Republicans clashed in the second round of presidential debates on Wednesday night. Held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, the 11 leading candidates debated for more than three hours on CNN. Earlier in the night, four dark horse candidates battled in the preliminary debate.
Some winners and losers emerged in both of the clashes.
WINNERS
Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor was something of a minor player, at best, in the first debate. That changed on Wednesday night. Christie was excellent recounting his experience on 9/11 and the fears that he might have lost his wife in the terror attacks. On both terrorism and calling out Hillary Clinton, Christie scored points by noting his background as prosecutor and even reminded conservatives that he was a pro-life governor in a deep blue state. Christie even jumped in to try to break up the Carly Fiorina-Donald Trump fight. Defending medical marijuana, Christie went after recreational use. On climate change, Christie said he thinks it is happening, but agreed with Marco Rubio that the economy should not be compromised to handle it. While he still has a way to go to catch the frontrunners, Christie had a good night.
Carly Fiorina. Sharp on policy and always showing she is not to be trifled with, Fiorina proved her win on the undercard in the first debate was no fluke. She was excellent, offering details on foreign policy and against federal funding of Planned Parenthood. Given the chance to respond to Donald Trump’s comments about her face, Fiorina was concise and showed the other candidates how to stand up to him. Fiorina continues to build momentum and has garnered much of that from her strong debate performances. In the first half of the debate, Fiorina was the class of the field. By getting constantly contrasted with Trump, Fiorina got a major boost Wednesday night. She also kept her fire on Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as well. In a rare moment when she revealed her family life, Fiorina offered a moving plea against drugs, noting that she and her husband had lost a child to it. Fiorina is clearly gaining ground and her strong debate performance only helped the climb. This was Fiorina’s night and she was the big winner of the debate.
Lindsey Graham. So far, the senior senator from South Carolina has been a non-factor in the race but he had a good night on Wednesday. Graham didn’t have the breakthrough performance that Fiorina had in the first undercard debate, but he was a clear winner even if conservatives might not have liked his stances on the legislative process and immigration. Funny and often pushing the other candidates on foreign policy, Graham had a solid outing even as he continued to return to international policy. Graham was also lucky to have George Pataki to his left on social issues, including saying he would fire Kim Davis for refusing to comply with a federal ruling on same sex marriage. “That’s the first thing I'm going to do as president: we’re gonna drink more,” Graham said in what was easily the most memorable line of the night. While he is not moving up to the top tier any time soon, Graham had the best night in what has been an underwhelming campaign so far.
Marco Rubio. While the senator from Florida did not score the big win that Fiorina did, Rubio did well on Wednesday night. Rubio was strong on foreign affairs and offered some family history as he talked about the immigration experience. Clashing with Trump, Rubio issued a reminder that the GOP leadership was against him when he ran for the Senate in 2010 and said his missed votes there often resulted from dysfunction in Washington. Rubio was often at his best calling for a muscular foreign policy and speaking passionately on the war against terror. Talking about climate change, Rubio made the case for the federal government to get out of the way and do no harm to the economy. Rubio has a lot of up-side, even if he is not at the top of the polls. His debate performance should keep most Republicans seeing the Miamian in a favorable and often exciting light.
LOSERS
Bobby Jindal. Being in the undercard debate was supposed to be the Louisiana governor’s moment. If anyone was going to have a breakthrough as Fiorina did in the first debate, it should have been Jindal. But it didn’t happen. Jindal scored points for his criticism of the Beltway GOP, but got overrun by Rick Santorum on social issues, including on religion in the public square and on Kentucky clerk Kim Davis. Graham also offered viewers a reminder that Jindal served in Congress and might not be the outsider he presents himself as. Too often, including when the debate focused on Iran, Jindal was on the sidelines. In recent days, he has focused on going after Trump, but he didn’t do any real damage in the debate. Jindal didn’t shoot himself in the foot but this was his best chance to break into the upper tiers. It didn’t happen.
Rand Paul. The senator from Kentucky simply doesn’t have the spark his father had and was often a non-factor in the debate. Paul did not have much time and garnered his most notice when Trump said he should not be on the debate stage with the major candidates and insulted his appearance. Even worse, in areas where Paul should be strong -- the marijuana laws, foreign policy and taxes, for instance -- he was a non-factor for much of the debate. Paul finally made his argument about military intervention in the Middle East in the last hour of the debate, but even there offered little passion. For a politician who has made his name for being a bold voice, he looked weak by not calling out one of his rivals who admitted to smoking marijuana in high school -- giving Jeb Bush a chance to respond. Even worse, Paul’s claim that Bush and marijuana opponents want to put poor people in jail fell flat. Paul’s numbers have been in a nose dive and this performance did not help.
Donald Trump. What a mess. Despite his obvious attempt to be the likeable frontrunner, Trump picked fights with Rand Paul and George Pataki (who wasn’t even in the main debate) and drew fire from all sides. Fiorina landed a big punch against him when she responded to his comments about her face, while Jeb Bush scored points when asked about Trump’s comment on his wife’s Mexican roots. Trump also backed down without a fight on foreign policy after Bush defended his brother’s record by saying “he kept us safe.” When Trump did offer specifics, it was against vaccinations. Even worse, Trump spent a large part of the first half of the debate as a non-factor. The normal political rules don’t apply to Trump, but he loses ground when he is on the sidelines. That’s exactly the place Trump shouldn’t be. There simply weren’t enough water-cooler moments from Trump for him to really shine here.
Scott Walker. The Wisconsin governor has been sinking in the polls, especially in Iowa, something Trump even spotlighted in the debate. Walker needed a solid debate performance to get back into the mix. But after starting the debate by going after Trump, Walker was near invisible during the first half. Walker has been bringing out new policy positions in recent days such as limiting government unions. Considering his battle with public unions made him something of a folk hero among Republicans across the nation, Walker was mostly silent on it on Wednesday night until the second half of the debate and his closing. While foreign policy is not Walker’s forte, he did rip into Obama on the matter in one of his better moments. Still, the Wisconsin governor needed to do more than what he did on Wednesday night.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or follow him on Twitter: @KevinDerbySSN
