Republican debates

[tropicalshox]

I give up. Why do have have to post this topic to see the discussion?

[SB Shock]

I give up. Why do have have to post this topic to see the discussion?

Is this a test?

[WuDrWu]

I wish I would have seen the undercard.

I didn't think Trump was that bad but he's going to get creamed by women if he doesn't fix it.

Dr. Carson is brilliant if not Presidential. I thought Rubio was fantastic. To me, he was the winner. The Fox folks kept singing the praises of Huckabee and Cruz...neither of whom are electable, imho.

[pinstripers]

Rubio was excellent. So was Kasich. Everybody else lost ground, I think.

[wu_shizzle]

Fiorina doesn't have the experience, the team or the donors to win it all, but at this point she seems the leader for VP.

[Aargh]

I have hated Hillary Clinton ever since my first encounter with her political viewpoints. The Repubs are going to splinter - and like the MVC, when it's up - will cannibalize each other. That will keep most of them out of serious contention.

The way it looks now, either the Repubs run Trump, which is suicidal, or Trump runs as an independent, which is also suicidal to the Repubs.

The fact that the Repubs couldn't find a candidate to take Obama out of a second term speaks volumes about the status of the party nationally. Even the Dems are digging deep to find another candidate, but it looks like the Repubs are going to be so weak going into the elections that they can't defeat a candidate who doesn't even have whole-hearted support from her own party.

We need a "none of the above" option on the ballots. We keep voting until - eventually - some candidate is found who the voters would actually vote for as anything other than the lesser of two evils.

[SB Shock]

Rubio was excellent. So was Kasich. Everybody else lost ground, I think.

Personally I like Rubio, Cruz and Carson. Problem with Carson is he doesn't have a ground game.

I thought Paul and Bush didn't have very good nights - but then today somebody I know thought Bush did a great job - so what do I know.

I also thought that Kelley of fox didn't do anbody any favors by going after trump. IMO those moderating the debate should act impartial. In the end she played into trumps hand because it created the narrative that kept him in the news -- nobody is talking about that he had no substance or details to anything.

[shockmonster]

Personally I like Rubio, Cruz and Carson. Problem with Carson is he doesn't have a ground game.

I thought Paul and Bush didn't have very good nights - but then today somebody I know thought Bush did a great job - so what do I know.

I also thought that Kelley of fox didn't do anbody any favors by going after trump. IMO those moderating the debate should act impartial. In the end she played into trumps hand because it created the narrative that kept him in the news -- nobody is talking about that he had no substance or details to anything.

I like Rubio, and Carson too. I also thought that Kasich, Huckaby, and Fiorina did well. This year the Republicans have quite a number of strong candidates compared to 2012 where they had a poor line up of candidates.

Trump is the pole setter and the front runner always draws more questions and air time. If it changes, someone else will draw more.

If the questions about Trump flip flopping from a democrat single payer health care system (many criticized Mitt Romney for his health care history last year), being a top donor to the Clintons, and his declaring bankruptcy many times (I have family members who wouldn't declare bankruptcy because they didn't believe it was the right thing to do), etc. etc. etc. doesn't show people the type of person that Trump is, then our country is in real trouble. Trump, like Hillary just has no moral compass.

[Rlh04d]

Personally I like Rubio, Cruz and Carson. Problem with Carson is he doesn't have a ground game.

I thought Paul and Bush didn't have very good nights - but then today somebody I know thought Bush did a great job - so what do I know.

I also thought that Kelley of fox didn't do anbody any favors by going after trump. IMO those moderating the debate should act impartial. In the end she played into trumps hand because it created the narrative that kept him in the news -- nobody is talking about that he had no substance or details to anything.

Completely agreed. But then again Trump was the reason I'm sure so many people watched the debate, so from a revenue perspective I'm sure FoxNews wanted it to be about him, and wanted to keep him in the news. But yeah ... he's the political equivalent of an internet troll. Treating him like a real candidate who has to answer for his past statements doesn't work. You can't engage the troll and win, because he'll just yell louder than you.

I actually don't mind the cast of Republican candidates this year. There are actually several strong candidates. Unfortunately I think there are more strong VP-candidates than there are Presidential candidates, though. If Trump wasn't involved in this -- and the portion of the Republican party that would support someone like Trump didn't have so much influence -- I would be excited about this primary.

[shockmonster]

To show the difference of the candidates from 2012 to 2016. At this time in the 2012 election, Michelle Bachman was leading and ultimately Mitt Romney won the nomination. I have thought many times that so many of these candidates didn't run in 2012 for various reasons, but Christie, and Huckaby may have had a chance to win the nomination in 2012. I don't see it this time.

[SB Shock]

Here was 2012 polling (0 date is 8/4/2011).

[shockmonster]

Good data. Is that national? I got the information from Fox (pre-debate or post-debate I think on Thursday)and I think that they were only referring to the Iowa Caucuses. I should have been more specific. Bachman didn't even end up winning there but I think that she was a front runner for a while and liked by a lot (but never electable nationally).

[SB Shock]

Good data. Is that national? I got the information from Fox (pre-debate or post-debate I think on Thursday)and I think that they were only referring to the Iowa Caucuses. I should have been more specific. Bachman didn't even end up winning there but I think that she was a front runner for a while and liked by a lot (but never electable nationally).

It is a summary of all the poll data at during that period - so it is polls for each state primary/caucus and national poll (if there is any). I'm doing a similar one for this election cycle - but there is not enough data for interesting trends.