My take on the 4th Republican debate!

The entire 4th Republican debate.

It's that time again. This is my reaction to the 4th Republican debate. I have to say this was a good one, both on policy and for entertainment value. Before I say anything else, I have to say that the moderators in this debate did a much better job then the ones during the CNBC debate. The questions were much more fair and the moderators mostly let the candidates make their case. Gone were the "gotcha" questions from the last debate, but though the questions were less snarky, I think that they were still reasonably tough. The only criticism I have for the moderators is that they let the candidates talk, even when their time was up, and did nothing to shut up the candidates that were interrupting others. 

I did watch the "undercard" debate so I will mention a couple of things I thought of during it. Chris Christie won it, which isn't saying much. The only other guy that had a good performance was Mike Huckabee. Christie only won because he bashed Hillary Clinton in pretty much every answer and because everyone else was a joke. Rick Santorum was so boring I can't remember anything he said. Bobby Jindal was the worst of all though. He came across as arrogant and pompous. He spent most of the time attacking the other guys in the undercard debate and when he did tout his own plans he did it in a way that made him look self important in a way that his very low position in the polls don't justify. At all. Even if he was number one in the polls he would have looked unlikable and arrogant. Chris Christie, to his credit, never rose to the bait and attacked him back, even though I think it would have been justified if he had socked him in the mouth. 

As for the actual debate, I watched the whole thing and for the most part was impressed with the candidates. I did do a complete 360 on one of the candidates though, to the point if he is the candidate I'll be voting 3rd party. Anyways, here is my reactions for all of the candidates. 

Donald Trump:

I think Trump had a fairly good night. Not as good as his performance in the 1st debate, but better then his performances in his other two debates. This was a kinder, gentler Trump. He still attacked people, but for the most part he was cordial. And when he did attack people it was for a very good reason. He got into it with John Kasich early, but that was Kasich's fault. He tried to pick a fight with him on immigration and insulted Trump in a way that showed that Kasich had absolutely no respect for him. Trump then made fun of him and I think he won that fight, both on policy and in performance. He also called out Carly Fiorina for interrupting everyone. Even though everyone called him sexist for doing it, Fiorina deserved to be called out. She was being rude and annoying and someone had to call her out on it. I would have done the same thing. The fact that he hit her because she was interrupting Rand Paul, a man who was fighting with Trump in the 1st to debate, made it even more impressive to me. 

Other then those two fights, Trump was much more cordial then he has been in the past. He tried to shut John Kasich up to give Jeb Bush a chance to talk, complemented every single candidate for their tax plan and even had nice things to say about John Kasich and Carly Fiorina during the post debate interviews. He did not hold a grudge, even against candidates that had sparred with him in the past. To me that seems pretty damn presidential to me. I think Trump is evolving as a candidate, and the days that you could write him off as a blowhard are long gone.

On policy, I think Trump did way better then the media are giving him credit for. Obviously, his position on immigration are going to be popular and he really set himself apart from the other candidates. While people like Kasich, Rubio and Bush called for amnesty, he called for deportations and also pointed out that Eisenhower was able to deport people during the past. Trump also scored points on foreign policy. Though the news media was baffled that anyone could support Russia attacking ISIS and the rebels in Syria, I think his position is way more mainstream then they realize. Though people are afraid of ISIS, they really don't want more war in the Middle East. Letting Russia fight for us sounds like a populist position to me and I think Trump scored points here. 

Ben Carson:

I really think that Ben Carson was a complete non-factor last night. I only remember two things from Carson's night. First, he handled the question about the non-scandal over his autobiography. Instead of trying to answer the attacks, he blamed the media then skillfully re-directed the focus onto Hillary Clinton. And he had a great point. Carson has gotten way more scrutiny then Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders has. Given the fact that there is a decent chance that Hillary Clinton will go to jail if she isn't elected, it should be on the news 24/7. Her actions during the Benghazi attack, her e-mail scandal, her general treatment of other people, all of these things should disqualify her as being president. But the media focuses on stupid things that Ben Carson may or may not have embellished in his book.

On policy I wasn't too impressed with Ben Carson. He did say that he wanted to fight ISIS in Iraq and push them back into Syria so Russia can deal with them. That's not a terrible idea, but I don't think people want to send enough troops to Iraq to do it. On taxes and everything else though, Carson didn't do much to elevate himself from the pack. I have no idea why people are saying Carson won the debate. I don't think he did anything to hurt himself, but he didn't do much to stand out from the crowd. Either way though, Carson isn't popular for his debate performance. He's popular because he speaks out against political correctness. 

Marco Rubio:

As always, Rubio had a good night. Not an amazing one. He had one embarrassing slip when he was trying to say that being a parent was the most important job, more important then being president, but he said that being a president is more important then being a president. Whoops. Fortunately for him, almost everyone missed the gaff, and even if they hadn't I don't think anyone would have cared that much. Rubio may have hurt himself on immigration, as his amnesty position is very unpopular. 

