Who Won the Debate?

I thought Rand Paul outperformed. I am biased though in that regard (although I have called him out when he has performed poorly, esp. in the first debate). Whether Paul advances or not, his foreign policy is winning. Recall the debates of 2008 and 2012 when Ron was the only sane one regarding foreign policy. You now have Cruz and Trump (the two front runners) parroting a lot of what Paul has been advocating for regarding foreign policy for several years.

The regime change argument is a winning one. And Rubio doubling down on removing all these secular dictators is not going to help him.

I think Cruz underperformed. I don’t think he necessarily hurt himself but he just came out as pretty flat. But it seemed like Paul did everything in his power to help Cruz. He did not attack him once (and there was ample opportunity for him to do so) but instead he skewered Rubio and landed some pretty effective blows on Christie and Trump. He made Trump look like an idiot regarding the internet (although Trump mostly did that himself). And Christie’s new slogan is WorldWarThree with Chris Christie!

Some are saying this was Bush’s best performance, but they’ve all been so bad that it doesn’t matter much. He just always looks so uncomfortable. I feel bad for him at this point.

Christie came across pretty well. Cruz and Rubio might have been helped. Trump didn’t do much. Carson flubbed the NSA answer. Florina reportedly pulled the gender card when I wasn’t looking, that comes across badly. Paul needs to hit the road. Bush probably gets cheers from the establishment for hitting Trump but falls with everybody else. Kasich needs to go back to Ohio and yell at the kids to get off of his lawn.

If you ask me, we need to narrow down the field to Cruz, Rubio, Fiorina, and Carson. A true Conservative, an establishment representative who is more Conservative than the rest of their bunch, a businesswoman with a lot of political savvy, and a genuinely kind and gentle man. Sounds like a good field to me.