FEBRUARY 8, 2016
Photo: Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
From the first moments the candidates walked on the stage, it was a trainwreck.
It was time for the introduction of the candidates at Saturday night’s GOP debate. The ABC News camera is perfectly positioned in the wings to catch each candidate’s entrance. ABC moderators David Muir and Martha Radditz announce “Gov. Chris Christie!” Christie waves and walks to his podium. “Dr. Ben Carson!” Carson takes a few steps toward the stage, then stops and stays in the wings. Huh? “Sen. Ted Cruz!” Carson starts walking onto the stage, then sheepishly returns to the wings as Cruz passes him. “Businessman Donald Trump!” Trump walks slowly into the wings, then he stops and waits with Carson! Then Rubio and Bush pass both men, and Trump and Carson are still in the wings. “Ladies and gentlemen, the Republican candidates!” And they forget to introduce Gov. John Kasich entirely.
Things only went downhill from there.
Yes, several important topics were discussed, from health care to drug addiction, from eminent domain to the Middle East. But other than that stupendous opening, the only thing for which this debate will be remembered is likely to be “The Mugging of Marco Rubio.”
It started off innocently enough. Muir asked Rubio to respond to Christie’s earlier attack that Rubio has had zero accomplishments as a Senator. Rubio answered with a rote response that Joe Biden has had lots of accomplishments in the Senate, but no one thinks he’s qualified to be President. An acceptable answer for a Republican crowd if he just left it there. But of course he didn’t. He then swerved to go off topic: “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He is trying to change this country. He wants America to become more like the rest of the world.”
When asked to respond, Christie argued that Rubio has never been made accountable for anything and that the one piece of legislation Rubio proposed, he skipped the vote on it. Christie quickly observed “That’s not leadership. That’s truancy.” Sticking the knife in, Christie added that Rubio “simply does not have the experience to be President of the United States and make these decisions.”
Ouch. This provided Rubio an opportunity to attack Christie on many of Christie’s own vulnerabilities, but after a weak jab at the governor on the drop in his state’s financial rating, Rubio began to repeat his previous scripted line “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing…..” Wha??? What the hell is he doing?
Christie, a political street fighter if there ever was one, smelled blood and began to circle Rubio. Christie looked straight into the camera to the voters at home and laid into him: “You see, everybody, I want the people at home to think about this. That’s what Washington D.C. does. The drive-by shot at the beginning, with incorrect and incomplete information, and then the memorized twenty-five-second speech that is exactly what his advisers gave him.”
Rubio should have known he was in trouble and regrouped. He didn’t, and after a quick charge that Christie didn’t respond fast enough to a snowstorm, incredibly he went back to “This notion that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing is just not true. He knows exactly what he’s doing.” At that point, Christie could contain himself no longer. With Rubio proving Christie’s point about him with every word, the NJ governor interrupted with a gleeful “There it is. There it is. The memorized twenty-five-second speech. There it is everybody.” Boom. Mic drop.
Rubio wasn’t mugged so much as being guilty of bringing a spoon to a knife fight.
Now let’s get to the rankings:
WINNERS:
THE GOVERNORS —
Chris Christie — He did all the heavy lifting to knock down Rubio, and if Rubio falters, he’ll get most of the credit from political writers. But that’s not the same as attracting voters, and his tough tactics may play into the “bully” scenario being used against him. Still, Christie was in every newspaper headline on Sunday morning, and, for a struggling candidate, that’s not a bad thing.
John Kasich — Ironically, Kasich may become the greatest beneficiary of Christie’s efforts, as he has already been on the rise in recent days. Plus he had a good debate, committing no gaffes, and since he has conducted over 100 town hall meetings all over New Hampshire, voters know him and, given his affable personality, presumably like him. He’s the most likely person as of today to do better than expected in the primary.
Jeb Bush — Putting Jeb Bush in the “winner” column for a debate seems so weird to me, but he did have one of his best performances to date at an opportune time. When Trump tried to “sssssh” him, the crowd booed Trump soundly, showing that, at least for that moment, the crowd was with Bush. And Bush’s arguments against eminent domain — the right of the government to take away ownership of private property for public purposes — seemed to resonate with the crowd, and his citing of a case where Trump used eminent domain to take a home from a widow to build a casino parking lot scored some points.
DONALD TRUMP — The “sssshing” of Bush didn’t work out so well nor did his insults of the crowd, saying they were booing only because they were Bush’s donors. With that, Trump was booed even more, and he doesn’t like to be booed. But he’s a winner in a larger sense. Rubio was coming on fast, and a spectacular performance could have added to Rubio’s momentum and caused enormous problems for Trump down the road. It remains to see whether Christie’s takedown has slowed Rubio’s rise, but Trump is a winner for now.
MIXED:
TED CRUZ — Coming into Iowa with the wind at his back after his impressive win at the Iowa caucuses, Cruz is still having to deal with a mini-scandal of accusations that many of his supporters misinterpreted a CNN tweet about Ben Carson, believing that Carson was about to quit the race, and sent out their own tweet suggesting that Carson voters shouldn’t waste their vote and instead come over to Cruz. And this happened just as the Iowa caucuses were about to start! Cruz again apologized sincerely to Carson on camera, but the damage has been done. Sitting in second place, Cruz is bolstered by the fact that anything that hurts Rubio helps to keep Cruz in the Top 2.
LOSERS:
MARCO RUBIO — Oh boy, where do we start? It remains to be seen whether the debate was merely a setback for the Florida senator or a full-blown catastrophe, rivaling Rick Perry’s “Oops!” moment from 2012. But it did stop (or at least slow down) the rising momentum for Rubio’s campaign after his strong 3rd-place showing in Iowa. He was fighting back to make his case on the Sunday shows yesterday, but there’s so much evidence to back up the Christie charge that Rubio is a scripted candidate that he’s going to have to become more spontaneous or else he’s cooked. He’s currently polling 3rd in New Hampshire — if he falls below finishing 4th on Tuesday, his self-inflicted wound might just prove to be fatal.
BEN CARSON — The footage of the opening snafu of the candidate introductions was just deadly. Carson standing timidly in the wings as other candidates rush past him to receive the roar of the crowd is not a reassuring picture if you’re looking for a powerful Commander in Chief. Imagine that man waiting in the wings facing Putin across the table. If he polls below 4% in New Hampshire, I think it’s back to the inspirational lecture circuit for the good doctor.
R.I.P. The Kids’ Table. The undercard debates are no more. GOP candidates Jim Gilmore and Carly Fiorina (both still in the race) had to stay home on Saturday night to watch Bernie Sanders on “SNL.”
We don’t have to wait too long until the GOP candidates (whom I suspect will be greatly reduced in number after New Hampshire) next tussle this Saturday, February 13 from Greenville, SC on CBS. Be there or be square!
xoxoxo
