#GOPDebate — one person’s score card on the candidates’ debating chops

CNN GOP DebateI was in the hospital taking care of a sundowning mom, so I forgot about the debate entirely. My anonymous friend, though, watched and sent me some impressions. Please note that he was remarking upon their debate performance and not on each person’s general merits as a candidate:

I’ve been watching the debate. As a threshold matter, I find that I prefer Jake Tapper to the now thankfully absent Candy Crowley.

Fiorina looked really good. She’s gotten the big applause lines on several issues and she was loaded for bear when Trump brought up her time as CEO of HP. Jake Tapper treated her pretty poorly actually, repeatedly cutting her off more so than he did with the other candidates. She also brought up a point I didn’t know. Trump has declared bankruptcy four times. Wow. And yet the bastard is a billionaire. He really is slimy.

Dr. Carson . . . not too good on foreign policy. He sounds quite weak.

Rubio . . . very strong foreign policy chops and good on gun laws / 2nd Amendment.

It was slimy watching most of them try to claim some special connection to 9-11 to burnish their commander in chief / foreign policy chops. As I left the room for a moment, I swear that I heard Trump claim that his time at a military high school gave him more military experience than all of the other candidates. I’ll check later whether I imagined that line.

Mike Huckabee looked real good when he got a chance to speak.

Cruz is not getting asked enough questions. He sounds good when he answers but he could stand to be a bit more aggressive and interrupt more.