Rubio only "won" in the minds of the establishment pundits. Cruz only fared somewhat better.
Trump could have pulled his pants down and mooned the moderators and those same people would claim he won the debate. Most of those people aren’t voting on the basis of things actually said.
An online web site vote is not a “poll.” They’re meaningless. Quoting them is a comical effort.
Cruz won the only scientific poll of the debate that I saw, the NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll. Trump cane in 3rd:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/287955649/Go-p-Race-Survey-Monkey-Top-Lines
I think this reflects their status in the polls more than who actually won a debate. Winning a debate is really the delta between your pre-debate poll and post debate poll.
I’m not trashing Trump with this comment but using it as an example as the numbers are completely made up.
If Trump is polling at 30% pre-debate(and leading all GOP), Carson is polling 22% pre-debate (in 2nd place) and Cruz is polling 10% pre-debate(and in 3rd place).
After the debate Trump is still #1 in the polls but at 25%, Carson #2 at 19%, and Cruz #3 at 18%...then Cruz won the debate. But if you poll who won the debate Trump would still win because his supporters would still choose him since he didn’t do poorly and held his own.
Trump did nothing. Cruz had “the moment” and won.