Republican Debate

Since we recently found out that the Guardian is in the Hillary fan club, perhaps we can get some unbiased reporting on the Republican debate.  Or at least biased against all of them equally.  Let's find out.

[Marco Rubio, t]he freshman Florida senator went into the final Republican debate before New Hampshire votes on Tuesday as the rising favourite.

[...]

Rubio had a disaster. His chief antagonist was New Jersey governor Chris Christie who seized the earliest opportunity to put the young senator through the mincer. Building on a theme that he had tried out at a packed rally earlier that day, Christie taunted Rubio as a callow ingenue who could do no more than regurgitate a “memorized 25-second speech”.
  Guardian

Oooh, the knives are coming out now.

Rubio proceeded to make Christie’s point for him. Instead of answering the question put to him, he repeated the soundbite he had just uttered – a riff about Barack Obama having a deliberate plan to transform America. Christie pointed this out to the watching audience, Rubio doing exactly as he had described, retreating to the comfort zone of a well-rehearsed stump speech. Rubio promptly repeated the soundbite again.

[...]

It looked like that sequence from the 1970s thriller the Stepford Wives, when a software glitch reveals that a human-like character is in fact a robot.

[...]

Rubio never recovered. A small comfort, of a sort, came later when a close-up showed the Florida senator sweating under the lights and under pressure. At least it showed he was human.

I don't know. They make pretty good robots these days. Another article says he repeated the same talking points yet again about a half an hour later.

Some morning after press so those who didn't watch can enjoy it, too...

It meant that in just a few moments Christie had achieved what he set out to do: he had both wounded Rubio and got himself noticed. Given that he came 10th in Iowa, that was the very least he had to do. But the New Jersey governor did himself more good than that. He also gave strong answers – on drugs, saying that his definition of “pro-life” meant he cared about life beyond just the “nine months in the womb”, and on Muslim Americans, condemning those who demonized them – that will have appealed to moderate Republicans and perhaps to New Hampshire’s registered independents.

But it won't do him any good with evangelicals. Is the GOP leadership pushing Christie?

[Jeb] Bush caught the eye when he took on Trump over the “eminent domain” rule. The property tycoon tried to swat Bush aside by suggesting Bush was trying to play the “tough guy”. Referring to a specific case, Bush shot back: “How tough is it to take property from an old woman?”

Good one, Jeb! (Still thinking about mommy, I see.)

"The mogul has been accused of trying to have an elderly woman’s house in Atlantic City seized for a limousine parking lot for one of his casinos." (Guardian)

Kasich fired off no zingers, but his aura of sunny competence might also play well with New Hampshire’s independents. Alone in refusing to go negative against his opponents, he was the candidate of good, if unthrilling, governance. Some Republican activists believe the Ohio governor may spring the big surprise of Tuesday night: that, on the quiet, he has won over voters one by one, speaking at no fewer than 100 town hall meetings in the state.

He may have to change that tune in the South.

Of course the big obstacle for all these hopefuls remains the man who stood at the centre of the stage and was granted both the first and last words. [...] He was able to repeat his usual lines about China and making America a winner again, adding a pledge to “bring back waterboarding and bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding”.

Yeah. Like that.

Ted Cruz, who won in Iowa but is trailing Trump in New Hampshire, took more heated criticism from Carson over the accusation that the Texas senator’s campaign had spread a false rumor that Carson was dropping out of the race.

  Guardian

‹sarcasm›Wow. A knockout punch.‹sarcasm›

Trump [...] mocked Bush as “a tough guy”, holding a single finger to his lips, setting off a cascade of boos from the audience, which Trump welcomed.

Instead of rebutting Bush on the facts, Trump used the opportunity to play the villain to the crowd as if he was a heel in professional wrestling. “All of his donors and special interests, you know has tickets,” the real estate mogul said. “The reason they are not loving me is because I don’t want their money”. The audience of 1,000 at St Anselm College, which the Republican National Committee said consisted of 75 donors, kept booing.

I suspect Donald Dick knows perfectly well he wasn't going to be liked in New Hampshire and went for a bluster show for his Guns and Bibles fans.

Trump was relatively quiet on what has become his trademark subject[immigration], telling voters he would “build a real wall and not a toy wall” with Mexico.

[...]

[He] pivoted to trade: “We have – tremendous – has been just sucked out of our country by China. China says they don’t have that good of control over North Korea. They have tremendous control. I deal with the Chinese all of the time. I do tremendous – the largest bank in the world is in one of my buildings in Manhattan.”

Yeah. Word salad is good enough for them.

Rubio doubled down on his social conservative credentials, reiterating his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape and incest. “I would rather lose an election than be wrong on the issue of life,” the Florida senator proudly proclaimed.

That's good. I don't think you'll be disappointed.

His Republican rival Ted Cruz, asked whether the practice notoriously used under the Bush administration during the war on terror was torture, denied it was: “Under the definition of torture, no it’s not. It is enhanced interrogation ... It does not meet the generally recognized definition of torture.”

  Guardian

Some people didn't get the memo.

But the Texas senator added: “I would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use. And indeed I’d join with Senator [John] McCain in prohibiting line officers from employing it.”

Cruz/McCain: The "Enhanced Interrogation" Ticket. It just might work.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush – brother of former president George W Bush under whom waterboarding was used by the CIA – said: “It was used sparingly, Congress has changed the laws and I think where we stand is the appropriate place.”

Meanwhile, Marco Rubio says it was inappropriate to discuss interrogation techniques.

Ohio governor John Kasich told voters that if he’s elected president, they better “go out and buy a seatbelt”, because he’s going to hit the gas in his first 100 days.

  Guardian

Oh,no. He didn't.

This must have been the best debate ever. I almost wish I had watched.

Carson, being a doctor, had the best drugs.

New Jersey governor Chris Christie was introduced and walked out, waving at the audience.

That normality lasted for all of four seconds. Carson was introduced by David Muir and Martha Raddatz. He was supposed to head to his podium.

But instead of striding out confidently onto the stage, the former neurosurgeon idled awkwardly in a corridor. For over a minute. While all the other candidates walked past him.

[...]

Things became more absurd when the next candidate, Ted Cruz, was introduced. Cruz walked out from backstage and appeared momentarily baffled by Carson’s loitering. Carson looked at the Texas senator and ushered him through with a wave of the hand.

Cruz walked past and took his place on the stage. Still Carson stood. Waiting. A producer leaned around the curtain from backstage and desperately gestured Carson towards the area where the debate was going to take place. Carson turned, looked at the man, saw the gesture, then remained rooted to the spot.

[...]

Donald Trump was called. He idled behind Carson. Neither of them headed to the stage. They looked like two old men waiting for a bus.

Next, Marco Rubio’s name was called. He skipped past both Trump and Carson. Jeb Bush did the same.

Carson remained in place.

Finally, one minute and 18 seconds after he was summoned, Carson walked on to the stage.

Trump followed him.

Cue sighs of relief all round. The embarrassment was over. Except it wasn’t quite. The ABC hosts had forgotten to bring Ohio governor John Kasich onto the stage.

It took Chris Christie to remind Muir and Raddatz.

“What about Kasich? Can I introduce Kasich?” Christie asked.