Tag: 2016 gop debates
The RNC And Their Debate Audiences

The RNC And Their Debate Audiences

After Saturday’s cage match of a Republican debate, one question has seemingly been asked more than any other — besides, well, “What the hell is happening?

“Why were people booing?”

As Vox’s German Lopez reported:

“Something very peculiar happened at the Republican debate on Saturday night: When Donald Trump talked, the audience booed. Yet when Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and even John Kasich talked, they got loud cheers and applause.”

South Carolina voters are known for their tolerance of shady campaigning: In 2000, John McCain lost the state to George W. Bush after an anonymous push poll insinuated that McCain’s adopted daughter was “an illegitimate black child.” Eight years later, McCain came out on top of a crowded field that included Mitt Romney, after Christmas cards with Mormon themes were sent voters around the state.

But stacking the audience of a televised debate with establishment Republicans — the accusation Donald Trump made numerous times during the debate, and one that his campaign repeated afterwards — would be breaking new ground in voter manipulation.

And yet, this seems to be a possibility: contrary to most debates so far this cycle, there was no ticket lottery in South Carolina for interested voters and members of the general public. The candidates got 600 tickets to split between them, and the rest went to the RNC, state and local elected officials, and the media.

This time, Donald Trump might be right.

But Saturday night was not the first time this election season that the Republican Party has sought to alter perceptions of winners and losers by controlling ticket distribution. In fact, as Republican candidates have demanded more control over debate conditions, down to the smallest detail, the RNC has used its control of the ticketing process to balance the scales in favor of party officials and donors.

Before that first debate of this election cycle, Ohio Party chairman Matt Borges said it was his goal “to have as many people as possible attend the debate at Quicken Loans Arena.” After the debate — in which the 4,500 people in attendance watched Megyn Kelly start a “feud” with Donald Trump by asking… questions — the GOP has tried its best to control crowd sizes.

Two months later, the Republican debate at the Coors Events Center at the University of Colorado, which holds 11,000, took place in front of nearly 10,000 empty seats. After a campaign demanding their inclusion in a debate hosted at their school, 150 CU students received tickets to the event, fewer than the Republican National Committee’s allotment for themselves. “This is a television production more than anything else,” Sean Spicer, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, told Boulder’s Daily Camera at the time.

Between that debate and the following one, in Milwaukee on November 10, longtime Republican elections lawyer Ben Ginsberg convened a “family dinner” of disgruntled presidential candidates. By the end of the night, they had come up with a draft letter to the RNC: the party would no longer play a role in deciding debate conditions, including types of questions and whether candidates are allowed opening statements. They would be left with just one primary responsibility: ticketing.

The letter — and the candidate insurrection — was quietly buried, likely due in part to the reaction of media organizations to the candidates’ demands. Megyn Kelly, reading the draft letter, joked, “Maybe like a foot massage?”

The next debate, hosted by Republican billionaire kingmaker Sheldon Adelson at his hotel in Las Vegas, included a generous bundle of extra tickets for Adelson. The Las Vegas Review Journal — which Adelson recently purchased over the protests of paper staff — recently endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination. At the time of the debate, the Trump campaign was especially concerned about Adelson stacking the Venetian audience with establishment voices. We want all campaigns to feel welcome and comfortable,” said Adelson spokesperson Andy Abboud. “Nobody has a thing to worry about.”

New Hampshire’s Republican debate brought Donald Trump’s first on-stage charge that members of the audience were special interest plants. Of the 1,000 people in attendance at the debate, held at Saint Anselm College, 200 were guests of the academic institution.

“They went out, because they’re rich, and they bought the tickets from the kids that were giving the tickets,” Trump said afterwards, referring to “wealthy donors.”

The RNC did not respond to a request for comment about their ticketing practices.

Of course, no matter the ticketing situation, we can’t discount the possibility that the booing is just that: disgust with a candidate who has scratched the last, thinest veneer off of civility off of this election cycle. Maybe the crowds are stacked, but the sentiment shared by those in the audiences at Republican debates might actually be more widely-held than the RNC would assume.

The next Republican debate on the docket will take place at the Moores Opera House at the University of Houston. It’s 800-person capacity is one of the smallest of the entire election cycle. The Texas Republican Party is lotterying an unspecified number of tickets for the “extremely limited” seating.

