The Third GOP Debate

++Nate Silver group over at FiveThirtyEight felt that Rubio and Cruz were standouts. A minor voice was that Carly Fiorina who looked like Newt's wife came across as polished. Big loser--Jeb with the less time of everyone and a low energy performance.

++Drudge's online poll had the winner as Trump with 70%,Cruz with 13% and Rubio with 6.17%. Christie got .84%,Kasich .8% and the loser JEB! .4%.

++Since I did not visually see it because it was behind the paywall,I relied on Ed Kilgore of the Washington Monthly, Joan McCarter of DailyKos and the Huffington Post bloggers.

++Jeb and Rubio went at it and I thought Rubio's answers were too robotic and yes, he sweated alot. The moderators took after Rubio for his personal finances which would be a general election issue. Jeb went after his attendance record in the Senate and defended the Sun-Sentinel about Rubio should quit. Rubio may have gotten the better of Jeb when he referred to John McCain's awful record when he ran. Jeb missed his "I know John McCain and you are not John McCain" line.

++Rand Paul would float in and out of the discussion and mostly on obscure points like the Federal Reserve and reforming Social Security. Most of what he said I didn't understand the relevance.

++There was very little war-making in this debate except that JEB! gratuitously defended W to no reaction.

++Dr. Carson sounded drugged and spilled out nonsense on healthcare and other topics like same sex marriage.

++John Kasich had alot of time and was as overwrought as his earlier comments. The Donald got the zinger in,reminding everyone of Kasich's relationship to Lehman Brothers. He followed up with Kasich getting lucky with tracking.

++Chris Christie appeared at the end to defend the police and mention he would have prosecuted the bankers --fat chance. Christie was peppier than JEB! but it is unclear how turning up late in the debate helps him.

++Christie was first asked questions about Social Security which he lied about. Nothing needs to be done until 2034. This is a bugaboo for this blog since the early part of the Obama administration.

++Ed Kilgore noted how anti-government the whole field was and by the end was sickened by it.

++Carly Fiorina had to defend her atrocious tenure at Hewlett-Packard by citing the recession, inflation and anything you could ask for. She went out of  her way to blast President Obama and Hillary Clinton as bad for women. She came out against having a minimum wage,any government involvement in drug pricing,and for trimming the tax code to three pages.

++Nate Silver's crowd believed that Ted Cruz came with his A game and won the crowd with his Newt attacks on the moderators. Eric Ericksson announced that the moderators of CNBC were leftists, which is absurd.

++Everyone took potshots at socialism. Carly Fiorina tried to explain how any government regulations leads to socialism and crony capitalism.

++Yes, Mike Huckabee showed up supporting cures for a variety of diseases and said he had been the only one who fought the Clinton machine. He was referring to have defeated a candidate endorsed by Bill Clinton for governor of Arkansas.

++The whole field seemed to endorse the war on drugs as Kasich mentioned the heroin epidemic in his state and --cough--New Hampshire. Kasich tried to explain how he had capitalized on Clinton's economic success without mentioning it.

++MSNBC touted Marco Rubio's success tonight. I guess as the establishment choice du jour.

I thought most of the discussion was so obscure that audiences just watched for buzzwords. Rubio tried to get wonky on immigration but he lost me. Christie scored against Jeb! when Jeb! wanted Fantasy Football regulated.

Only at the end did someone mention Planned Parenthood. The surprising thin of the debate were the mentions of the poor and poverty. The Middle class  was left out.

So far no one stands out as top tier presidential contender. I could do with alot less Jesus. Ted Cruz tried to defend his father as returning to his family after Bible classes.