As the crowd thins, it’s almost harder to
recognize the clear winners and losers in the debate among those who want to represent the Republican Party in next year’s presidential election.
But Ladra’s gonna try anyway. It’s late and it was long, so some of these observations may be fuzzy, but here are Ladra’s knee jerk winners and losers from the fourth GOP debate Tuesday night:
WINNERS:
Marco Rubio: Sure, I am considering his overall performance, including the stellar show at the last debate last month, because he is the most consistent candidate. Or consistently good candidate. There have been consistently bad ones. And we’ll get to Jeb later. Sen. Rubio shows the most depth on foreign policy issues and thoughtfulness on economic issues. He also is the only one of the 
candidates who demonstrated what pundits and reports called optimism for America, which voters want to see. Rubio made the crowd laugh and got some of the biggest applauses of the night. He also fended off a jab from Rand Paul on defense spending by saying that, yes, he knows that the world is safer when America is strong militarily. He also won points when he said that the terrorists don’t hate us because we back Israel. “They hate us because our girls go to school. They hate us because our women drive. Either they win or we win. This isn’t going away on its own.” Frankly, Rubio was the only candidate that looks and sounds like he can step into the commander in chief position today.
Ted Cruz: The other Cuban senator, the one from Texas, did a really good job of standing out among the other self proclaimed conservatives with his bread and butter campaign against the “Washington cartel.” He also made people think when he talked about the economic cost 
(read: jobs and salaries) paid to illegal immigration. He bashed the media at the same time, because that went so well for both him and Marco at the last debate. “The politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press, then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation,” Cruz said. He knows this crowd.
Fox Business Network moderators: Maybe it’s because they’re a bunch of nerds, and maybe it’s because there were fewer candidates, only six on stage, but the debate Tuesday night was the best as far as getting information on policy questions and answers to substantive questions about tax reform, immigration, healthcare, minimum wage and jobs, entitlements and foreign policy — and how each of the candidates would be a different president than Hillary Clinton. The moderators were funny just a few times and didn’t become the stars of the show. They did their jobs and they did them well. So good, in fact, that Ladra doesn’t even remember their names. One is British, I think. Kudos, the three of you, and thank you for bringing the standard back.
Carly Fiorina: The only woman in the GOP field made another strong case for her candidacy. Fiorina was forceful and strong and had concrete answers to questions about economic policies. But she’s also at the bottom of the winners because she stopped smiling again and seems really angry about everything. Also, her refusal to talk to Vladimir Putin is on the one hand, honorable, and on the other hand crazy for Cocopuffs. She reminds me of Cruella de Ville.
Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor easily stole the show in the JV debate before the real debate. Maybe going to the kiddie table is the best thing that ever happened to him. Because as the bully that he is, he will rule that school. Christie may be history as far as the nomination is concerned, but
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Look at Drudge Report results voting this morning.
It has always been traditional to run to the extremes to get the nomination, then run to the middle to get elected. This election looks even more so. The problem is for the voters (and press) to remember these extreme positions. Two of the lower-drawing (now) Republicans, Kasich and Bush, are looking like adults, with reasoned, reasonable, workable positions, and elected executive experience. Unfortunately, these positions will not get them the nomination in today’s climate. Rubio has possibilities, but is thin on believability. He is better at memorizing and repeating positions made up by his handlers. All the others appear to be deeply flawed or (like Rand Paul), unelectable, and the more debates and press digging that occur, the sooner they will fall.. Still looks like Hillary is a shoo-in.
“our” women?? did he really say that? well, he lost me right there, then.
as for cruz, how about the “legal” migrant who walk the bridge over the rio grande , and i dont mean the mexicans… the most damaging immigration is not illegal. and it is not from mexico. you know who i mean.
Very good analysis by Ladra.
On the discussion on economics and banking, I wish someone had made three points:
1. Community banks are hurting because their capital requirements don’t allow them to hedge investments like the investment banks.
2. Investment banks are enormous because they get to use both real savings from depositors/pensions but also 3 trillion dollars in almost-free FED money.
3. Government should, at most, bail out only the small depositor (FDIC already does that). Never, ever should government bail out bad investments – and the bigger the investment banks are, the more they should be allowed to fail….That’s precisely what the free market is all about.
Xavier
After the candidates refused to issue any demands to Fox before the debate, I decided that it would be a basically inconsequential debate. It was.
You left out: Donald Trump. It seems convenient to forget who started the conversations most of the field is now talking about. The reason so many support Donald Trump is they are wise enough to know America still belongs to the people and not the establishment. Good bye to Bush and Clinton, show them the door just like King George.
Rubio best of the gop…cant win against Clinton, however flawed she is, only hope is Clinton indicted by some gop AUSA…then the cronyism will be clear to all