Here’s Who Won the Last Republican Debate; Donald Trump Rules Twitter
By Chris Cillizza. The eight top Republican presidential candidates gathered for the fourth debate of the 2016 campaign Tuesday night in Milwaukee. It was a more understated affair than the last GOP debate sponsored by CNBC but still managed to yield some bests and worsts.
Here are my winners and losers from the night: . . .
* Ted Cruz: For the second straight debate, the senator from Texas shone under the bright lights. His line about the tax code having more words than the Bible was a good and memorable one. His repeated denunciations of Washington’s “crony” culture will leave a lot of Republican heads nodding in agreement. Cruz proved Tuesday night that of the “outsider” candidates, he is the one best equipped to carry their message going forward.
* Ben Carson: In the first three debates, I watched in wonder as Carson’s numbers kept moving up after what I perceived to be nearly nonexistent performances. But Carson — from his first answer on Tuesday night — was more energetic (that’s a pretty low bar given Carson’s past performances) and more dialed in than I had seen him. He was helped by a moderator question on his past exaggerations/inaccuracies regarding his life story that would give the term “softball” a bad name. And by the fact that none of his rivals seemed interested in taking the fight to him on the issue of the inconsistencies of his recounting of the past. Carson was, as usual, very shaky on foreign policy and wasn’t much better on regulatory reform. But he did more than enough to keep himself at or near the top of the GOP field . . .
[The losers:]
* Donald Trump: Trump, as he has in each of the first four debates, stood center stage in Milwaukee on Tuesday night. But for the two-plus hours that the debate ran, Trump felt ancillary to the conversation. When he did get time to speak, he simply repeated his now-familiar lines — we don’t win anymore, I have a great company, etc. — and little else. His answers on foreign policy were not good. His random attack on Fiorina — “why does she keep interrupting everybody?” — earned him boos from the crowd (and helped her). Trump just didn’t seem all that interested in being there. It likely won’t affect his poll numbers, since nothing seems to. But that doesn’t change the fact he was off his game.
(Read more from “Here’s Who Won the Last Republican Debate” HERE)
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Donald Trump Rules Twitter During GOP Debate
By Justin Wm. Moyer. Donald Trump still rules. Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) are treading water. Gov. John Kasich (Ohio) and Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) are much improved. And former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina trails the pack.
So judged Twitter after Tuesday evening’s Republican presidential primary debate in Milwaukee. As it has after previous presidential primary debates, Twitter sliced and diced its big data on eight of the GOP candidates — and Democratic rivals who weren’t even on stage — in an attempt to determine who won and who lost the online conversation.
First: Here were Twitter’s “most mentioned candidates on Twitter, with share of debate conversation”:
Businessman Donald Trump: 24 percent (compared with 22 percent after last month’s debate in Boulder, Colo.)
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush: 12 percent (compared with 11 percent last month)
(Read more from “Donald Trump Rules Twitter During GOP Debate” HERE)
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