A Week After A Poor Debate Performance, Rubio Wins One

But it was Trump, with his asides and insults, that often dominated the dialogue.

Cruz won the Iowa caucuses on the strength of his support among evangelical Christians and has been pointing to SC and the Super Tuesday contests in the South as his moment to break away from his rivals.

“Lindsey Graham, who backs him, who had had zero in his polls”, Trump said, digging in.

At the 9th Republican presidential debate this campaign season, Ohio Gov. John Kasich called for positive campaigning by his 5 opponents. The other GOP debates so far this year averaged a 7.4 rating (on Fox Business in mid January) and a 8.4 rating (on Fox News in late January).

“They just put up ads that are just so disingenuous, and I think it bothers Mr. Trump because he doesn’t run that kind of campaign”, Lewandowski said after the debate.

Obama pledged to nominate a replacement in “due time”, even after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said that responsibility should fall to the victor of the 2016 election. “It’s called delay, delay, delay”.

“The Senate needs to stand strong and give up the Supreme Court for a generation” by allowing Obama “one more liberal nominee”, added Sen. He received 10 delegates with a 35 per cent vote share while Senator Ted Cruz received only two delegates with just under 12 per cent of the vote.

The crowd jeered when Trump proceeded to connect this to Bush supporter-and SC senator-Lindsey Graham, who “had zero on his polls”.

He excused Bush’s faulty intelligence that got us into war in Iraq-“look, we thought there were weapons of mass destruction”-“but”, he continued, “the fact is we got ourselves in the middle of a civil war….”

“He has had the gall to go after my mother”, Jeb Bush said during the debate. “They said there were weapons of mass destruction and they knew there were none”.

Bush praised his family. My dad [former President George H.W. Bush] is the greatest man alive in my mind.

Trump didn’t let up as Bush tried to defend his brother, dismissing his suggestion that George W. Bush built a “security apparatus to keep us safe” after the 9/11 attacks.

Ben Carson delivered another soporific performance – don’t expect him to stay in the race much longer.

Trump would not relent. “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign, remember that”.

“We want everyone to rise and we will make them personally responsible for the help they get”, said Kasich, whose fledgling campaign gained new life after a second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary.

Saturday night’s debate made clear that Kasich isn’t about to recalibrate his approach as the nomination battle moves to the state known for its rough-and-tumble primaries. Chuck Schumer, D-New York. Cruz then switched to Spanish to suggest they should continue the conversation in that language.

“I am not blaming [President Bush], although…the Central Intelligence Agency said there was a lot of information that something like that was going to happen”.

“The weakest person on this stage by far on illegal immigration is Jeb Bush”, he said. Cruz, though, said he still didn’t want the bill to pass because it “didn’t fix every problem”.

Besides, Trump might be able to manage a billion-dollar corporation, but overseeing an effective get-out-the-vote campaign appeared to be beyond his capabilities.

Some of the last fireworks of the night came when Cruz attacked Trump’s supposedly “very, very liberal” policies.

“Jeb is so wrong; Jeb is absolutely…”, Mr Trump started, before being cut off by boos from the audience. Right now today as a candidate, he supports federal taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood.

Retorted Bush, who argued eminent domain should be reserved for public infrastructure projects, “There is all sorts of intrigue about where I disagree with my brother”. “Jeez, oh man.” At one point Kasich and Bush, both vying to become the establishment alternative to Trump and Cruz, sparred over Kasich’s expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare, but the tone of that exchange was mild by comparison to others, to say the least. Refusing to bow to party orthodoxy or even politeness, Trump trashed one of the most revered families in Republican politics and made a big political bet that standing his ground is better than backing down, no matter how much he is under fire.