX News crew is chattering meaninglessly.
————-
Candidate come on the stage. Jeb is very tall. Trump oddly diminished by having others with him.
———–
A subdued Donald Trump has no value to Donald Trump.
————
Big crowd at debate: Ohio State football game if actual students came to games.
————-
Jeb Bush and Carley Fiorina both are plausible contenders doomed by a lost race. Bush because his time is past and Fiorina because her time will not come.
———–
John Kasich and Jeb Bush may, by themselves, solve all insomnia problems in America if they debate to form.
————
Carley Fiorina: got to attack Trump without his being able to respond. Best of all possible debate worlds.
———-
Dear GOP:
You will need roughly 40% of the Hispanic vote. Trump is very, very unpopular in the Hispanic community.
Sincerely,
Reality
———–
Rand Paul strikes me as having implausible positions combined with overly plausible manner.
———-
I have not watched cable news for some time. Bill O’Reilly is still full of self and little else.
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Less than one hour to go. You will note that newer posts will appear ahead of older posts.
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Tonight I will live blog the Republican Debate with my Dad, Mom, brother, wife, and at least two of my adult children. I will generally write as if all opinions are my own. The blog will be lightly edited and as is the nature of such things be my immediate, not at all considered (!) opinions, so on reflection my views my change.
I did not watch the first debate but from debate clips, transcribed remarks (though not the whole debate), and news reports, it appears that Carly Fiorina won in a walk. She deserves a ticket forward. George Pataki is a decent moderate option and Bobby Jindal was the smartest person in the room. The rest need to wrap up their campaigns and go home, though nobody may notice if they do.
Here is my pre-debate take (in one sentence) on each candidate:
Trump: a demagogue.
Bush: a Bush.
Walker: plausible executive.
Huckabee: Bryan of the Republican Party.
Carson: unqualified to be President.
Cruz: brilliant firebrand.
Rubio: charismatic, Reaganesque?
Paul: libertarian oatmeal.
Christie: oafish lout.
Kasich: earnest executive.
Personal bias alert: if forced, I would pick between Cruz, Jindal, Kasich, Rubio, Walker. (This is in alphabetical order.) I will not choose: Trump, Bush, Christie, Carson, Paul, Huckabee. (This is in order of decreasing disgust with their campaigns.)
Donald Trump is not the worst person to run for President:
And so I have said something positive about The Donald.
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