Ken Berwitz
I\’ll start with an admission: I only saw the last 40 or so minutes of last night\’s New Hampshire debate. And, based on what I\’ve read about it this morning I missed some fireworks between Chris Christie and Marco Rubio, and between Jeb Bush and Donald Trump.
I\’m particularly sorry about missing the Christie Rubio to-do, because it apparently showed Rubio sticking closely to a premeditated script, and thereby communicating that he is more robotic than cerebral. During the time I saw him he was very impressive. I don\’t have a clear opinion of how his performance played.
Christie gave us what we\’ve come to expect from him: blunt talk, much of it very sensible, and the antithesis of anything slick or scripted. He did not hurt himself, but I doubt he helped himself enough to make any kind of move.
The most striking element of the time I watched this debate was that, attention-wise, Donald Trump was back in the pack. That is great news, because it enabled other candidates to talk about their views and their positions on issues, instead of having a mud-fight with The Donald.
I have read several accounts suggesting Trump did well last night. I didn\’t see any such thing. In fact, his seemingly unstoppable propensity for nastiness came out in his closing statement, and he got booed for it.
I thought Kasich and Bush both did extremely well. This probably (not sure here, but probably) meant more for Kasich.
If Jeb Bush had been this articulate and animated from the start, he might well be one of the leaders of the pack right now, instead of fighting to prove his backers did not excrete away huge amounts of money for nothing.
John Kasich, who has both a successful gubernatorial record and a successful congressional one, may be poised to take a strong leap forward. Wouldn\’t bother me a bit.
Ted Cruz was surprisingly less of a presence at this debate that I would have expected from last week\’s winner in Iowa. That said, he certainly did not disappoint his conservative followers, and neither helped nor hurt himself.
Ben Carson was there, and answered questions. Not much to attract voters to him though.
Carly Fiorina was not there and did not have the chance to answer questions. She should have been.
Jim Gilmore was not there and should not have been. He has no support and should not be on a debate stage anymore.
