The most surprising aspect of the night was that a U.S. Presidential debate hosted by a moderator hosted by a Brit?!
Repeal & replace is the most used term of these debates. Of course the candidates want to get rid of Obamacare, but the same goes for other Obama works in progress according to Jeb Bush. “This may be the best Hillary Clinton can do, but it’s not the best America can do!”
Donald Trump once again echoed total doom & gloom for the country. We don’t win anymore, we don’t have smart leaders, the country is going to hell (his words) and by electing him he’ll round up all the illegal immigrants and deport them. He’ll also make our military bigger, better, stronger so nobody will mess with us. Finally, “America will be great agaaaaain.” Mexico also has much smarter leaders than we do and a smaller deficit, which begs the question: why hasn’t Trump moved there already?!
Jeb Bush‘s performance was fine overall, not enough to gain a wave of new supporters but likely to hold onto existing ones. Donald Trump stepped in and told the moderators to “let Jeb speak!” on immigration, something he was grateful for and explained that “we cannot be the world’s policeman but need to be the world’s leader.” He later expressed support for no-fly zones in Syria, a view shared by Carly Fiorina.
John Kasich and Rand Paul, although on the edges, almost served as pendulums to swing the conversation back to a point of reason. When Trump again discussed his mass deportation plans, Kasich said “come on folks, we’re not realistically able to do this!” Once Kashich started illustrating the holes in Trump’s idea, the Donald waved him off saying “I have built a great company, I don’t have to listen to this guy!” (Preview of a Trump presidency- he selectively listens to advisors and members of government?!)
Rand Paul became the professor of the night by educating the others about economic policy, trade, conservative values. He didn’t emphasize his own legislative record much instead questioned whether some of the other were true conservatives. He also said he wanted government to be so small that’s it’s barely visible. Micrandscopic?
Ted Cruz again mentioned the ambiguous “Washington cartel” he needs to either clearly define this or stop using it; nobody knows what he’s referring to. He said that the republicans will lose if they support a path to amnesty, probably the opposite will be true however. He managed not to pull a “Rick Perry” and remembered the five government agencies he plans to shut down. Cruz also didn’t miss a chance to attack Hillary Clinton, alledging that she is part of the ‘Washington Cronyism’ (another term no one quite knows the meaning of.) Cruz concluded with his belief in returning to some form of the gold standard, stating that he would not bail out a large bank.
Carly Fiorina mentioned requiring insurance companies to be more transparent by publishing costs and highlighting exactly where the money is going. She also wasn’t shy taking a jab at Trump describing how she had a meeting with Putin, not in the green room of a TV show. Her definition of socialism was “government creating a problem so that government could then solve the problem.”
Marco Rubio boldy closed by announcing that the democrats are offering tired ideas. We’ll be the party of the 21st century!” He slipped when discussing child tax credits stating that “the most important job is as a parent” followed by “the most important job is as president.” Which did he really mean? Rand Paul skeptically criticized his tax plan as “not very conservative” a charge Rubio had to defend.
Ben Carson once expressed his disapproval of the media’s vetting process thanking them for “not asking about what he said in the tenth grade.”