Post Debate Thoughts

We didn't do a podcast last night because...meh.

Still, there are a few takeaways.

Cruz crushed it. The big theme of the post-debate spin has been how awful CNBC moderators were. And while everyone (except I believe Kaisch and Bush) took their shots at them, Cruz landed the first big blow.

The other big moment was Jeb's awful attempt (predicted by me the day prior to the debate) to hit Rubio over his attendance in the Senate.

A couple of problems here. First, you don't see it in the clip but Jeb wasn't called on, he barged in on the end of a Rubio answer to something else. The barging in isn't the problem, the problem was it was a good Rubio answer. He was on a high note and Jeb didn't have the sense of the room. It was false, contrived and badly delivered. It also missed the point.

Making this about attendance is the predicate not the heart of the matter. Rubio is running as the candidate who is closest to the middle class, the average voter who struggles to make ends meet. Bush sort of gets at this but doesn't deliver it hard. He should have said, "you talk about being close to the middle class but how many of them have a $174,000 per year no-show job to fall back on? How many of them can say, "the reason I'm not going to work but will cash the checks is because I gave a year's notice and am interviewing for another job? None of them Marco and they'd be fired if they tried. Why do you think you're so much more special?"

Jeb is done. The only question is will his Super PAC spend a few million dollars taking Marco out with him? I certainly hope so.

As for the rest...

Trump wasn't big and loud. He was kind of there. I think that's ok for him. He's got his 25% so of the vote and seemed to be modulating himself to get a second look from other voters. He had a good line at the end about how CNBC wanted a 3 hour debate and how he and Carson told them to stuff it. Question is was anybody left watching by then.

BTW- Have the GOP hacks who hit Trump over that admitted he was right to cap it? No? Huh.

Carson was ok too. He handled a totally loaded question about gays very well. He showed opposition to gay marriage by Christians isn't about hate. Should play well in Iowa.

Christie had a few good moments as well including mocking the moderators for asking about federal regulation of fantasy sports.

Fiorina was strong on questions about mandating retirement accounts and what happened to her at HP.

Huck and Kasich were....there.

Rand Paul...wasn't there in any meaningful sense.

Hard to score this on any substance because the debate moderation was so awful there was even less policy talk than normal in these things.

Oh and Reience Priebus came out and blasted CNBC after it was done. What did he expect from a network with "NBC" in its name?

Will the GOP let NBC and Telemundo keep it's February slot after this? Sure because the GOP is gonna GOP.

In the end it might not be up to the RNC. The Carson campaign is trying to organize the rest into taking control of these shit shows.

posted by DrewM. at 10:54 AM

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