The Skinny on the GOP Debate

The American Thinker ^ | 1-15-16 | Scott McKay

[afraidfortherepublic]

The best feature of Thursday night's Republican presidential debate was the small number of contestants taking part in it.

There. I said it.

We're no longer subjected to cattle-call debates with 10 candidates squabbling over seconds of airtime. Now it’s only seven, and there are opportunities for more substantial discussions. And as such, the performances are getting sharper, and better.

So here are a few observations from the Fox Business debate:

THE STANDINGS

Here's how they came out:

1. Ted Cruz: Cruz opened the debate knocking the issue of the loan he took out to fund his 2012 Senate campaign out of the park, and he went toe-to-toe, and won decisively, with Donald Trump on the birther question. For the first hour, when the majority of the audience was paying most attention, he commanded the stage. Later, he got a bit more competition as we'll discuss below.

2. Donald Trump: Trump lost badly on the birther fight with Cruz, who as it turns out is just as glib as Trump is, and he bogged himself down a bit on the question of tariffs on Chinese goods. But he also recalibrated his rhetoric brilliantly on Cruz’s risky "New York values" gambit, bringing up the heroic aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and overall offered a much more presentable image befitting a plausible frontrunner. Asked about statements by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (who was in the audience) decrying "angry voices," Trump leaned in and explained, very reasonably, why he's angry, and won on the question.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Is this list material?

[afraidfortherepublic]

FTA: At this point, a four-man race is where we are. It’s Trump, Cruz, Rubio, and Christie. And any of the four ought to be colossal favorites over whoever the Democrats might belch out of their primaries.

[Nervous Tick]

>> any of the four ought to be colossal favorites

Do you mean “favored to beat Hillary”?

Or do you mean “to be preferred by conservatives”?

If it’s the first, then I agree — at least, I’d like to think they can beat her.

If it’s the second, then not so much. Especially where Christie is concerned. DO NOT LIKE donut boy. He’s a gun grabbing faggot marrying baby killing amnesty giving friend of Obama from that liberal stronghold New Jersey.

[Salgak]

Five men. Christie counts as two. . . . (evil grin)

[pookie18]

Re the NYC “Values”:

http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/01/14/cruz-to-trump-not-a-lot-of-conservatives-come-out-of-manhattan/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AtIih54Gh8

http://nypost.com/2014/01/24/de-blasio-defends-cuomos-verbal-slap-at-extreme-conservatives/

[Cold Heart]

I’m pretty good at giving comebacks in a debate after I have had a day to think about it.

Having qualified my skills, at the time Cruz was giving his explanation for the New York political bent, my thought was a one liner, one line only, that would not have gotten Trumps comeback.

New York City elected DeBlasio.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Hey, the Gov. of NY says that pro-life people are not welcome there! That’s NY values for you.

[dandiegirl]

I really like Christie when he called BO a petulant child and then went on to site the massive Republican gains across the land including historic numbers in the house, the most since 1928. He then pointed out that obviously the American people have rejected all of his policies so he is going around them. I thought it the best moment of the night.

[mulligan]

Should be two. Trump and Cruz. The others, the rest of the group are the reason the nation is in such a mess.
Wake up Americans. If we do no elect new blood the nation will continue on the path to disaster.

[pookie18]

& DeCommio agrees with him...

[UMCRevMom@aol.com]

Harvard Law’s Tribe: Cruz a ‘Constitutional Opportunist,’ ‘Hypocrite’
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/01/15/tribe-cruz-a-constitutional-opportunist-hypocrite/
VIDEO

“The funny thing is, that the kind of guy Cruz is, he’s always been this way. When he was my student he was this way. He’s always said the Constitution always means the same thing that it meant when it was adopted. That’s why he made this funny joke to Trump, you know, saying, the Constitution didn’t change since last September. Well, he thinks it didn’t change since 1788 when it comes to gays and, you know, women and other things. But when it comes to his own ambition, he’s suddenly becomes what he accuses me of being, and it’s a pretty true accusation, a judicial activist. That’s not the guy he is normally.”

“He’s being a constitutional opportunist, a hypocrite,” Tribe continued. “It’s sad, because he makes light of it, but it is a genuine open question, and there’s no way of getting around it. Like if he’s the nominee, it won the be hard to imagine some secretary of state somewhere simply refusing to put him on the ballot on the ground that that secretary of state is also an originalist and thinks, if you weren’t born on the land of the United States, then you just can’t run. At that point, somebody would have to sue them, whether it’s Ted Cruz himself as the nominee, if that’s what we’ve got, or the Republican National Committee. There’s no way to avoid an issue like that going to the Supreme Court. And the irony is, the liberals on the court, assuming they all voted according to principle, as opposed to politics. It isn’t always that way, the liberals on the court, the activists would go with Cruz, and the originalists if they were true to their position like Scalia, would vote against him.”