Grading the Candidates, Round Four

The clash of eight GOP contenders Tuesday on the main debate stage, this time on Fox Business News channel, was a far more substantive contest than the previous sloppily run Republican showdown on CNBC.

The candidates were loaded for bear on the issues and took shot after shot at each other in fierce, issue-related exchanges that remained mostly civil.

On immigration, defense, spending and even personality, the candidates hammered each other and counter-punched in a slugfest that, in the end, finally made most of the them look they were prepped and ready to battle for the nation’s top job.

Sen. Marco Rubio
Final Grade: A

Rubio shined through the night, from his opening statement where he said “we need more welders and less philosophers,” to his call for a generational shift in American politics.

Clearly well-prepped and well-practiced, Rubio held his own against a sustained assault on his fiscal conservative credentials from fellow Sen. Rand Paul. Paul repeatedly called into question whether Rubio was truly conservative when he supported massive, unpaid-for tax credits and unrestrained military spending.

Rubio hit hawkish notes in response, defending the need for greater military spending and American leadership in a world of threats from ISIS, China and Russia.

Rubio, 44, also began to solidly lay out the narrative basis of a general election candidacy against Democrat Hillary Clinton, 68, by repeatedly highlighting the generational choice faced by Americans between the leaders of the past and the leaders of the future — a center point of his campaign.

Sen. Ted Cruz
Final Grade: A-

In a single line Cruz was able to whack the media and remind voters of his strength on the issue of immigration, saying the conversation would be different if illegal aliens were driving down journalists’ wages.

“If Republicans join Democrats as the party of amnesty, we will lose,” Cruz continued in what could best be construed as a shot across the bow of the “Gang of Eight” amnesty ally Rubio.

Cruz deftly hijacked a hostile exchange between Rubio and Paul on military spending versus fiscal conservatism by hitting the hawkish notes of Rubio and going on a tirade against wasteful government spending to explain how he would pay for a strong military presence in the world.

Like Rubio, Cruz also laid out a compelling case for his candidacy, and the strategy he would take to a general election matchup with Clinton.

“The rich do great with big government,” Cruz said, hitting his stride as the populist candidate of substance, and “Hillary Clinton embodies the cronyism of Washington.”

The excellent performance by Cruz was only tainted by a near slip-up when listing the branches of government he would do away with that for a moment conjured fearful memories of fellow Texan, former Gov. Rick Perry.

Donald Trump
Final Grade: B+

Aside from memorable exchanges with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, Trump appeared to be tempering his approach as he has in the last several debates as he transitions into a more disciplined candidate for president.

With just a handful of debates left before the first votes are cast in Iowa — and a nearly five-week break before the next debate — it may be that Trump is playing it safe. He may know that Rubio, and Cruz can claw away some of his supporters, but perhaps not enough to deny Trump a momentum-generating win in the first contests in the nation, so long as he doesn’t make a critical mistake.

When Trump did take down Kasich, it was more indignant and less petty than some of his previous shutdowns.

“I built a company worth billions and billions of dollars, I don’t have to hear from this man,” Trump said as Kasich attempted to lecture Trump on the difficulties of deporting illegal aliens.

Dr. Ben Carson
Final Grade: B-

“Thank you for not asking me what I said in the 10th grade,” Carson started his first answer to amused laughs from the crowd. “I have no problem with being vetted, but I do have a problem with being lied about.”

Carson strongly batted away the media firestorm that had engulfed his campaign over the past week amid questions about whether he had been misleading in details of his personal story.

After the strong opening, though, Carson largely trailed off for the rest of the debate, offering rambling answers on many of the questions and giving a short closing statement, devoid of a compelling reason for his candidacy. He, too, may be content to have an error-free debate, and to spend the next five weeks building on his already strong position.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush
Final Grade: F

Poor Jeb. The former Florida governor meekly attempted to cut in to answer a question early in the debate only to be cut off by Kasich. Later, Trump joked in an exchange of his own with Kasich that he should allow Jeb to speak.

Jeb was largely absent for the rest of the night, looking dejected when he wasn’t talking, which was what he was doing through most of the debate, and sounding ensconced in his policy wonk shell when he did get a word in edgewise.

Jeb did try for a moment of levity with a painfully awkward joke about telling people in Washington, Iowa, how bad Washington, D.C. is… “Get it?” The Milwaukee, Wisconsin, crowd was silent.

Bush looked like a defeated candidate who barely tried to break through as other, hungrier contenders clawed for more time. Unlike Trump and Carson, he can’t look forward to a pleasant five-week break from debates.

Gov. John Kasich
Final Grade: B-

Kasich served as the focal point of several of the night’s most intense exchanges between candidates. The real policy expert on the stage — in a debate heavy on policy — Kasich held his own in most until a clash with Cruz on the issue of bank bailouts. The former Lehman Brother executive was put on the ropes by the more populist Texas senator, who pressed Kasich on his support for bailouts for big banks but not for suffering small businesses.

In a high point, Kasich went on a memorable rant demonstrating his depth of knowledge of the foreign policy situation across several regions around the globe, but the performance was overshadowed by his beating from Cruz and a poor exchange with Trump in which he appeared the apologist for amnesty.

Sen. Rand Paul
Final Grade: B+

In possibly his best debate performance of the contest to date, Paul offered stirring and heartfelt odes to his principles of fiscal conservatism and a restrained American military, and prudent role in world affairs.

Paul hammered fellow Sen. Rubio for offering a trillion-dollar tax credit, which Paul called a “welfare transaction,” and asked the audience of Rubio “how is it conservative to add a trillion dollars in military expenditures?”

Rubio gave well-rehearsed and impressive answers, but Paul never let-up in the attack saying with the combination of policies Rubio supports “you get something that looks to me not very conservative.”

Paul also lambasted President Obama for the radical environmentalist policies that have “devastated Kentucky,”  and called for an energy policy that includes consideration of the economic impact on working Americans.

Carly Fiorina
Final Grade: C+

Carly certainly stuck to her canned line “we need to take our country back,” hitting it as an end to seemingly every lengthy debate answer. But the magic the upstart and mostly unknown Fiorina once wielded in the debates appeared to have dissipated as her repeated calls for zero-based budgeting felt as tired as Ben Carson looked.

Trump summed up the most memorable takeaway from Fiorina’s performance when he asked to cheers, and laughs: “Why does she keep interrupting everybody?”

Fox Business Network
Final Grade: A

Fox Business News was said to be coming into Tuesday night looking to be the non-CNBC debate — and it succeeded. The questions were obviously far more substantive than the openly biased questions from CNBC moderators, while not being easy enough to look like tee balls. Co-host Neil Cavuto did a phenomenal job keeping order among the contenders and allowing candidates to finish their thoughts, without letting them filibuster debate time. The network staged the grown-up type of debate the candidates had clamored for during the previous unpleasant encounter.

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