http://www.nationalreview.com/node/426903/print Policy Finally Dominates a Debate, but No Knockouts in Milwaukee
By Eliana Johnson & Tim Alberta — November 11, 2015
Milwaukee — It was, at last, a debate about policy. If the emergence of Donald Trump and the efforts of previous debate moderators to pit candidates against each other have forestalled the policy arguments that typically characterize Republican primary contests, Fox Business Network’s debate on Tuesday brought them to the fore.
Less than three months before voters go to the polls in January, the candidates clashed on some of the major issues that have divided the Republican party over the past six years: The night’s big moments did not come from one candidate trashing another, but from policy exchanges, first on immigration and then on defense spending. After months of headlines dominated by a real-estate mogul-cum-reality-television star, it was a welcome change of pace.
The event was steady and studious, and the upshot was predictable — an evening that did little to alter the trajectories of individual candidates or the broader narrative of the race. In the course of two hours there were no knockout punches, no major gaffes, no made-for-opposition-research moments. Each of the candidates went silent for a stretch, but none completely disappeared as in previous debates — perhaps because the stage had shrunk to only eight, the smallest primetime grouping to date.
If a single issue can be said to have encapsulated the bitter divisions within the Republican party over the past six years, it is immigration, and the key disagreements between the candidates — over border security, legal immigration, and amnesty — came to the fore during Tuesday’s debate.
continued
