A Different Kind Of Debate

What a difference Hosts and Moderators make!

Tuesday night's GOP debate held by the Fox Business network was all issues, all the time. No ticky tacky personal questions, jabs or instigating trying to get candidates to slice and dice each other. Questions were asked about the issues and the candidates for the most part answered with little or no poking at each other.  Like the Maine motto "The way life should be", well this debate was "The way debates should be".

The first debate held at 7pm between Jindal, Huckabee, Christie and Santorum was pretty interesting. I think Christie won, with Jindal in second place. Won't be surprised if Christie makes the cut the next go round to the upper tier. In fact, I was surprised he didn't make it this time as I thought he did quite well during the last CNBC debate.  My guess is that Huckabee and Santorum will try and hang in there, possibly hoping for cabinet posts or even VP opportunities. But most likely both will drop out eventually. Of course I could be wrong.  Time will tell.

As for the 2nd debate. I think Cruz and Rubio were standouts. Though I have to say it wasn't Rubio's best performance. Cruz seems to be  slowly on the rise and gaining attention as others start to fade, blunder or for whatever reason no longer dazzle constituents. His comments about how journalists would be in an uproar about the border, so to speak,  if there were a flood of illegal journalists coming in and taking their jobs. It really got the point across and was a hit with the audience also. Think Cruz has got things figured out and is going to continue to rise in the polls. Of course the knives will then come out for him (some have already been making appearances) but that's par for the course. It's all part of the vetting process.

Trump did okay. Though I'm not sure I'll ever really understand how he continues to poll well after each debate. Why?  Because his answers on many issues are just blanket statements about how things will be great again, etc. if he becomes president. Rarely any true or detailed substance.  But then again, I get why he's so appealing and wrote about it just the other day.

Carson? No harm done but not a stellar performance either.

Carly? She held her own. Her poll numbers will probably remain the same.

Bush? Eh ....

The rest? Barely hanging in there.

Bottom line, is that I think we're going to end up with a top tier fighting for the nomination of Trump, Cruz, Rubio, Carly and maybe Christie. However, there are a lot more debates to come and who knows what scandal, blunders or screw ups could arise to topple any one of these candidates.

Stay tuned.