Photo: Donald Trump speaks with the media in the spin room after the Republican U.S. candidates debate sponsored by CBS News and the Republican National Committee in Greenville, South Carolina February 13, 2016. REUTERS/Chris Keane

Jindal Vs. The Republicans At The Undercard Debate

Jindal Vs. The Republicans At The Undercard Debate

Most GOP candidates are content to reserve their most emphatic attacks for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

Not Bobby Jindal.

In recent months, the Louisiana governor’s stump speech has calcified around a pitch that “it’s not enough to elect just any conservative — we’ve seen that.”

In Jindal’s now-familiar narrative, his party lost the last two presidential elections because each time it nominated a “fake conservative,” and the GOP itself in general is in danger of becoming a “second liberal party.”

“We try to be cheaper versions of the Democratic party,” Jindal protested, admonishing that the party should “embrace our own principles,” and by extension, nominate him — the only candidate, he claimed, whose conservative record may not have made him “electable” in any conventional sense, but that that was a good thing.

(Rick Santorum, the former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania — who had a memorably Jindal-esque moment where he shouted so loudly it temporarily distorted his microphone — said that at least Democrats fight for what they believe in, unlike, presumably, his own party.)

Jindal was the “only candidate” (his persistent self-elevating refrain) who effectively cut his state budget by 26 percent — much of which came from his decision to privatize the state’s charity hospital system, the loss of funds for Hurricane Katrina relief, which were set to expire anyway, and the gutting of the state’s educational system.

He was the “only candidate” who had reduced the government economy while growing the private economy. This, despite the fact that Louisiana’s private-sector employment growth has lagged behind the the national average, and since 2009 his state’s annual GDP growth has averaged 0.5 percent (compared with a national average annual growth rate of 1.9 percent). Jindal took office in January 2008.

Other candidates, he said, proffered a lot of “hot air” — among them, specifically, New Jersey governor Chris Christie. And the undercard debate which aired Tuesday night on Fox Business Network contracted to a clash between authentic conservatism and actual electability, as embodied by these two governors.

While Jindal challenged voters to elect “not just any Republican” but to elect one who would “take on the establishment,” Christie spoke of the need to elevate the debate above intra-GOP squabbling and for Republican candidates to direct their rancor where it belonged — at Hillary Clinton.

In fact, Jindal’s premise — that by nominating so-called moderates, Republicans had failed to draw out “real” conservative turnout — is not borne out by exit polls in 2012, and his rejection of the notion of “electability” seemed to be informed by attitudes of the far-right after the 2012 loss, like those of RedState founder Erick Erickson, who commented that “the most electable usually aren’t.”

Christie — who, along with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, until recently had stood at a podium on the top-tier debate — touted his gubernatorial victory in a heavily Democratic state as a weathervane of his value as a candidate for general election — the very thing that made him such a target for Jindal.

“Let’s not pretend that out-of-control government spending is only a Democratic problem,” Jindal said — a remark directed pointedly at Christie and his record as governor of New Jersey

Chris Christie reminded audiences that when asked what enemy she was most proud to have, Clinton answered: “Republicans.”

Clinton’s comment was meant in jest. But on that at least, she and Jindal might agree.

The Very Worst Of Fox Business, Host Of Tuesday’s GOP Debate

The Very Worst Of Fox Business, Host Of Tuesday’s GOP Debate

This piece originally appeared on Media Matters.

Fox Business will host the fourth Republican presidential debate tonight. Unlike its sister network Fox News, many are unfamiliar with the low-rated Fox Business. But Media Matters has been watching since the network’s debut in 2007. Here are 35 of the worst things to appear on the “business” network.

1. Fox Business Promoted Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy Theory: “Photoshopped”

ERIC BOLLING: I need to know this. You see this fold. This has clearly been photocopied from a book. You see that? It kind of folds back to, like, almost like a binding of a book. And then for some reason, there’s a green border around it that had to be Photoshopped in. Trying to figure out why they would do that.

PAMELA GELLER: Well, this whole border is suspect. I mean, if you’re taking a scan of something, it would, to your point, it would be white. Why is this the color of the same —

BOLLING: Note this – note this, you guys, April 25, 2011 — two days ago — is when this was requested from the state registrar, Alvin Onaka. So we’ll keep our eye on it. We’ll keep digging. Hey, listen. It may or may not be, but certainly opens up the can of worms that there are at least questions for it.

