GOP DEBATE,,,WHAT NEXT?
In night of introductions to national audience, Jeb Bush underperforms
Republican presidential candidate
Jeb Bush, right, stands on the stage during a break in the first
Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday,
The former Florida governor struggled to find a comfort zone in the
debate setting, looking at times like he was trying to process a
multitude of thoughts simultaneously, very unlike his more confident
self on the campaign trail in less formal settings.
If Bush is
workmanlike in a speech, but animated and inspired in a
question-and-answer session or a town hall setting, then in his first
time on the debate stage he looked uncertain.
“He’s got to look
the part,” one of his advisers said before the night kicked off. Bush
did not for most of the night. He stumbled over his words, lacked
assertiveness and failed to go on offense as aggressively as he could
have.
Bush supporters argued he had done all that he needed or even intended to do: show up, be steady, and play it safe.
“He’s
keeping his place and showing that he is different than the family
name, that he has his own distinct record,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry
(R-N.C.), who was one of several members of Congress who spoke to
reporters afterwards on Bush’s behalf.
Even Bush’s most ardent critics didn’t put a ton of stock in the significance of one night.
“He
gave mangled answers. … I don’t think he helped himself. I don’t think
he hurt himself,” said Brent Bozell, a veteran conservative movement
leader supporting Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) who has repeatedly bashed Bush
and called him “unelectable.”
In the pixelated moment we now
live in, Thursday’s debate took on the significance at times of an
enormous event, a hinge in history. It was held in a massive basketball
arena, home to one of the greatest basketball players ever, Lebron
James. Media obsessed about it for weeks and descended on this city in
record numbers.
If an alien species had arrived somewhere in
America on Thursday night, it might have thought the millions of people
in this land were about to take some great action.
Fox News’
Megyn Kelly, one of the three debate moderators, billed it as a “moment
of truth” as a boom camera zoomed over the audience in the opening
moments. It was not. It was an introduction.
Most of the country
had never seen or heard many of the candidates. And while the coverage
may have been breathless, most of the candidates and their campaigns
approached Thursday night with measured expectations.
“This is the beginning,” said Jason Miller, a spokesman for Cruz. “Your goal with these is to improve your score each round.”
Bush
did “pivot into the record” as an aide had promised, repeatedly touting
his accomplishments in two terms as governor. And he had high moments,
particularly when he defended his education record and when he critiqued
businessman Donald Trump as “divisive” and made a call for the
Republican Party to “unite people with a hopeful, optimistic message.”
The
optimism was there, but the gravitas was not. There will be at least
eight more of these debates, and he has time to grow into the format and
improve. He will need to.
Many of the nine other Republican
candidates on the stage helped themselves with solid performances that
give them an opportunity to draw more interest. Ohio Gov. John Kasich
and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker performed admirably in their first real
time on the national stage. Kasich, in particular, on his home turf with
an enthusiastic crowd behind him, gave a deft answer to Fox’s Bret
Baier when asked how he would explain his opposition to gay marriage if
one of his daughters told him she was gay.
“I’m an old-fashioned
person here, and I happen to believe in traditional marriage,” Kasich
said. “Because somebody doesn’t think the way I do doesn’t mean that I
can’t care about them or can’t love them. So if one of my daughters
happened to be that, of course I would love them and I would accept
them.”
“Because, you know what, God gives me unconditional love.
I’m going to give it to my family and my friends and the people around
me,” he said. The crowd applauded enthusiastically.
Sen. Marco
Rubio, R-Fla., and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — both a bit more well
known nationally than Walker and certainly Kasich — also did well.
Rubio
was polished and composed from the beginning, and despite the vows from
advisers that he wanted to do as little to make waves as possible —
other than to make a good first impression — he delivered some of the
night’s best one-liners. As the debate wound down, Kelly asked the
candidates to say whether they receive divine guidance from God, and
Rubio responded: “I think God has blessed us. He has blessed the
Republican Party with some very good candidates. The Democrats can’t
even find one.”
Rubio avoided confrontation with his fellow
candidates and went after leading Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton,
the former secretary of state.
“If I’m our nominee, how is
Hillary Clinton gonna lecture me about living paycheck to paycheck? I
was raised paycheck to paycheck,” he said. “If I’m our nominee, we will
be the party of the future.”
Christie clashed harshly with Sen.
Rand Paul, R-Ky., over national security and civil liberties, and with
former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee over how to address looming
shortfalls in funding for Medicare and Social Security.
Christie kept his composure, scored points when he could and, like Bush, touted his record in New Jersey persuasively.
“Governor
Christie took his time and was patient and when the questions came he
answered them forcefully,” said senior adviser Mike DuHaime. “The game
came to him tonight.”
DuHaime said Paul “looked desperate” when
he tried to interject himself into several exchanges, including at the
beginning, when Baier pressed Trump over his refusal to rule out a bid
for president as an independent candidate if he does not win the
Republican nomination.
Trump — the center of attention for weeks
leading up to Thursday night and the current leader in the national
polls — was erratic. At moments, he marshaled his outsized personality
in service of sentiments that many conservatives find appealing, railing
against political correctness and thundering that Bush’s call for
measured tones is irrelevance
“When you have people that are
cutting Christians’ heads off, when you have a world that the border and
at so many places, that it is medieval times, we’ve never … it almost
has to be as bad as it ever was in terms of the violence and the horror,
we don’t have time for tone. We have to go out and get the job done,”
he said, offering no specifics.
But his critique of political
correctness came in response to Kelly’s question about his past
criticism of women that he disagreed with, in which he referred to some
as “fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals,” As Kelly put it.
Trump
was one of the few candidates to speak with the scrum of reporters in
the “spin room” behind the debate stage afterwards, along with retired
neurosurgeon Ben Carson. When he entered the room, a crush of TV cameras
and media rushed toward him and enveloped him.
Bob Grady, an
adviser to Christie, watched from a distance and remarked, “What happens
when this guy implodes? Where does that 30 percent go? That’s the game
right now.”
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