Debate Winners and Losers

Here are my takeaways from the two GOP debates yesterday...

For the first debate, Carly Fiorina was the clear winner. She was sharp, articulate, and substantive. The other six were essentially non entities although Lindsey Graham made some interesting points but that was largely due to his experience in the Senate. Rick Perry was awful. He just looked ridiculous. Pataki and Gilmore...why are they even running? Jindal very much looked and acted like he belonged at the kiddie table. Santorum's time has come and gone...just like evangelical Christians.

In the second debate, the clear winner was John Kasich. Even when pressed on issues like Medicaid and gay marriage, he stuck to his guns and proudly defended himself. Jeb Bush did an alright job as well but he needed to do more than that. The Donald was the Donald, of course, and, once again, lacked any real substance on policy. The first question was hilarious and it's going to be mighty interesting if he decides to run as a third party candidate.

Ben Carson was too flat. Chris Christie's main schitck has been stolen by the Donald so he wasn't much of a factor. A lot of people thought Rubio was good but I didn't see it. It's the same old ideas dressed up in a young, diverse looking package. Like Santorum, Huckabee's time is done. Cruz couldn't really be himself, again because of Trump. Paul really looked terrible but at least he didn't come off as bland as Walker, the real loser of both debates. His defense of himself as "aggressively normal" does not translate well to the national stage. If he is going to catch fire, he has to be a whole lot more than he is now. I don't think he can do it.

I'll give some props to the Fox News commentators for asking tough questions but they started off so fucking bad it was hard to take them seriously. Did they know the cameras were on for that pre -game 10 minutes? How was this planned? They looked very unprofessional.

Look for Fiorina and Kasich to move up in the polls.