OK, Pam. Hang on. Let me bring in the rest of our all-star panel. On the left, we have Fox News contributor Tamara Holder; on the right, Dr. Ablow rejoins us, along with Fox News contributor Monica Crowley.

I’m looking at you over there, Tamara. I’m looking at you smirking a little bit. What’s wrong? I mean, at least it’s certainly — you have to ask the question, has this been Photoshopped?

2. Fox Business Host Questioned If SEAL Team Six Really Killed Osama Bin Laden

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Do you believe he’s dead, or do you want some more evidence? A photograph, a testimony of an eyewitness? Something other than the words of a president whose words we have doubted before?

MICHAEL SCHEUER: Well, Judge, I think what I go with is the men and women on the ground. If they didn’t get him, they would admit it. The really, the success story here is not the president who did the right thing at last, but the true story is the young men and women who serve the United States in the military and the intelligence services. They risked their lives, they did their job. And if he’s not dead, they’ll never be able to keep that a secret.

NAPOLITANO: All right, but the intelligence services of which you were once a part want as much closure to this as the American public does. So with the body gone, or sleeping with the fishes, won’t there always be that lingering doubt amongst Americans: “Well, where is the body? How do we know he’s dead? Why isn’t there a picture of it? Why didn’t we see it before they shipped it off to sea?”

SCHEUER: I think much more than just a likelihood, Judge, I think we’re already in it. The conspiracy people are going to spin this up to a very high degree and even if they release the pictures they claim they have, with Photoshop and other programs, you can doctor any, any photograph to make it look however you want. So I think it perhaps might have been wiser to keep the body or at least show the body before they buried it.

3. Fox Business Host: “Show Me The Birth Certificate”

4. Neil Cavuto’s Two-Hour Keystone XL Freakout

Fox host Neil Cavuto devoted much of his two-hour Fox Business show to criticizing President Obama’s decision to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Over the course of his show, Cavuto questioned whether climate change is man-made, suggested Keystone XL would have been “one of the cleanest pipelines ever made,” likened pipeline opponents to protesters in London who “got pretty violent,” mocked Obama for rejecting the pipeline to appease “the French,” claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin “must be liking this,” and told coal company CEO Robert Murray that Obama is “kind of sticking a knife in you guys.”

5. Fox Business Host: Obama Was “Chugging A Few 40’s” Instead Of Responding To Joplin Disaster

ERIC BOLLING: [N]ow, tornadoes devastating the heartland, killing scores, and leveling just about every building in Joplin, Missouri — Mr. Obama, you’ve decided that chugging a few 40’s and rediscovering you’re Irish is more important than a presidential visit to a community trying to figure out what just hit them. Leadership, Mr. Obama, leadership; it’s about choices and you seem to be fresh out of the right ones.

6. Fox Business Host Attacked The Muppets For “Brainwash[ing]” Children Against Capitalism

During the December 2, 2011, edition of Fox Business’ Follow the Money, host Eric Bolling discussed the plot to the Muppets movie with Media Research Center’s Dan Gainor. Noting that the antagonist of the film is an oil tycoon named “Tex Richman,” Bolling asked, “Is liberal Hollywood using class warfare to kind of brainwash our kids?” Gainor responded by saying: “Yeah, absolutely. And they’ve been doing it for decades.” During the segment, on-screen text asked, “Are liberals trying to brainwash your kids against capitalism?”

7. Fox Business Host: Lego Movie Pushes “An Anti-Business Message To Kids”

8. Fox Business Used Footage Of Women In Bikinis To Discuss Crime In Mexico

9. Fox Business Host: Obama Might Issue Reparations For Slavery

10. Fox Business Host Accused Obama Of Hosting “Hoodlum[s]” In “The Hizzouse”

Eric Bolling teased a segment about the White House hosting the president of Gabon by saying, “Guess who’s coming to dinner? A dictator. Mr. Obama shares a laugh with one of Africa’s kleptocrats. It’s not the first time he’s had a hoodlum in the hizzouse.”

