Tonight at 8:30 in Houston, Texas, just days before Super Tuesday the Republican candidates will face off in another debate. With three victories under his belt, Donald Trump is the frontrunner with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio trying to slow down his momentum. John Kasich and Ben Carson will also face-off, despite both of them under pressure to drop out of the race. Here are some things to watch for tonight:
Will there be anyone or anything that can stop Donald Trump? Most likely, with the evidence from the past 6 months, Trump’s support will probably not falter. He has had rough debates, but his momentum has never been severely damaged. Over the past few weeks Trump has gone after Cruz, calling him a “liar” and also raising ethical questions about Cruz’s campaign practices. Thus Cruz is the candidate most likely to go after Trump. Rubio hasn’t been as targeted by Trump, but that could all change if he also goes after Trump tonight. A senior adviser to Rubio, Jason Roe, also said that attacking Trump would be “completely out of character” for the senator, plus a huge gamble since the last person to go directly after Trump was Jeb Bush “and he is no longer in the race.”
The only other candidate to win in a primary/caucus is Ted Cruz. However after finishing behind Trump and Rubio in both South Carolina and Nevada, he will be looking to get some of his momentum back. With Trump and other accusing him of dirty political tactics his “Trusted” campaign is slowing down.
The third candidate in question is Marco Rubio, will he finally be able to win? He narrowly beat Rubio in South Carolina and pushed Jeb Bush out of the race. He has claimed that this is now a “three-person race” and with the help of the establishment he will be the presidential candidate. In order to garner the support of the GOP Rubio needs to stand out in tonight's debate (no rehearsed speeches!).
This debate will also be crucial for John Kasich, who has been under fire from the GOP to drop out. He finished second in New Hampshire, but he is running in the establishment lane against Marco Rubio and thus is pulling votes away from him. Tonight is his chance to prove he deserves the establishment vote; his moderate and positive message is helping him and he is looking at possible victories in Southern and Midwestern states.
Lasty, Ben Carson. Carson is still running for president despite his steady decline incline in the polls; even coming last in South Carolina. If and when Carson drops out, who do you think his voters will move towards?
Do you think we will see a more aggressive Cruz tonight? What do you hope to see on tonight’s debate? Are their any issues, such as the appointment of a new judge, that you want them to speak about?
If you are watching this after the debate, how was it? Who were the winners and the losers? Did anything surprise you? How was the first debate without Jeb Bush?
6 comments:
I think Carson fell asleep and forgot to drop out. Maybe he's sleep walking through this campaign or can't open his eyes enough to see the poll numbers and thinks the 4.8% in Nevada is a 48%. Whatever the reason, if Carson does drop out it is difficult to say where his voters will move because I can't even understand what demographic he is targeting. According to one poll from the Washington Post, most of his voters are college-educated and evangelical. Trump's supporters tend to have less of an education. Some may move to Cruz and others to Trump who has been pulling evangelicals. Either way, Carson is not holding enough of the vote to make a major impact on the poll numbers of other candidates if he drops out. For the debate tonight, I do think that Cruz will be more aggressive as he has had multiple problems with lying during his campaign. Most recently, one of his top aides released a story for the Cruz campaign saying that Rubio didn't believe that there were "many answers in the BIble". Following this, Cruz fired his aide as the story was clearly a lie and a clear attack on Rubio's faith. Rubio has made pointed comments about the problems with his campaign and I would think that Cruz may be on the defensive tonight, battling attacks about his honesty. I hope that the debate does talk about the appointment of judges, but in all honesty most of the opinions voiced during the debate will probably upset and I would prefer they all just remain silent. Kasich can talk. He's nice. I hope that someone reminds the American public of how slimy Cruz is and how insane Trump is and that Carson realizes he shouldn't be running for president. I hope the people watch this debate and get a wake up call about the fact that this is possibly the most ridiculous primary season the United States has ever seen.
I honestly have lost faith in Rubio winning the primary, therefore, I think him claiming it is a three man race is a bit unrealistic. He really did not preform well in the past few debates, which cost him a lot of momentum. Carson and Kasich are also not realistic candidates at this point, and I wouldn't be surprised if they begin to attack other candidates in a desperate attempt to win votes. I expect trumps usual antics, and I find it interesting that they believe Cruz will be his next target, however, rubio or cruz are the logical victims. The cast of candidates is interesting, and less than pleasing but I believe it is pretty clear that Trump will be taking this nomination due to the severe lack of actual competition. This debate will most likely be like the rest. More intertwining than informational.
At this point, I unfortunately think that Trump is unbeatable. In the polls, he is beating all of the other candidates in their own states (Texas, Florida and Ohio). It is very interesting that Mitt Romney has chosen to attack Trump at this point in the race about his tax returns and how he may not be as rich as he says he is. However, I think that this attack is too little too late. I think that the other candidates have lost momentum and Trump continues to lead. I think that in this debate, Trump will be targeting Rubio and Cruz as usual, as Katie has said before. I think that he will win the Republican nomination. This debate is going to be like all of the rest. Trump won't necessarily win the debate, but his supporters will vote for him unconditionally, anyways. I am very upset with this situation and throughout the past few months I have been hopeful for Marco Rubio, but now, it is not likely for him to win any of the critical states that he needs to win the nomination.
After watching the debate, it is clear that Trump has become the main focus of the Republican Party. Most of the questions were directed at him and along with the attacks from Cruz and Rubio, Carson and Kasich ended up having little facetime. At one point Carson asked “Can someone attack me, please?” because that was the only way he would have a chance to speak. Even Trump acknowledged that it was unfair and Carson and Kasich should have been given more time especially when there are just five remaining Republican candidates left.
Many times, it was chaotic between Rubio and Cruz trying to attack Trump. Trump believed he handled the attacks well, not by actually clarifying his positions at all, but by insulting Rubio and Cruz. However, many are saying that he in fact, lost the debate. In the middle of a completely fair question from moderator Hugh Hewitt, which was not in any way attacking Trump, Trump out of nowhere said “No one listens to your show.” And Rubio also effectively exposed the thinness of Trump's policy solutions especially on health care. The belief has been that Donald Trump cannot be rattled in a debate but tonight changed that—the candidates exposed Trump as a lightweight. On the other hand, Marco Rubio performed extremely well during the debate. Some even say it was his best one—he attacked Trump at every turn and even looked like he was enjoying himself while doing it. “I said earlier today that Marco Rubio needed to either beat Donald Trump tonight or go home. He beat Donald Trump,” writer Leon H. Wolf wrote in his article. I completely agree.
http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/02/25/winners-losers-tonights-cnnsalem-debate-2/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/25/winners-and-losers-from-the-10th-republican-presidential-debate/
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