Rubio's Tough Night

[sinkspur]

Rubio’s Tough Night

February 6, 2016 11:47 PM
RICHLOWRY

Everyone knew that Christie was going to come after Rubio hard, and yet Rubio let himself get steamrolled. He either got rattled by the assault or thought he was sticking to his message by bringing it back to the point that Obama’s intentions, not his lack of experience, accounts for the disasters of his administration. Of course, Rubio only validated Christie’s attack on him by seeming so relentlessly scripted. The moment already has dominated the post-debate discussion and will continue to do so–the clips of Rubio saying the same thing is just irresistible to TV producers. What Rubio needed to do more than anything in that moment was show that he could stand up to Christie. There is obviously a risk to Rubio that the exchange will now change the narrative of his candidacy, and if he underperforms in New Hampshire and can’t finish significantly higher than Kasich, Christie, and Bush, it will be an inflection point for his campaign. On the other hand, there’s always the chance that the pundits will obsess on the moment more than voters (Rubio was strong the rest of the debate).

Trump was clearly under-informed, as usual. He lost control of himself a couple of times, and Jeb zinged him on eminent domain. Otherwise, he kept his head down and besides Jeb, no one hit him. In fact, Cruz went out of his way not to follow up on his harsh critiques of him from earlier in the week. Perhaps gravity is dragging Trump down anyway, but there was nothing in this debate that would particularly hurt him (and I imagine his robustly pro-police answer was a winner).

Cruz had a rough first 15 minutes, ducking Donald and trying to extricate himself from the Carson controversy, a little awkwardly. But he was good throughout, if not very memorable besides the powerful personal answer on drug addiction. He presumably wants Trump, not Rubio, to win New Hampshire and, in that respect, had to be very pleased how the night went. Kasich has been able to narrow-cast for his segment of the electorate in New Hampshire in these debates for a long time now, without anyone targeting him, and tonight was no different, although Christie took a swipe at him. He has to be counted as a winner, and if Rubio slips, has a very good chance to finish second in New Hampshire. Jeb continued to improve. He won his exchange with Trump on eminent domain and was crisper in general, if still not quite a stand-out debater. Christie was an anti-Rubio wrecking ball, but it’s not clear whether he helped himself much.

 Finally, it was wonderful to see Mary Katherine Ham, who did a typically classy and effective job.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/430905/marco-rubio-chris-christie-steamrolled-him?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=56b7559d04d301273ce62a33&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter

[Luis Gonzalez]

I kept thinking that Marco would point out that Christie appeared to be defending Obama by excusing his unconstitutional, anti-American actions as being the actions of a naïf and not the calculated plan of a person bent on radically and fundamentally changing America.

"Why are you still hugging Obama Governor?"

Marco needs to spend some time in Internet forums learning how to counter punch.

[Lando Lincoln]

Marco needs to spend some time in Internet forums learning how to counter punch.

He would have called Christie a RINO?

[sinkspur]

Rubio has to quickly do some extemporaneous interviews.  Yes, he can sound scripted. 

One thing I discovered last night: I dislike Christie as much as Trump. Rubio should have hammered him on the Obama hug and his current high unfavorables in New Jersey. 

The whole "Obama knows exactly what he's doing" things, repeated three times, was painful to watch.

[MACVSOG68]

Agree with much of the commentary, especially as it pertained to Rubio.  Rubio's been way too defensive of his immigration efforts.  The bill he co-sponsored handled the border security first issue pretty well.  The illegals register but won't get a green card until the border initiatives are in place.  He could have easily pushed back against Christie's assault but seemed unsure whether to stand up for his bill or cave in to the right wing.  Christie has been effective in trashing senators as not having the real experience of a governor.  That's true, but so far it hasn't helped Christie or any of the other governors to move up.  Trump's answers on eminent domain should have hurt him, but nothing seems to.  But it was the best I've seen from Jeb.  As someone else said, "too little, too late". 

[DCPatriot]

The whole "Obama knows exactly what he's doing" things, repeated three times, was painful to watch.

So....you believe it's a matter of incompetence rather than deliberate destruction?   

[sinkspur]

So....you believe it's a matter of incompetence rather than deliberate destruction?   

Obama's a flaming liberal and he's done his best to push that agenda forward. He doesn't see it as destructive. 

[mystery-ak]

Marco needs to spend some time in Internet forums learning how to counter punch.

Excellent idea for all the candidates..stop listening to your handlers and get on forums and read comments about how you look, act and sound...and then change it.

Someone take away Rubio's Redbull and fire his handler..he is tooo scripted all the time...relax!

[aligncare]

Rubio has to quickly do some extemporaneous interviews.  Yes, he can sound scripted. 

One thing I discovered last night: I dislike Christie as much as Trump. Rubio should have hammered him on the Obama hug and his current high unfavorables in New Jersey. 

The whole "Obama knows exactly what he's doing" things, repeated three times, was painful to watch.

Funny. I was thinking if Trump should falter, Christie would be my second choice.

[Bigun]

Obama's a flaming liberal and he's done his best to push that agenda forward. He doesn't see it as destructive.

BS! He's following the Cloward/Piven playbook to the letter!

[sinkspur]

America hasn't elected a fat man to the presidency since William Howard Taft, long before television.