11. Fox Business Host Asked “Is There Something About The Female Brain That Is A Deterrent” To Having Female Tech Executives?

12. Fox Business Hosted “Debate” Between Republican Candidate And Obama Impersonator

13. Fox Business Hosted 9-11 Conspiracy Theorist Jesse Ventura To Discuss “Alleged Pentagon Plane”

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Before I let you go, tell me about your new series. What’s the next conspiracy you’re investigating?

JESSE VENTURA: Well, we open up with Plum Island, just down the road from here a little bit. We will do water, we will do 9-11 again, looking specifically at the Penta – the alleged Pentagon plane that hit there. We do J.F.K., which I’m thoroughly thrilled over because as I said you will get the first confession to the murder of John F. Kennedy on Jesse Ventura’s Conspiracy Theory.

NAPOLITANO: Did Lee Harvey Oswald kill John F. Kennedy on the lawn?

VENTURA: I don’t believe so, not at all.

NAPOLITANO: Governor, it’s a pleasure. Thanks very much for joining us.

VENTURA: Alright, thank you judge, appreciate it.

NAPOLITANO: We’ll be watching that show.

14. Fox Contributor Called Pope Francis A “Communist” And “Marxist”/a>

ANDREW NAPOLITANO: I am sighing because the Holy Father is a challenge for traditionalist Roman Catholics, of which I am one. Particularly, traditionalists who came of age under John Paul II and then under Benedict XVI. Who, though they had impulses that were not exactly Ayn Rand on capitalism, were far more into philosophy and theology, and far less into the economy … This particular Pope, who has proclaimed himself a Peronist, is somewhere between a communist with a lowercase “c” and a Marxist with an uppercase “M.” At the same time he is trying to be a Roman Catholic — uppercase “R,” uppercase “C.”

[…]

The Pope is infallible on faith in morals. Thank God it is just limited to faith and morals because he is, he is — he sounds like a left-wing professor at the London School of Economics when he blames the mass migration on economic inequality.

15. Fox Business Reporter: Insider Trading Is “Almost A Victimless Crime”

16. Fox Business Panelist: I’d Look “Fabulous” If I Had To Live On A Food Stamp Diet

ANDREA TANTAROS: I should try it because, do you know how fabulous I’d look. I’d be so skinny. I mean, the camera adds ten pounds.

17. Fox Business Host: “Many Of” The Poor “Have Things — What They Lack Is Richness Of Spirit”

18. Fox Business’ Heartless Response To The Philippines’ Call For Aid After Typhoon

A Fox Business host said he got a “big smile” when he heard that Australia backed out of its previous pledge to send aid to developing nations coping with climate change. His response comes as an official from the Philippines tearfully called for developed nations to make good on their promises to the climate fund in the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan.

On November 13, Stuart Varney, host of Varney & Co., celebrated Australia’s decision, saying he “do[esn’t] want to pay” to help the Philippines and other developing nations adapt to a rapidly changing climate.

19. Fox Business Host Blamed Obama For Baltimore Riot

20. Fox Business Host Asked Child At Tea Party Event: “Are You Worried About Me Stealing Your Money, Dude?”

21. Fox Business Host Complained Clinton Campaign Video Didn’t Have Enough Straight White Men

22. Fox Business Host Wondered If Billionaire Warren Buffett Is “A Socialist”

23. Fox Business Correspondent Attacked Climate Marchers: “Get A Job!”

24. Fox Business Host: “We Are What I Call Now In A Fascist State,” Asked If This “Is A New World Order?”

25. Fox Business Host Kicked Off Guest For Telling The Truth About Fracking

26. Fox Business Hosted Anti-Immigrant Sheriff For Post-Debate Analysis On Immigration

27. Fox Business Host: Obama “Dangerous” For Acting On Climate

28. Fox Business Hosts Attacked Federal Overtime Protections As “A Job Killer”

During a news update on Fox Business’ Mornings with Maria Bartiromo, contributor Cheryl Casone said the rule was being called “frankly, a job killer.” On Varney & Co., host Stuart Varney complained that President Obama was attempting to lift wages “by fiat,” and claimed that the overtime rule would harm “the assistant managers of this world, who will no longer become assistant managers.” On Cavuto: Coast to Coast, host Neil Cavuto quoted Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-MI) opposition to overtime protections, adding that “you can’t fathom” why the Labor Department would act to expand overtime.

