The much ballyhooed Fox News Republican Primary Debate featuring the 10 highest polling candidates promised fireworks and entertainment. It looked like it lived up to the billing.
The participants duked it out at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, home to the NBA’s Cavaliers. They included: real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida), former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
While none of them delivered a Lebron James-esque slam dunk in getting one to commit a gaffe or presenting some innovative proposal, the candidates were on message and stayed civil throughout the two-hour primetime debate. It was more a series of occasional pokes than an outright food fight.
Trump, who’s dominated the top spot in many public opinion polls on the strength of his pugnaciousness and celebrity, appeared to dinge himself from the get-go by refusing to take a pledge that he would support whatever candidate wins the nomination and not split form the GOP to seek the presidency as an independent candidate.
It was one of many blunt assessments/responses the Donald revealed. He was unapologetic about previous, disparaging remarks he made about women, using words like fat, ugly and disgusting.
“What I say is what I say,” he declared.
Trump’s refusal to take the pledge was slammed by struggling candidate, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky), who accused the real-estate mogul of buying and selling politicians and “already hedging his bets.”
Paul attempted to bring greater focus to his libertarian Republican brand. Part of that attempt involved taking on Christie on the issue of legal tools used by the National Security Agency, such as collecting phone data of people in this country. Christie has called for giving the NSA more tools to spot and apprehend possible suspects, whereas Paul has called for scaling them back, citing possible civil liberties violations.
In perhaps the only heated exchange, Christie accused Paul of “blowing a lot of hot air” about the subject in subcommittee hearings. Paul accused Christie of “misunderstanding the Bill of Rights,” and giving “big hugs” to President Obama, referring to Christie’s infamous embrace during the president’s visit to a severely-battered New Jersey following Superstorm Sandy in late 2012, just days before the presidential election. Christie has been blamed by some Republicans for helping Obama win re-election, following his praise of Obama on his quick response during the storm devastation.
Christie shot back, saying his more meaningful hugs were the ones that involved the families of Sept. 11 terrorist attack victims. Christie served as U.S. attorney at the time.
While Trump was expected to be bombastic, the other candidates adopted a mostly civil tone often finding themselves having to defend their records and statements that were brought up in a series of pointed questions by debate moderators Megyn Kelly, Brett Baier and Chris Wallace.
Carson defended himself from a perceived lack of experience in foreign affairs and scant knowledge of Washington power players, saying the candidates are capable of picking up that knowledge. “The most important thing is having a brain and learning things rapidly.”
Walker defended his pro-life credentials. He has said abortion shouldn’t be allowed even in instances of rape, incest or to protect the life of the mother. “I’ve got a position that’s in line with the American people,” Walker said, even after Kelly pointed out data suggesting otherwise.
Kasich, who many pundits believed performed well given his late entry into the field and striking a tone reminiscent of former President George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservatism,” defended his expansion of Medicaid. He said it helped reduce emergency room visits by poor people seeking routine medical care, and helped many mentally ill patients and drug addicts gain access to care they needed.
And, Christie defended his record in New Jersey, despite the Garden State seeing numerous credit down grades, slow job recovery, and an ever-growing pension funding crisis. Despite the middling setbacks, Christie said it was still an improvement, given the challenges he said he inherited.
“If you think it is bad now, you should’ve seen it when I got there,” he said.
While the styles of the different candidates to answering the questions was what made the debate an often compelling telecast, they did delve occasionally into policy prescriptions. Few of them were anything groundbreaking, with the candidates pitching mostly typical conservative red meat.
Immigration
On the issue of immigration, candidates Jeb Bush, a former Florida governor, Trump and Rubio all agreed greater border enforcement was needed. Trump called for building a wall, but with a “door” that would allow legal immigrants to enter. But Bush called for “earned legal status,” which he said was different from amnesty. Sen. Ted Cruz, like Bush, called for eliminating “sanctuary cities,” which provide safe haven to illegal aliens.
While amnesty is considered anathema in Republican circles these days, President Ronald Reagan, still a hero for many modern-day GOP establishment politicos, approved amnesty for 5 million immigrants in 1987. Currently, there are an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants.
Rubio described illegal immigration as a “serious problem that needs to be addressed.” Otherwise, he said, it’ll remain a topic of discussion for decades to come.
Entitlements
Christie called for increasing the eligibility age and making high-earning senior ineligible for Social Security, providing it just for those who truly need it, such as those living in poverty or have few other retirement income options. He said such changes are needed because such a big chunk of federal government budget (by his estimate, upwards of 70 percent) is used to pay for that safety-net program.
Huckabee however, said that plan is unfair because so many wage earners who paid into Social Security through their payroll taxes would miss out on a nest egg they paid into. He called on expanding the revenue stream for Social Security by making sure all people who earn money are paying their share of taxes, including pimps and prostitutes.
Economic Growth
All called for reducing burdensome regulations, replacing Obamacare (formally known as the Affordable Care Act) and reforming the tax code. Huckabee called for putting in place his “fair tax” based on consumption and replacing employment taxes. Rubio also called for lowering taxes for small businesses, saying they are currently at a disadvantage against bigger businesses.
Rubio said the changing trends in the economy must be factored for effective policies. He mentioned the “disruptive” change that has taken place in recent years, where many middle-class jobs have been wiped out due to automation and outsourcing.
“This can’t be a resume competition,” Rubio said. “This election is about the future, not the past.”
The Donald had summed up this way on how the United States can stop being a perennial loser in commerce to countries like China and Mexico. He called this nation’s current political leaders “stupid.”
“This country is in big trouble. We don’t win anymore,” Trump said. “We need strength We need energy. We need quick ness. We need brains to to turn around this country.”
Foreign Policy
Virtually all the candidates said the proposed deal with Iran to reduce its nuclear weapon making capabilities was bad for national security that could cause further destabilization in the region and put allies like Israel at greater risk. They called for stronger relationships with Arabian Gulf states to create a bulwark against Iran, and Syria, where Basheer Al-Assad remains in power despite crossing Obama’s own “red line” by using chemical weapons on his own countrymen.
Fox News reported last night that Qasseem Soleimani, general of Iran’s elite Quds force, secretly visited with Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a violation of the international sanctions.
Cruz called for stepping up the pressure on Islamic State (ISIS), which has remained impervious despite a bombardment of air strikes.
“If you join ISIS, you are signing your death warrant.”
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