Posted on 03/11/2016 5:36:45 AM PST by McGruff
Last night's "civil" GOP debate helped Trump
Individually, we get why Donald Trump's rivals mostly backed away from challenging the GOP frontrunner in last night's 12th -- and possibly final -- Republican debate. For Marco Rubio, who saw his fav/unfav drop eight points in the past month in the NBC/WSJ poll, the nicer debate allowed him to dial back from the nasty, personal insults that dominated the previous two gatherings. For Ted Cruz, the current status quo helps him get closer to his desired one-on-one matchup against Trump. And for John Kasich, he simply followed the same strategy he's been using throughout this race. But collectively, backing off from challenging Trump only helps the frontrunner. Don't get us wrong: Rubio took issue with Trump doubling down on his "Islam hates us" statement; Rubio and Cruz hit Trump over his support for normalization with Cuba; and Cruz again questioned Trump's Republican credentials. But none of Trump's rivals made the explicit case why the GOP frontrunner should be stopped. And folks, we are four days away from Trump having a firm grip on the Republican nomination by winning Florida and/or Ohio.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
Helps to keep ‘em confused. LOL! We did notice that ted tried to goad Trump in to some sort of verbal sparring match but this time Trump didn’t bite. I sorta expected the tone would be brought down from 11 to about 4 or 5. Time for rubio and kasich to end this. If it ends up Trump and hildebeast, then we’ll see the dirt bein’ slung in both directions.
Rubio knows he is finished after Florida, this debate was to prove that he isn’t a little kid. That he can be civil and hopefully for him, electable to another office. That is how I took Rubio’s performance. He wasn’t up there to destroy Trump because he was actually destroying himself more.
Trump did what he needed to do, look presidential, he deflected a couple blows from Cruz. Stayed on message and hit it out of the park by not stooping to Cruz’s level
Cruz, was trying to turn it back into a mud flinging contest but Trump wasn’t biting. Cruz seems to just ramble. Says a lot but accomplished nothing
Kasich Ohio must be the best place to live on the planet, I think I am going to cancel my vacation to Hawaii this year and go to Ohio instead
I noticed that Cruz did not want to depart from his preplanned statements, and it cost him on one exchange.
He kept hitting Trump over the supposed 45% tax on goods entering the United States from China, and saying that American consumers would be paying that tax. You could tell he thought he had a winning angle. Kept repeating it.
Finally Trump shut him down by reminding him that he would get the factories and jobs back in the United States like it should be and the people would not have to pay any tariffs.
Cruz was telegraphing that he would re-arrange the chairs on the decks of the Titanic only.
NBC? They are champing at the bit for a Clinton Trump contest. Why? Because they’re polling and metrics indicate Trump will fare poorly. There is so much opposition research and negative information they intend to weave and spin into the 24 hour news cycle that will knock our eyes out. There will come a point where Trump will become as attractive to the body politic as tertiary syphilis.
They sure baited the hooks, time and time again, but Cruz was the only one biting. He had his “Elmer Gantry” on again, last night.
Trump is the only one willing to state the truth about islam,immigration,and bad trade deals.
My view is that both Rubio and Cruz did serious damage to themselves during this campaign—Rubio with his middle school antics in going after Trump and Cruz with his comments on Trump’s supporters being “low information” and “unengaged.”
Wonder what the GOP-e promised them.
..Finally Trump shut him down by reminding him that he would get the factories and jobs back in the United States...
Ted had no answer for that one
And that is one good strategy to get manufacturing back here.
Trump has so far taken out ALL of his opposition, including Bush, who was expected to be the Crown Prince coronated as King. And he is almost finished taking out Rubio as their Plan B. When he finishes with Lyin’ Cheatin’ Cruz, Hillary will be a walk in the park and you will see those poll numbers change dramatically once he focuses his attention on her.
Boy the TwitterTrumpHaters are just beside themselves that it was too “civil” and “let Trump off the hook.”
But here’s the thing: they tried dirty, kindergarten, name-calling attacks. Those didn’t work.
They tried “laying out their case” with logic, and evidence.
That didn’t work. So maybe, just maybe, Trump is saying something that resonates with people?
[Ted had no answer for that one
And that is one good strategy to get manufacturing back here.]
Which is exactly why Cruz is the WRONG person for POTUS!
Cruz probably thinks that he can just pray the jobs back to the US.
I, as a low information uninformed Trump supporter, am not buying what Cruz has to offer.
I know the media is pissed that Trump acted Presidential to.
“Trump is saying something that resonates with people?”
He definitely is. The other camps know it. I believe only Cruz’s camp has started attacking Trump supporters though. Has Trump specifically attacked the supporters of the other candidates like Cruz has?
NBC and most Cruz supporters are engaged in wishful thinking here.
Trump has been a national public figure for decades. His skeletons are all out there and have been rehashed to death. So have Hillary’s. No on is excited about Hillary. Most people can’t stand her. Everything she says is phony and comes out of a focus group. Love him or hate him, Trump speaks what he really thinks, and people can respect that, even if they disagree with him.
As for Cruz, he has been a relative unknown to the general public on the national level. You don’t think Cruz has a mountain of material that the press will hammer out 24/7 during the general? To start off with, his top surrogate, Glenn Beck, has been a non-stop fountain of insanity for years now. Then you have Cruz’s cozy relationship with religious leaders that will make him general election poison. To name just one: Tony Perkins from FRC who wants to jail homos and praised laws in Africa that called for executing gays. You think someone can win the general election with friends like this? I think you’re dreaming.
Clearly Trump thinks he has this won and is kicking into Presidential mode.
His opponents will sound increasingly shrill and desperate by continuing to attack the “old” Trump.
YUGE win for Trump, again. The media tried to get the others to attack Trump but yet again Trump out smarted them with his rope a dope and came out looking like the next President - the other 3 were clearly flummoxed as well as the media.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.