29. Fox Business Hosts Attacked Caitlyn Jenner Vanity Fair Cover: “What The Hell Is Going On?”

Neil Cavuto and Dagen McDowell made light of Jenner’s transition on Fox Business’ Cavuto: Coast to Coast, asking, “What the hell is going on?” and calling her outfit “very Playboy bunny-esque” before introducing guest Charles Payne as “Charlene Payne.”

30. Fox Business Hyped EPA Mine Spill After Ignoring Spills From Fossil Fuel Industry

 

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

The Wall Street Journal, Fox News, and Fox Business are aggressively criticizing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for accidentally spilling toxic wastewater into Colorado’s Animas River while attempting to treat pollution from an abandoned gold mine. But over the years, these same conservative media outlets have almost completely ignored pollution that was caused by the fossil fuel industry, devoting more attention to the EPA spill than to seven recent cases of industry-caused pollution combined.

31. Fox Business Hosted Islamophobic Bigot Who Bans Muslims From Her Gun Range To Discuss Syrian Refugees

Fox Business Network invited Jan Morgan, the owner of a gun range in Arkansas that bans Muslim customers, to fearmonger that the Obama administration’s plan to accept 10,000 refugees from civil war-torn Syria “is an open door to an enemy invasion.” Calling for Islam to be “reclassified as a terrorist organization,” Morgan suggested that when refugees are admitted into the U.S., Americans may have to use their “right to bear arms to defend life.”

32. Fox Business Guest: “When You Look At Biology, Look At The Natural World … The Male Typically Is The Dominant Role”

LOU DOBBS: Erick, your thoughts on this study and what it portends?

ERICK ERICKSON: Lou, I’m so used to liberals telling conservatives that they’re anti-science. But this is — liberals who defend this and say it’s not a bad thing are very anti-science.

When you look at biology, look at the natural world, the roles of a male and female in society, and the other animals, the male typically is the dominant role. The female, it’s not antithesis, or it’s not competing, it’s a complementary role. We as people in a smart society have lost the ability to have complimentary relationships in nuclear families, and it’s tearing us apart.

And what I find interesting in the survey is that three-quarters of the people surveyed recognize that having moms as the primary breadwinner is bad for kids and bad for marriage, and reality shows us that’s the truth.

33. Ignoring Evidence Of Deception, Fox Business Host Praised Exxon For “Actually Help[ing] Finance Accurate” Climate Change Research

MARIA BARTIROMO: Let me move on to some policy issues, because Hillary Clinton, Al Gore — you know what’s coming here — more than 40 of the country’s leading environmental and social justice groups are demanding a federal investigation of ExxonMobil, accusing the company of deceiving the American public, basically, about the risks of climate change to protect profits. What do you say to it?

REX TILLERSON: Well, the charges are pretty unfounded, you know, without any substance at all, and they’re dealing with a period of time that happened decades ago, so there’s a lot I could say about it. I’m not sure how helpful it would be for me to talk about it, particularly as we’re leading up to some very important meetings that are going to occur in Paris, here in just a few weeks. I don’t want to be a distraction, I really don’t want this to be a distraction, there’s some serious issues that need to be talked about at that — at that convention. I think, as — all I would say is that we were very open during that period of time with all the research we were doing, we were spending a lot of time trying to understand this issue in the early days. We were very open with the work we were doing, most of it was done in collaboration with academic institutions and many government agencies, for us to understand this better, and I think as we began to understand that then people began to think about policy choices, we had a view on policy choices, which has not changed very much over the years, and we’ve been very open about that, so —

BARTIROMO: We should point out that you actually helped finance accurate scientific research about climate change, and yet Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Al Gore — they’re basically saying you and your industry are hiding the risks of climate change, just like the tobacco companies hid the risks of smoking.

TILLERSON: Well, nothing could be further from the truth. Again, as you point out, we’ve been very active participants in supporting scientific discovery. We funded some of the very early attempts to model the climate.

BARTIROMO: Right, I know that.

TILLERSON: And still do. At MIT we were the only major oil company that has been a participant in the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the IPCC, since its inception, and we still are a participant. Our scientists have peer reviewed the work done by the IPCC, we have authored many of the IPCC’s reports and have published more than 50 of our own reports on subject, so we’re hardly hiding from the issue.