Other then that, Rubio is excellent. He was able to win a major fight with Rand Paul. Paul rightfully hit him based on his proposal to extend a tax credit for families as being too expensive. But Rubio turned it around on Paul by making it about national defense. Though there is obviously room to cut the fat in defense, Paul's position on cutting spending is not going to be popular. Rubio managed to completely deflect Paul's criticism on something that probably should have criticized about. 

Ted Cruz:

Ted Cruz was said to have a good night, but I just didn't see it. He made no impact on me whatsoever. I remember him talking but I don't know what he was talking about. He was there but I didn't really remember what he said. He did have one line about the tax code being longer then the bible and not nearly as good, that will play well, but other then that, I just can't think of anything to write about him. Looking back at my live tweets, the only time I mentioned Cruz is when he pimped his website. Perhaps I am biased against him for some reason, but I just don't think he made much of an impact on me. 

I do have to say that I remember a fairly embarrassing gaff where he said that he was going to cut five departments but said commerce twice. That kind of gaff killed Rick Perry's campaign, but I don't think it hurts Cruz. Unlike Perry, nobody called him out about it, and most people probably missed the gaff. He also never had a chance to clarify what he was saying, and I am sure by the next debate he will be able to correct this minor error. 

Jeb Bush:

Yet another bad night for Bush. He just isn't good in a debate. On policy, he's just a clone of Marco Rubio. And Rubio is MUCH better in a debate then Bush is. He didn't have any good moments whatsoever. He did say a few things that I agreed with, like his support for repealing executive orders from the Obama administration, and his acknowledgement that ISIS is the biggest threat at the moment. But as a candidate he was terrible. He was stuttering, stumbling and had a moment where a joke just completely fell flat (comparing Washington Iowa and Washington DC). I see Bush's poll numbers dropping and I think that he will fall to the undercard debate sooner then later, assuming he doesn't drop out completely. When the best moment you have during the night is when Donald Trump defends you, you know your campaign is in trouble. 

Carly Fiorina:

Very unimpressed with Fiorina. She was pretty annoying. She kept interrupting people and I completely disagreed with her on foreign policy. I have said before that Fiorina's plan to not talk to Vladimr Putin is, quite frankly, completely insane. And she was called out on it. To me it seems that Fiorina is all for starting up the cold war again. And I think there is a decent chance that if she is president we could start up  an actual World War III. I think most people are opposed to that. She was trying to look tough, but instead she looked dangerous. 

It's getting to the point where I don't see how I could vote for Fiorina. She just seems dangerous, and I think she is getting a pass on what she is saying because she is a woman. People are afraid to call her out on policy because they are afraid of being called sexist. Hell, Donald Trump was called sexist just for saying that she shouldn't interrupt people. Personally, I think that is disgusting. If someone hates Fiorina for her gender then they should be called out on it. But to hate her on policy? I think its justified. 

Rand Paul:

Best debate performance from Paul so far. He managed to semi-stump the Trump. Trump was ranting and raving about TPP and China, and being pretty damn convincing, when Rand Paul rightly pointed out that China isn't even in the TPP, shutting Trump down. He also was pretty strong on foreign policy and correctly pointed out that we are working with al-Qaeda in Syria. That's not common knowledge but it is 100% true and he, along with Donald Trump, should have opened some eyes last night. 

Marco Rubio was able to fight Paul to a standstill over the budget though. And I am not sure all of Rand Paul's positions are popular. Rubio tarred him as a isolationist. I don't think that's fair but he's much closer to one then anyone else in the race. Overall though, I think this debate will help Paul in the polls. He probably won't move up to much, but I think he should be able to stay in the race.

John Kasich:

Terrible night for Kasich. He was rude, annoying and wrong on policy. He kept going on and on and interrupting everyone. It was extremely annoying and it was very disrespectful as well. He treated Donald Trump with utter contempt. He was, quite frankly, an asshole. To the point where I can't seriously consider voting for him. By the end of the debate I was shouting at the television telling him to shut the hell up. I wish someone had done so during the actual debate. 

He was wrong on policy as well. He got into it with Trump about amnesty and I think he lost that fight hands down. He also had a major flub when he said that he would bail out the banks, including the people that could afford to lose money. His positions are way far from the mainstream when it comes to the Republican Party, and I can't imagine that he stays in the main debate for much longer. Everyone hated what he had to say. Such a massive difference from the first debate when he actually impressed me. 

Conclusion:

All in all, I think it was a good debate. Much better then the last one. I am starting to get a much clearer idea of where the candidates stand on the issues. It also greatly changed my mind on at least two candidates. I am now actively opposed to both Carly Fiorina and John Kasich. I also think that the field is starting to narrow. At this point I just don't see Bush, Kasich and the undercard participants staying in the race for much longer.  

I also will say that the moderators did an amazing job for the most part. I am hoping the rest of the debates are much closer to this one in terms of questions. Until then though, I am wondering how this debate season will end up. We are rapidly getting closer to the first primary elections and so far there isn't much clarity. I am hoping this debate will clear things up after the polls have time to react to them.