Thursday, August 6, 2015

GOP Presidential Debate

Okay...  It is here...  Thoughts?
Fox News Debate
CNN  Debate

4 comments:

Sean said...

Someone from the "kiddie table" debate is going to be deemed the winner and get a media push out of it. My bet is on Perry or Fiorina.

Trump is obviously the A-story of the main debate. I expect folks will try to bait him early to see how he'll respond. He's also going to have to answer some specific policy questions, and he's going to have to start to have some other answers than just reassuring us of his inherent greatness.

The other story, I think, is how they choose to attack Hillary. Who can do it effectively, and in a way that appeals to both primary and general election voters?

Sean said...

I caught about 90 minutes of the main debate, and here's how I would grade them based on what I saw:

The Winner: Rubio -- composed, had some clever quips, handled challenging questions well, focus on the future reminded me of 1992-era Bill Clinton

Helped Themselves: Christie, Kasich and Carson. Christie was in command of his policy proposals, and Carson, I think, got his footing later in the debate. Kasich clearly had the home-state crowd on his side, and gave an energetic defense of his positions -- particularly on the Medicaid expansion.

OK: Bush, Walker, Huckabee. None of these three did anything exceptionally good or bad, although Huckabee is going to need his 2008 debating success to re-emerge if he's going to climb the ladder.

Hurt Themselves: Cruz. Looked out his depth to me.

Loser: Paul -- He seems to have lost sight of what his appeal is supposed to be.

Trump: If you like Donald Trump, you probably enjoyed his performance. For everyone else, it probably confirmed why you didn't support him, and his threat to run as a 3rd party candidate is not helpful to his chances of getting the GOP nomination.

John said...

I looked for it but apparently it was not accessible to my bunny ears...

MP Eric's Take

John said...

And from the little bit I saw of Trump, I don't think I could have taken it. Maybe I'll check it out on line later.

CNN GOP Debate
CNN Tough Questions
Fox News Election Central