Debate Winners/Losers for Conservatives
Posted by:
Middle Class Conservative
()
Date: August 07, 2015 07:37AM
Winners:
Fiorina - hands down winner of early debate and would have won main event as well
Cruz - held firm to his conservative principles, took on McConnell and stayed above the fray
Rubio - opening and closing statements were best of the night, but I'm wary that he's just another politician
Held Their Own:
Jindal - laid out a decent vision, stayed on point, hit most of the conservative points and seemed sincere
Carson - got lost a little bit but had great closing statement and didn't flinch. The bar of expectation was pretty low for him
Santorum - talked about the middle class, which unfortunately got lost in his other rhetoric. Relied too much as his DC insider
Loser
Perry - he needed to have a strong performance and he didn't. Fiorina steamrolled that first debate and Perry didn't come close in comparison
Paul - I had high hopes for Paul, but he was too combative and didn't stay on message. His counter-punching came across as angry
Walker - didn't give anyone a reason to vote for him. Looks like his high point was his speech when he launched his campaign
Graham - too much focus on 'boots on the ground' as the only way to defeat ISIS. Got in some good jabs at Hillary, but an angry warhawk
Christie - Paul did damage with the NSA back and forth and Christie lost that and couldn't recover. Might have played in 2004, not 2016
Bush - if you liked him before, he didn't lose ground. If you weren't already a supporter, he did nothing to improve his standing, and he needed to
Huckabee - about the only one to focus exclusively on social issues, but polls show those issues aren't that important in this electon
Won some - Lost some
Trump - looked like the non-politician that he was. The Rosie comment was gold but, unfortunately, it was his high-point last night.
Kasich - came across as the moderate that he is. Just like Romney, Dole and the Bushs'. A proven losing strategy for Republicans at the national level
Bottom Line
Base on what I saw last night, I would vote for Fiorina, Cruz, Jindal and Carson. Might vote for Santorum, Walker, Paul, Rubio and Trump. Would not vote for any of the rest.