Posted on 08/07/2015 5:58:06 AM PDT by Jeff Head
Last night the debate made a few things very clear to me.
First: The Fox News moderators were on one of several missions, and the first was to try and make Trump as uncomfortable as possible and try and make a point of it to the people watching the debate. The second, IMHO, was to not give or allow much time to a few of the other candidates. They seemed to want to focus on Trump, give Bush plenty of time, and to then focus on disagreements and infighting like that occurred between Christie and Paul the bulk of the time, and then allocate minimal time to the other candidates.
Second: Trump will not back down, and is not made "uncomfortable," by their attempts. He fires back and is clearly the anti-Republican Establishment candidate. Think what you will of him, but he is taking the fight to the establishment and any one he perceives as supporting it and willing to attack him, and he does not care about what others think is politically correct or not in the process.
Third: Ted Cruz, IMHO, was clearly IMHO, the most presidential man on that stage last night. He articulated (when given the chance), not only the right conservative plans and message, but the temperament to be the nation's leader.
Fourth: Ben Carsen accounted well for himself. He did not get much time, but he came across very reasoned and very capable, despite his lack of political experience...which I do not necessarily hold against him. He's just going to need to be a great organizer and surround himself with the right people in order to get through this race.
Fifth: Scott Walker also accounted well for himself, but IMHO, needs a little more fire in the belly and assertiveness in that environment. But I liked his answers and thoughts, and feel he too would be a very strong leader if given the chance, despite whatever other disagreements some may have with him.
Sixth: Bush did not do well IMHO. He is clearly capable of leading, and did so in Florida. But he is an establishement candidate...in fact the establishyment candidate...and his efforts to try and reach out to the base and strong conservatives, IMHO, were weak. On stage, he was also not, IMHO a commanding presence. He did little to either upstage the furor over Trupmp...despite his one comment about Trumps demeanor...or to postion himself against others like Cruz.
My Summary:
IMHO, Cruz won this debate. If given the chance, I believe he articulates a imminently strong conservative message, is very difficult for other candidates to debate, and does so with a very Presidential demeanor. Trump absolutely held his own and fired right back at his detractors.
Fox and crew...and the MSM.just cannot understand Trump. They want him to behave they way they think he should...and their attempts to corral him and try and force him to do so are going to backfire every time with him.
Face it, many Americans, particularly conservatives, want and are happy to see someone stand up to and fire full broadsides back at the media, the establishment, and on some point issues to this point, the liberal/progressives. Trump has tapped into that and has the demeanor to continue doing so as long as he is in the race.
FYI...my thoughts on last night’s debate.
All good points.
In addition, Carly and Jindal were impressive and succinct in their answers - especially Carly. They clearly deserve to be on main stage next time and replace those who were just taking up space - i.e. Kasich, Christie and Paul.
Fox seemed determined to keep Cruz out of the debate, but he shined through in spite of them.
Unfortunately I was out last night and missed the debate. I look forward to reading through the various threads that will undoubtedly be more accurate than the sanitized media releases.
There was no question about the lion in the debate :)
Ann coulter has an article on Breibart— and she made a comment that had me snorting in my coffee— “Jeb Bush is channeling Caitlyn Jenner”— He is so effeminate! Yuck. I can’t bear to look at his soft, doughy face and listen to his whiny voice.
I can’t even call it a debate. It was an assassination attempt.
It wasn’t a debate—it was a question-and-answer session.
I agree with your assessment - its tough to see these debates as the typical political neophyte, we freepers have a much better idea of the context of these guys' comments. Which is why I have a harsher assessment of guys like Bush & Rubio.
Based on the moderators’ attitude, demeanor, and questions, it was not a “DEbate”...it was “THEBait” to pit the candidates against each other, and eliminate any that are not of the FOXNEWS-GOPe-establishment, uniparty, establishment bent!
Excellent point.
And with 10 on the mic, plus mods, it’s a free for all.
Jeff, very reasoned points.
It is really good to see you post.
Take care, FRiend.
Two quick things about Bush. He lied through his teeth when confronted about working for the Bloomberg Abortion Foundation. For five long years he was one of it’s director’s. Of course he knew Bloomberg was pro-abortion and the foundation helped women all over the world get abortions. Megyn Kelly let him wiggle out of the embarrasment and start blabbing on about how pro-life he is and his record in Florida, blah, blah, blah. She could have immediately slammed him on allowing Teri Shievo to die but let him off the hook. She tried everything in her power to let Bush win the debate, but he was still too stiff and Romney like to give her her wish.
Bush is pro-abortion (he goes against the Catholic Church) in cases of rape and incest and “life of the mother”. Kelly knows this and once again didn’t bring it up. She did bring it up to Rubio who has no exceptions to abortion. Megyn Kelly was there to embarrass Trump and build up Bush. Hopefully hell will freeze over before Fox moderates another “debate”. Trump should have demanded an apology from the moderators before he exited the stage, not only for himself but for the rest of the candidates.
“Fox seemed determined to keep Cruz out of the debate...”
Yes...yes they did. Besides the obvious “get Trump” agenda, Cruz was obviously ignored.
You know someone’s going to put a stopwatch to each debaters actual speaking times. Would be interesting to see a chart with the breakdown.
I agree. Cruz is my pick and he made me proud.That being said, they really went after Trump with the questioning. If we only got those questions for all candidates equally.
This format is hype. Seriously not much to learn about people in short bites. Smooth fast talkers should fair well. Cruz made good use of the time. I do not get why so many were impressed with Rubio. But maybe I missed the first part of the debate where he shined. Was he that good?
Nobody is going to accuse Fox of being soft on Trump. I don’t mind the hard grilling. What doesn’t kill Trump only makes him stronger.
The weak candidates need to be winnowed out. The strong need to be stratified. I would rather it be Fox firing them in the crucible first than say MSNBC or NPR.
You think Megan Kelly was hard on him, wait until he has to face Rachel Maddow and the like. What Megan Kelly has in smarts, Rachel Maddow has in hate and bitterness. All those peeps in the media are just waiting to see what their owners or CEO’s (who likely have hobnobbed with Trump a time or two) want to do.
I don’t think anybody is going to take Trump down very much on Stage. They’ll go down with him for sure. His weakness is probably off-stage, I expect the first time he brags about bribing a politician, or alludes to it, somebody in the DOJ is going to take notice. Something like that is what I expect. The U.S government starts waging Lawfare against trump, that’s what I’m worried about. Trump certainly going to have some dirt under his fingernails somewhere, whether dealing with unions or middling bureaucrats and this administration can make sure that this happens over say any investigation into Hillary’s criminal enterprise.
I respectfully disagree.
Yes, Trump was a bit targeted, but only unfairly about the women’s issue thing. He ought to have done better in his response.
They asked tough questions all the way around, everyone got it, including the RINOS. Jeb on common core and being bush3. Crispy on his economic performance, Kasich on his capitulation to Obama care, huckaphony and Paul as well.
The big problem is how to deal with ten people on stage with a limited time to speak and not only present themselves, but get their distinctive message out. Fox didn’t do great, but given that ten person stage it would have been hard to do much better.
FYI, I rarely watch them anymore, only a few times a year, I just get a bit bored with their shtick.
Yeah, that Rachael Maddow guy is sure is unpleasant.
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