34. Fox Business Host Described Graphic Showing Rep. Barney Frank “Appropriately Positioned … Catching, Of Course”

35. Fox Business Guest Called Native-Born South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley “An Immigrant” Who “Does Not Understand America’s History”

ANN COULTER: I’m a student of American history, so I’m appalled by — though I would really like to like Nikki Haley since she is a Republican. On the other hand, she is an immigrant and does not understand America’s history. The flag we’re talking about —

KENNEDY: You think immigrants can’t understand the history?

COULTER: Well, she doesn’t. The Confederate flag we’re talking about never flew over an official Confederate building. It was a battle flag. It is to honor Robert E. Lee. And anyone who knows the first thing about military history, knows that there is no greater army that ever took the field than the Confederate Army.

This piece originally appeared on Media Matters.

Fiorina Steals The Show At Primetime Republican Debate

Fiorina Steals The Show At Primetime Republican Debate

She wasn’t even supposed to be there.

Carly Fiorina tore through her second Republican debate in the 2016 race with one fiercely articulate answer after another.

She exuded a fiery resolve and competency; a capacity for leadership and efficiency that seemed to elevate her above the petty squabbles of partisan rancor and the bluster of reality TV.

Her trajectory has been compared to that of another novice politician from the world of business, Donald Trump. Yet she had managed to emulate the best of the real estate mogul’s tactics with none of his liabilities. She exhibited his impatience for political niceties, but little of his craven nastiness. If she was brusque, she seemed to say, it’s because she had things to do, not people to smear.

As if in counterpoint to the The Donald’s habit of spackling over his ignorance with words like “greatest,” “terrific,” and “Trump,” Fiorina came armed with robust details, reams of hard data, and specific action plans, which she rattled off with confidence and poise. It was like viewing a PowerPoint presentation by flashes of lightning 

Fiorina had edged her way into the top-tier debate after CNN amended its rules to include polls that had come out after her strong showing in the August debate. In addition to Fiorina and Trump, nine other candidates had assembled in the shadow of Ronald Reagan’s Air Force One, docked at the Gipper’s presidential library in Simi Valley, California: the retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Texas senator Ted Cruz, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, Florida senator Marco Rubio, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Ohio governor John Kasich, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and Kentucky senator Rand Paul.

In areas where the candidates were generally agreed, Fiorina was uncommonly forceful and succinct in pronouncing the party line. Iran and Planned Parenthood, she said, were twin issues: The former regarded the defense and security of the nation; the latter, the character of the nation.

She repeated her promise from the August debate — to make two phone calls on her first day in office: one to “my friend Bibi Netanyahu” to assure him that the U.S. was allied with Israel, and the second to the Ayatollah of Iran, Ali Khamenei, to let him know that America was “back in the leadership business.”

Regarding Planned Parenthood, she cited the videos that had been produced by an anti-abortion group, edited to make it appear that the women’s health organization had been harvesting fetuses and selling them, claims which Fiorina seemed to take at face value. Anyone who watched the tapes, she said, would have serious doubts about the “character of our nation.”

Where other candidates seemed to falter or rest too easily on stale talking points, she brought a fresh sense of proficiency and resolve, a moral conviction that did not exclude a deep understanding on the complexities at play, which resisted being reduced to campaign slogans.

She was not shy about calling candidates out, especially Trump, who claimed to have brought immigration to the table, when he made his border wall project and the scourge of Mexican “drugs” and “rapists” the cornerstones of his announcement speech. Fiorina unequivocally that shut down: “Trump did not invent immigration. We have been talking about this for 25 years.”

On the issue of birthright citizenship, she told Trump: “You can’t just wave your hands and say make the 14th Amendment go away.” She cautioned that immigration reform would be a long, arduous process, implicitly warning voters to resist the simplistic deport-’em-all rhetoric of nativism, but that she knew what it would take to accomplish it: manpower, money, and leadership — “The kind of leadership that gets results.”

What could Trump say to that? “I agree 100 percent,” he said. Compared to the conspicuously data-armed Fiorina, Trump’s hand-waving began to resemble a bad joke.

