Face It: Ted Cruz Won The Republican Debate

The Huffington Post Huffpost Politics ^ | October 30, 2015 | Zach Carter

[2ndDivisionVet]

Cruz trounced the outsider candidates, while Rubio trampled some guy polling in the single digits.

So, that happened. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) came into the third GOP presidential debate with little to lose and everything to gain. He got more out of the night than anyone else on stage.

Listen to The Huffington Post's analysis of the debate in the latest episode of the "So, That Happened" podcast above. The fun starts right off the top.

Long, long ago, in the pre-Trump political era, Cruz built his brand as the politician most willing to say and do outlandish things to whip up support from the Republican base. He almost single-handedly shut down the federal government over Obamacare in 2013, securing zero conservative policy goals while getting a lot of press clips about reading Green Eggs and Ham. But everybody who dug this stuff went to Donald Trump when the real estate billionaire started ripping on immigrants as rapists and calling his fellow Republicans soft.

While Cruz waited for Trump to flame out, conspiracy theorist and dietary supplement pitchman Ben Carson surged in the polls as an alternative for Republicans fed up with politicians in Washington. On debate night, Cruz outshone them both without targeting either....

[Trapped Behind Enemy Lines]

No question.

[McGruff]

I agree. His smackdown of the moderators was epic.

[samtheman]

It’s so obvious even the leftists get it right.

[McGruff]

While Cruz waited for Trump to flame out,

Bwahh! Zach did you see any of the polling after the debate. Trump's numbers were YUUUGE.

[Zenjitsuman]

**DRUDGE POLL** WHO WON THE 3RD REPUBLICAN DEBATE ‘16? (Poll Closed)
TRUMP 48.08% (149,259 votes)

CRUZ 25.19% (78,199 votes)

RUBIO 12.63% (39,226 votes)

PAUL 4.02% (12,482 votes)

CARSON 3.76% (11,677 votes)

FIORINA 2.23% (6,922 votes)

CHRISTIE 1.73% (5,366 votes)

KASICH 1.27% (3,943 votes)

HUCKABEE 0.56% (1,725 votes)

BUSH 0.53% (1,664 votes)

Dr. Paul beat Dr. Carson both didn’t do so hot.

[Catsrus]

Trump has smacked down the media since the git go - just because Cruz came out with guns blazing doesn’t mean he won the debate. As a Trump supporter, I really don’t think he won it either. As much as I hate to admit it - I think Rubio did the best. No, I will not or would not support Rubio, but he did the best, JMO, of course.

[nathanbedford]

If the analysis is right it is no less right because it is uttered by the Huffington Post. Here is a reply I posted along the same lines on another thread:

Bush made his attack on Rubio based on cold calculation and nothing less.

Bush had almost exclusive access to the tens of millions of establishment Republican K St. lobbyists, Wall Street crony capitalists, Chamber of Commerce cheap labor greedy contributors. His lackluster performance on the stump made so painfully and embarrassingly obvious by his debate performances as well as his one-on-one interviews, have caused these very calculating fatcats to reach the unavoidable conclusion, Jeb Bush will not win.

So they cast about for a replacement and saw that Chris Christie had been ruined by Bridge Gate so he was dismissed as the wrong horse. They look at Governor Kasich of Ohio and they see an erratic individual, good for their issues, even soft enough on immigration, compliant enough on supporting Obama care but with deficiencies in the charisma department, so they know he will not present a coherent, effective candidacy which has been clearly confirmed by his weak polling numbers. Carly Fiorina, while brilliant on her feet, has a timebomb in her biography which simply cannot be diffused and, besides, it is not clear how reliable she would be. In other words, it is not clear whether she would be an honest politician in their eyes, one who when he [or she] is bought, stays bought.

All eyes now turn onto Marco Rubio who has demonstrated he has all the qualities they need: a willingness to betray the people who put him in office and the debating skills necessary to sell the deal.

Jeb Bush's advisers, if not Jeb Bush himself, were smart enough to see the obvious and knew that all the money with which the Bush campaign and the Bush family intended to win this election in an air war with Hillary, were about to cut off the financial tap and they understood immediately that Rubio must be destroyed or their campaign was over.

The Bush campaign understood that before they could beat the insurgents for the election they had to maintain their exclusive hold on the establishment and the establishments money as a base from which in Mitt Romney style they could finance television blitzkrieg and when the primary elections when they got expensive. Marco Rubio threatened all that.

So Bush took his only option, to attempt to destroy Marco Rubio in the debate while he could still draw down on his relationship with the Republican establishment's fatcats. Bush failed, he blew it, the attack backfired, Bush is finished, and Marco Rubio becomes the anointed as well as the financially supported darling of the Republican establishment.

For reasons which I have posted before, that means this race ultimately will be Rubio vs. Cruz.

[PROCON]

[Regulator]

Dr. Paul beat Dr. Carson both didn’t do so hot

Yes but....our side has a Neurosurgeon and an Opthamologist running as well as a Billionaire and the former CEO of one of the Fortune 500.

In addition to Senators and Governors from the Several States.

THEIR side has the cuckolded wife of the impeached and disgraced President of two decades ago, and um...the last Noo Yawk Radical who left town in the Back to the Earth movement of the early '70s. Who, improbably, is a Senator...sort of entertainment for aging hippies.

Please. Our fight is a choice among The Best. It's a treat to watch all of them in their element, showing the dimbulbs of the Press why they got to where they are.

[liberalh8ter]

Why is it not okay to call illegal immigrants rapists and criminals when both have proved to be true yet HuffPo has no problem accusing white conservatives of being racist and of waging a war on women; both untrue.

[SparkyBass]

[Catsrus]

Did you expect anything different from a leftist? Liberalism IS a mental disorder.

[TTFlyer]

Ted Cruz is without question the finest conservative mind in American politics today. He has a grasp of the facts and the ability to express them with logical conviction that so far surpasses the so-called “master oratior” Barack Obama and the so-called “master politician” Bill Clinton that it isn’t funny.

We are very fortunate to have Ted Cruz.

[Hostage]

> “Cruz trounced the outsider candidates, ....”

What ?????????

Let me check the source .... oh, it’s HuffPo. That explains it. They have a low-IQ reporting staff.

Ted never trounced the ‘outsider candidates’. He trounced the media and his did fantastically well in doing so.

I see Ted picking up Rubio’s support and a few others when they drop out. I see him solidifying support at the 15% to 18% level, enough for Donald Trump to pick him as VP.

[cripplecreek]

On twitter even uber Lefty Patton Oswalt said “I hate him with the power of 1000 revving chainsaws but Ted Cruz is 100% right”.

[napscoordinator]

Asking about the debt limit bill was a stupid media question? We never got to hear his answer. He dodged that question.

[bigbob]

reverse the names and party labels and you’ll have exactly what the dems said about Obama 8 years ago.

[rrrod]

Debate win...Cruz..Rubio...Trump.

[ScottinVA]

Without a doubt. He and Rubio cleaned up Wednesday night.