By: Harleen Kaur
This summer the GOP Republican Debates took place on August 6th on Fox News. It received the largest, most attentive opening day, receiving 24 million viewers, in American politics, and that was all due in part to one person–Donald Trump. And while Fox news pounded hard on Trump the other candidates proved to be given difficult questions as well. Overall, the candidates rose to the occasion, but there were many clear losers and winners.
Everyone can agree that the debate ultimately went to Trump who dominated the discussion, was the clear focus of the moderators, and of social media. As the frontrunner of the of the Republican Party it isn’t very clear whether or not Trump hurt himself or helped himself that night. Although, he remains at the front of the polls and the other candidates seems happy with just being included.
The clear winner of the debate was Florida senator, Marco Rubio. The youngest on stage that night, Rubio seemed to be the most comfortable and prepared to appeal to the audience. His life story of being a child of Cuban immigrants was both relatable and appealing to those looking towards the American dream. After a few rough months Rubio became a candidate that could seriously be looking at the win.
The biggest disappointment of the night had to be Jeb Bush who was terribly unappealing. He seemed nervous and was overall uninspiring, and in a debate where the main goal is to provide motivation to the voters Bush came out to be a clear loser.
Both Rand Paul and Chris Christie came out of the debate with memorable names after their heated debated on government surveillance. Christie also took the stage when discussing entitlements. Overall, Christie had a good, not great, night while the debate on surveillance could be seen as Paul’s only high point.
Both Carly Fiorina and John Kasich were able to get a few good lines in about the opposing candidates allowing them to be put on the list of winners. Fiorina was able to get in a few good points against Bush and Trump, while Kasich used the low performance of Walker to his advantage. He was confident and reasonable, and had an overall good night. Both showed improvements in the polls following the debate.
Scott Walker proved to be just okay providing answers that were just adequate but confident. Huckabee seemed to be in the same category, but overall unmemorable. And the candidate with the biggest potential of the night had to be Ben Carson. He gave confident and appealing answers, but if he had had more airtime he may have been more memorable.
Overall, many candidates gave surprising arguments, but there were many clear losers and winners. There is still a race accounting for that fact that the elections are still over a year away.