Trump’s brand of braggadocio seemed, at last, to be reaching the limits of its effectiveness. He took repeated shots at a relatively easy target, Rand Paul, whose libertarian streak puts him on the outs with the party line on foreign policy, drugs, and marriage equality. Trump claimed Paul shouldn’t even be on the stage, given that he was #11 in the polls.

And when Paul accused Trump of “careless language” that included “junior-high”-caliber insults about people’s looks, Trump responded: “I never attacked him [Paul] by his looks, and believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”

Carson coasted on his mild manner and adherence to many conservative lines on wages, immigration, and Christianity. His anodyne temperament and air of benevolence, as usual, seeming to excuse the gaps in his expertise, even as he described social programs as a “spigot that dispenses all the goodies,” and on the question of minimum wage, said simply: “It’s all about America, you know.”

Then the doctor came out swinging against the anti-vaxxer hysteria, calling Trump’s remarks about the link between autism and the MMR vaccine meritless. And he spoke of his vision to renew the nation through a “Kennedy-esque” effort to galvanize industry, academia, and business; as well as his conviction that strong leadership in the global sphere needed to be tempered by intellect.

“Radical islam cannot be solved by intellect,” Rubio retorted. The Florida senator emerged as cool and collected, steeled in his determination to bring the fight to our enemies abroad. He decried the notion that “somehow by retreating we make the world safer,” saying it “has been disproven every single time.”

Paul cautioned that our military campaigns in the Middle East have historically had a way of backfiring, that “sometimes intervention makes us less safe.” Every time we’ve toppled a secular leader, he said, it has led to chaos. We do need to be engaged in global affairs, but sensibly, and a sensible foreign policy didn’t include fighting in a civil war when both sides were evil, or playing the patsy while fighting other people’s wars. 

Christie and Paul picked up the fight where they had left it last month, switching from domestic surveillance and due process to the question of drugs. Paul made the argument that locking up nonviolent offenders for drug charges—overwhelmingly people of color—was a gross national mistake, and that the 10th Amendment left questions of drug policy to the states. (Christie had said prior to the debate that he would kill recreational marijuana in states where it is legal.)

Huckabee and Cruz continued in their parallel quests to cast themselves as conservative America’s last best hope at an effective Christian theocracy, where Supreme Court Justices would only be nominated if they could be relied upon to uphold God’s laws. Huckabee said that under his presidency abortion would be outlawed unconditionally and made “as much a scourge in our past as slavery is.”

Cruz proudly proclaimed that thanks largely to his success at having torpedoed gun control legislation efforts after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, he had won the endorsement of Gun Owners of America. The Texas senator also echoed his apocalyptic claims regarding the deal with Iran, which he said was “nothing short of catastrophic.”

“If you are voting for Hillary Clinton,” he said “you are voting to give Ayatollah Khamenei a nuclear weapon.”

Kasich, who has emerged as a relative moderate and voice of reason in the GOP field, locked horns with the staunch conservative on his promises to tear up the Iran nuclear deal on his first day in office and to shut down the government over Planned Parenthood in the coming weeks. He argued that unilaterally rescinding the deal with Iran would have enormous consequences for our ability to work with our allies and build consensus. We can be strong as a country, he said, but not necessarily going it alone.

The Ohio governor and former House Budget Committee Chairman also expressed his sympathies with those who wanted to defund Planned Parenthood, but he stressed that “when it comes to shutting down the federal government, we need to be very careful about that.”

Finally, a barely visible Walker touted his union-busting accomplishments in Wisconsin.

Throughout the night, the candidates fell dispiritingly into line along a familiar range of topics: Environmental legislation could not solve climate change, only hurt U.S. businesses (besides, Rubio said, “America is not a planet”). The “judicial tyranny” of the five Supreme Court Justices who said gay people could marry must be stopped. Guns are good. Abortions are bad. And so on.

And underneath it all, as Fiorina’s star rose, voters witnessed the caving of one erst-frontrunner and perhaps the first implosion of another. Jeb Bush and Donald Trump’s limp and petty slap fighting culminated in arguably the most uncomfortable high-five in American political history, which, if nothing else, proved that neither man knows how to pivot.

Photo: Republican presidential candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina speaks during the second official Republican presidential candidates debate of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign. September 16, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson