The GOP’s Thunderdome Debate.. By Jim Geraghty

[mystery-ak]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/431958/print

 The GOP’s Thunderdome Debate
By Jim Geraghty — February 25, 2016

Welcome to Thunderdome.

For long stretches, this was one of the best debates of the cycle; certainly the toughest, at times the nastiest, and sometimes the funniest and most fiery. Both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz sense that time is running out and they needed to start landing punches. They probably succeeded with Trump University.

Of course, every time it got really good, CNN’s anchor Wolf Blitzer shifted to the human time-outs, John Kasich and Ben Carson. Neither man added much to the debate, other than Carson’s odd reference to fruit salad and Kasich’s strange suggestion that the president should be sorting out the encryption dispute between the FBI and Apple personally behind closed doors, and not having the dispute argued on the front pages of the newspapers.

Will it change anything? To judge from the results of the three most recent contests, Trump won all the recent debates. Most of his supporters seem unshakable. But after Trump’s big win in Nevada, and some gloomy poll numbers in recent days both Rubio and Cruz supporters needed to see some real fight in their guys tonight, and they got it. The problem for both is that both of them were good — Cruz with his trademark prosecutorial cross examination style, Rubio with humor and a relentless pace of Trump’s unsavory past — so neither man is going to feel much pressure to drop out.

Finally… is Donald Trump really getting audited every year for several years in a row? And he’s only mentioning this now? And this prevents him from releasing any of his tax returns?

[GAJohnnie]

Actually they weren't. It was the last gasp effort of dying campaigns and it failed badly

 End results last night?

Trump:

No knock out blows, no gaffes which leaves the rest still in Trumps rear view mirror

Rubio:

Likable an earnest. Great talker and smooth which will make the GOP ladies swoon but no there there. A human parrot repeating what he was taught to say. Take him off script and he fails badly.

For example: After going on the attack in this excited high pitched tone about Trump supposedly lacking specifics in his Health Care plan Rubio ends his tirade sneering “erasing lines around states what does that even mean?”

Trump then calmly respond by schooling young Rubio on how competition in health insurance would work. I guess we can understand why Rubio would be confused we haven't had real competition in the US Healthcare Insurance system for almost as long as Rubio has been alive. While Trump is making a clear concise case for his plan, Rubio interrupts with “Yes I know all that it is in my plan"

Those kind of exchanges may make political reporter all excited but it leave average voters going "Huh, 30 seconds ago you did not know what it meant NOW it is "part of your plan

"Ruibot" earned his unflattering tag again last night. Great as long as he is not forced off script. Once he is forced off script he looks flustered and uncertain. Of the many things voters look for in a President, flustered and uncertain are not two of them.

Cruz.

It is over. Cannot campaign with soaring rhetoric and high minded "perfect political purity" talking points only to have the real record be less then perfect. Warp yourself in "holy" white robes, as Cruz has done, and the political dirt of errors shows up darker and more noticeable. Cruz spent all night walking face 1st into the other candidates, specifically Trumps, kill zone.

Biggest knock down punches. After telling everyone he was the best qualified to pick SC Justices, Trump points out Cruz's support for John Roberts, who GOP voters feel should of ended the debate on Obamacare and Gay Marriage and didn't.

Then Cruz lectures Trump about campaign contributions only to have Trump point out he gave money to Cruz. Three point shot for Trump since it points out Cruz is woefully unprepared, appears to be a hypocrite and it exposes Cruz as a professional political insider playing this race as a pretend "outsider".

So at best Rubio/Cruz can claim is a stalemate which is a lose since they are the ones in Trumps rear view mirror