The Thurs Day GOP Debate

proves that GOP has a bunch of entertaining clowns.

 

Thanks to the Donald. Just think of how much better the ratings would have been if Caitling Jenner was on the stage...

 

Can't wait to see Trump and Rand running as third party candidates...

GOP is going to get Nader'd

 

If you lean Libertarian, the establishment Republicans really don't want you talking. He made Christie look like an absolute buffoon, yet I keep hearing people say Christie came off looking good in that debate. IMO he was one of the worst, up there with Trump.

 

It wasn't as bad as I had thought, but 10th out of 10 getting the third most airtime is still a bit fishy.

 

Well he was also in his home state, where he is currently the Governor. Call it home field advantage.

 

my gop choices have gone down to 3.

1. Rubio
2. Christie
3. Walker

bush is ok but no thank you - no more bushes.

 

I'll call it the Fox News advantage.

 

That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, Kasich is about as left leaning as a Republican can be and still technically be a Republican. Isn't Fox News supposed to be right leaning?

 

It seemed to me that Fox was catering to Kasich last night. They gave him some of the best questions. After the first commercial break, they set him up with a question designed to make Trump look bad.

Watching the debate last night makes me believe that Ailes wants Kasich out front.

 

Well making Trump look bad really isn't a hard thing to do. As to Kasich, I think they threw him softball questions because they were in his home state and he had crowd support. If they were as hard on Kasich as they were on some of the others, the crowd likely boos the questions and you don't want that on TV.

 

Maybe it's because his positions aren't crazytown, he just looked better.

 

Did he? I'm hearing a lot of Democrats say that Kasich looked good, but is that really a good thing in a Republican debate?

 

I think Kasich is friends with someone at Fox

 

I just watched the whole debate and I don't think this really hurt Trump. It might've hurt him among party stalwarts but I think anyone who was supporting probably wasn't a GOP party stalwart to begin with. I agree with the others that this debate really helped Kasich. He had some of the best answers and brought a gravitas to it. The testy exchange between Christie and Paul helped both of them as it played to their own bases but overall this debate probably helped Christie more than it it did Paul since Christie is further down. A Republican friend of mine felt that this debate hurt Carson but I didn't think so. I don't think it helped him much I didn't think it hurt him. He looked OK and while his answers weren't substantive I don't think that will hurt him.

Rubio and Huckabee did well but probably won't help them much.

Cruz and Walker's answers were OK but they didn't look very comfortable out there. Walker appears sleepy and seemed more interested in Carson's answers often than he did his own. Cruz looks shrill and is covering ground that is already covered better by Trump, Rubio and Huckabee all of whom are more charismatic than he is.

Bush didn't do awfully but I think this debate will hurt him. As much as he insist he is his own man there is too much Bushism to him. He frequently stumbles over his lines and even while he has command of his material in what he is saying looks lost every now and then.

 

A technical note but if Jeb Bush wins the nomination Rubio can't be his VP. You can't have a President and VP from the same state. Cheney was officially listed as being from Wyoming.

That said agreed that Kasich and Rubio helped themselves and at the min. they might be in good shape for VP position. After the debate though I wouldn't even be surprised if a year from now Kasich is the nominee.

 

I wouldn't read much into the ratings as Democratic groups and the Clinton campaign were telling their own supporters to watch the debate. This debate might energize Democrats as much as it does Republicans.

 

Yep, I watched it purely for entertainment. I just wanted to see who could come up with the most GOP buzzwords in one sentence by trying to out-conservative each other. I was not disappointed.