Christie is another bully, like Trump.  His substance may be fine, but his style is completely offputting.

[NavyCanDo]

One candidate was booed during his closing statement. Can you guess who?

I missed the first 30 minutes, so I didn't see the exchange the post debate commentary was talking about, but the part I did see, Rubio seem to survive the attacks OK,  and did himself a huge amount of good with his explanation of conservatism - where as Trump sounded like he was reading it off of Wikipedia - "duh, conservatism means to conserve, to not spend money, to not change, to be very very boring.........."

Yet Trump, can insult the entire audience right to their face  and nobody is talking about it. I don't care how they got their tickets, they still represent NH Republicans, you don't insult them. I have never seen this done in a debate, ever.    Then the cheap shot at Cruz saying he cheated in Iowa, during his closing comment - knowing there can't be a rebuttal. Can any of you remember ever a candidate getting  booed during their closing statement.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Rubio has to quickly do some extemporaneous interviews.  Yes, he can sound scripted. 

One thing I discovered last night: I dislike Christie as much as Trump. Rubio should have hammered him on the Obama hug and his current high unfavorables in New Jersey. 

The whole "Obama knows exactly what he's doing" things, repeated three times, was painful to watch.

But if you give three different answers then you're appearing to be unsure and flip flopping. The answer to a question doesn't change if the question is ftramed differently. That's something else Marco should have hit Christie with.

"Why do you keep looking for ways to excuse Obama's action Governor?"

Marco can turn this around on Christie.

[Luis Gonzalez]

He would have called Christie a RINO?

That's not counter punching. That's a display of one's inability to counter punch.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Yet Trump, can insult the entire audience right to their face  and nobody is talking about it.

They're not talking about it because those 10 seconds help Donald Trump.  He was booed by lobbyists and large donors and continued to call them out.  I half expect to see this in a future Trump ad. 

[Right_in_Virginia]

Rubio has to quickly do some extemporaneous interviews. 

Rubio needs another ten years to get some real life experience under his belt.  This was the point of Christie's exchange.  Like him or hate him, Christie did one helluva job proving his point.

[Lando Lincoln]

That's not counter punching. That's a display of one's inability to counter punch.

[Luis Gonzalez]

Rubio needs another ten years to get some real life experience under his belt.  This was the point of Christie's exchange.  Like him or hate him, Christie did one helluva job proving his point.

The point that Christie made, to any thinking person, is that he is a desperate man with an all-but-dead campaign who now understands that simply reminding everyone, over and over again, that he was a prosecutor isn't working, so he needs to score points NOT by standing on his all-but-non-existent record as a conservative Executive, but rather by appealing to the same ilk that see sophomoric Twitter insults and dropping the "f bomb" in public speeches as attractibe qualities in someone seeing to be the leader of the greatest nation on Earth.

[sinkspur]

One candidate was booed during his closing statement. Can you guess who?

I missed the first 30 minutes, so I didn't see the exchange the post debate commentary was talking about, but the part I did see, Rubio seem to survive the attacks OK,  and did himself a huge amount of good with his explanation of conservatism - where as Trump sounded like he was reading it off of Wikipedia - "duh, conservatism means to conserve, to not spend money, to not change, to be very very boring.........."

Yet Trump, can insult the entire audience right to their face  and nobody is talking about it. I don't care how they got their tickets, they still represent NH Republicans, you don't insult them. I have never seen this done in a debate, ever.    Then the cheap shot at Cruz saying he cheated in Iowa, during his closing comment - knowing there can't be a rebuttal. Can any of you remember ever a candidate getting  booed during their closing statement.

No. Trump was just on ABC downplaying the booing, saying they were all donors to the other candidates. He's also, all-of-a-sudden, downplaying the polls, saying the sample sizes are too small.

 "I will appoint the best judges."
What  will be your criteria?
"They'll be conservative judges."

Oh, and "I finished either first or second in Iowa, depending on how the votes are counted."  What the hell does that mean?

Trump never says anything of substance and gets away with it.

[sinkspur]

Rubio needs another ten years to get some real life experience under his belt.  This was the point of Christie's exchange.  Like him or hate him, Christie did one helluva job proving his point.

Yep. Christie took the night to trash Rubio and he did a pretty good job of it. And he's done it to Trump too.

Except his bullying never seems to benefit him. The Obama hug doomed him.

[Right_in_Virginia]

Yep. Christie took the night to trash Rubio and he did a pretty good job of it. And he's done it to Trump too. 

What's the point here?

[Right_in_Virginia]

No. Trump was just on ABC downplaying the booing, saying they were all donors to the other candidates.

Did you watch the debate?   

What Trump said during the debate that prompted the booing was exactly the same as he said on ABC.  Turns out to be true, too.  The Trump campaign received 20 tickets.  Just 20 tickets. 

As I've said previously, this exchange is a net win for Trump.

[NavyCanDo]

They're not talking about it because those 10 seconds help Donald Trump.  He was booed by lobbyists and large donors and continued to call them out.  I half expect to see this in a future Trump ad.

Using it in an ad is a great idea, and it can be played right next to this clip.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1tIH5XhXa0

[Right_in_Virginia]

Using it in an ad is a great idea

Thanks!   ^-^

[sinkspur]

What's the point here?

That none of Christie's bullying ever benefits him.  You left out that line.