| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
The Winners And Losers From The Second Republican Debate
In the second Republican debate, certain individuals shined and raised the profile of their candidacies in a positive way, while others seemed to fade into the woodwork. Some candidates who were winners in the first debate lost this time around and vice versa.
After last month’s debate, I looked at where the candidates stood in the polls going into the debate, versus their results in the Drudge online poll immediately following, as well as the interest candidates generated on Google. Finally, I factored in the candidates stand-out, crowed-pleasing moments, which are key in our digital, soundbite age.
Using those measures, Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson were clear winners in the first go around. Trump did nothing to particularly hurt or help the momentum that he carried into the contest. Carly Fiorino received special mention for her strong performance in the early debate, with the correct prediction that she would earn her spot in the next primetime debate. The losers in the first debate were Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Rand Paul.
The deck was shuffled at Wednesday night’s debate. Once again, Trump’s standing in the race was likely not helped or hurt by his performance. Going into the debate the most recent polling had him at the top of the field, registering 27 percent. The billionaire candidate dominated the post debate Drudge poll (over 630,000 voted), leading the field by a long shot with 53 percent saying he was the winner. He was also the most searched candidate on Google according to the Washington Post.
One of Trump’s memorable moments was when Rand Paul attacked him for criticizing other people’s physical appearance. The Donald responded with a good laugh-line reminiscent of his Rosie O’Donnell retort in the first debate: “I never attacked him on his looks and believe me there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”
The business mogul also effectively called into question Carly Fiorina’s mixed record as head of Hewlett-Packard. Her time at the helm “led to the destruction of the company,” Trump said. “She can’t run any of my companies — that I can tell you.” However, Fiorina’s moment to hammer Trump was about to come.
Clear Winners
Carly Fiorina – It was clearly Carly’s night by every measure. The candidate went into the debate at 5 percent in the most recent polling, up from barely registering before the first debate. After the contest, 21 percent said she had won. Fiorina also prompted the most searched moment during the debate, when she spoke emotionally about losing her step-child to drug addiction. The candidate even managed to the turn the topic of drug use into a laugh-line with a dig on Jeb Bush. “The marijuana that kids are smoking today is not the same as the marijuana that Jeb Bush smoked 40 years ago,” she said.
Two other strong moments for Carly, was her response to Donald Trump’s remark in Rolling Stone about her face (“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said”) and her powerful prosecution of Planned Parenthood for harvesting aborted babies’ body parts. “I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes. Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, it’s heart beating, it’s legs kicking while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain. This is about the character of our nation, and if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us,” she said, drawing applause from the audience.
Marco Rubio – Rubio was a winner in the first debate, and he was a winner once again Wednesday night. Though he registered the same 6 percent on the Drudge poll that he had going into the debate, he had some strong moments and a high interest on Google throughout the debate. Strong on foreign policy, his time to shine was speaking about the Russian threat. He said Putin is trying to re-position Russia back to its Soviet Union, world menacing heydays. “[Putin’s] trying to destroy NATO. And this is what this is a part of. He is exploiting a vacuum that this administration has left in the Middle East.”
Chris Christie – The New Jersey governor moved from loser to winner for his debate performance last night. While he registered at 1 percent in polling going into and out of the debate, he had a solid interest on Google and some memorable moments. He was particularly strong on national defense and spoke with great affect regarding his 9-11 experience. “I was named U.S. attorney by President Bush on September 10th, 2001. And that next day my wife Mary Pat did what she did every day, she traveled through the World Trade Center and went to her office two blocks from the World Trade Center,” Chrisie said. “And after those planes hit, for five-and-a-half-hours after that, I couldn’t reach her, didn’t know whether she was dead or alive, and we had three children at the time, 8, 5 and 1.”
Image Credit: Washington Post
Clear Losers
Ben Carson – The former doctor was a winner after the first debate, because he had memorable moments, especially in his closing. He had none Wednesday night. He went into the debate at 24 percent in polling, and 4 percent felt he had won. His interest on Google dropped off significantly.
Scott Walker – The Wisconsin governor was neither a winner or loser in the last debate, though he had a memorable moment or two. Wednesday night he lacked those times and registered at 2 percent going into the debate, with only 1 percent feeling he won in the Drudge poll.
John Kasich – The Ohio governor was also neither a winner or loser in the first debate, but enjoyed the support of the Cleveland hometown crowd. Kasich went into the second one registering 3 percent support. In last night’s poll, one percent felt he won. He also experienced a significant drop off in interest on Google.
Falling in the neutral ground for the second debate were Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee. Bush was in the losing category last time, but managed to have some memorable moments defending his brother George W. Bush for his leadership in protecting America, as well as defending his wife against a past comment from Trump.
Cruz was a clear winner in the first debate, but the second one did not seem to offer the outstanding orator as many opportunities to shine. Paul came off as less surly than the first debate (when he was in the losing category), and spoke with conviction and knowledge about the Constitution. Huckabee received an honorable mention for his memorable closing in the first debate, but Wednesday struggled to get into the mix. He did speak powerfully about the need to preserve religious liberty, referencing the Kim Davis case.
The candidates are slated to meet again on October 28 in Boulder, Colorado.
The views expressed in this opinion article are solely those of their author and are not necessarily either shared or endorsed by WesternJournalism.com.
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/the-winners-and-losers-from-the-second-republican-debate/
