By: Ani Nrusimha
Eleven people had to stand for 3 hours on September 16th.
It was perhaps the most grueling session this array of men (and one woman) have had in months. No, I’m not talking about an extremely boring episode of Survivor. The most recent Republican debate, hosted by CNN, was a bloodbath in the political sense, with taunts and slander strewn about the stage like food in a cafeteria brawl. Even the debaters acknowledged it, with Rand Paul quipping, “My goodness, that happened in junior high,” about one of his fellow debaters, Donald Trump. For those of you who didn’t have the chance to view the spectacle it was, here are some of the winners, losers, and highlights of the night.
Almost all the people who were watching the debate found one clear winner in Carly Fiorina. Compared to the other candidates, she was the only one who clearly dealt with the elephant in the room, Donald Trump. The moment that illuminated her willingness to fight Trump was when she addressed his comments about her. Her professional attitude and maturity when asked on her opinion about the hurtful and immature comments (which went along the lines of she didn’t have an ‘electable face’) was evident, as she responded, “Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr.Trump said.” Early polling results after the debate indicate that she has sprung after this kerfuffle; something no other candidate can claim. In addition, Fiorina showed she was no pushover in the masculine crowd. During the debate, she didn’t talk as long as Bush or Trump, who both benefited from the rule that references to a candidate give them extra speaking time; however, she made up for it by interrupting others to make her points heard. She had the most number of interruptions of any of the candidates. Polls after the debate seem to also subscribe to this notion, with Fiorina jumping from the pack into 3rd polling at 13%, according to a Public Policy Polling survey taken this Sunday; an impressive jump of 5 points from just a month ago.
Carly Fiorina wasn’t the only promising candidate on stage that night. Marco Rubio had a very strong performance as well. Compared to Carly Fiorina, Rubio didn’t fight nearly as much with the other candidates, instead focusing on how his story can win Independents against Hillary Clinton. Just like in the last debate, he took a less controversial route with convincing argument about his story and his positions without criticizing others. However, he might later struggle with his tenure in the Senate, which seems to not be popular with Republicans recently. As with Fiorina, he has had a gain in polls, albeit a smaller one from 2-3% depending on the poll.
However, some people struggled at the debate, most notably Scott Walker, who dropped out soon after. His polling numbers have dropped in recent weeks, and now might as well be statistical error for all we know. Struggling to stay relevant in the crowd was his biggest sticking point. The people who previously supported him, establishment Republicans who thought Jeb Bush was bland and boring, came to the unfortunate realization that Walker is more boring to voters than Bush is.
Carson also had a weak showing, demonstrating that while his soft spoken qualities are great on paper in comparison to the rash Trump, they do little for him in the debates. Sitting right next to Trump and Bush, who endlessly bickered, he seemed almost intimidated to speak. Still, when he spoke, he spoke well, which showed in recent polling numbers. Although he dropped, he still retains his spot in second place in most of the recent polls, including the aforementioned PPP poll.
Bush, on the other hand, did quite well compared to the last debate. With his “high-energy” comments, as Donald Trump called them, he came out swinging. Trump and he fought repeatedly over different issues, like campaign funding. He came out as defiant and strong, in comparison to his last debate performance, which at best could be described as forgettable. He also strongly defined himself and his relationship to his brother and his handling of Iraq. One of his highlights of the night was, when Trump prompted him on his brother, commenting “he kept us safe.” He took these issues, which had earlier threw him off guard, well. However, even though there was improvement, the Republican voting block, whose votes ultimately matter, are not convinced. While Bush has stopped dropping in the polls, unlike how he previously had been since mid-July, the former frontrunner has not garnered the unilateral support among the ever waning establishment republicans. If Scott Walker had a small chunk of the vote, him dropping out might have helped Bush, but his dismal performance and drop did not have any influence on him.
Finally, the one everyone has been waiting for- Donald Trump. After skyrocketing to first place amongst the Republican party for the past few months, his performance at the debate was exactly was suspected: fight fight fight. It would take forever to go over each of his many fights, but I’ll try to summarize his performance with one: when Rand Paul said the comment aforementioned in the introduction, Trump’s response was, and I quote: “I never attacked him on his looks, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.” This kind of rude and random bashing that made Trump look weaker on the stage, along with his comments about Fiorina.
The most recent poll numbers, in the order of the highest % of voters who say they will vote for each candidate, show that Trump, Carson, Fiorina, Rubio, Bush, Cruz are leading, with all of them above 5%. However, these poll numbers are very preliminary, as we still have 4-5 months until the first primary in Iowa.
