Candidates left out of debate try to stand out

Of Clinton, Fiorina said, “She lies about Benghazi, she lies about her emails, is still defending Planned Parenthood and is still the party front-runner”. On day one, in the Oval Office, I would take two phone calls: the first would be to my good friend Bibi Netanyahu, to reassure him that we stand with the state of Israel. Matthews pressed. “I’m astounded by that judgment of yours”. South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham responded that if he debated presumptive Democratic Party nominee Hillary Clinton on climate change she would argue cap-and-trade that would ruin the economy while he would focus on energy independence and a clean environment. But many noted that actual voting doesn’t start for six months and early front-runners have faltered in the past.

Jack Harper, who did watch the early debate live, walked away from both debates having Fiorina as his top choice.

In several cases, they failed. Perry said he’s ready to be president four years after his campaign imploded.

He sparked a firestorm and offended many Hispanic voters when he said Mexico was not “sending its best” and said the immigrants were bringing drugs and crime to the US. “I’m not married. I don’t have any kids”.

“They should invite carly fiorina back for the 9 oclock debate, ” Newt Gingrich, a veteran of the 2012 Republican primary, known for slashing debates, wrote on Twitter.

Ron Bonjean, an unaffiliated Republican strategist in Washington, also gave the edge to Fiorina.

Carly Fiorina at the RedState Gathering.

Perry entered the forum with more to prove than anyone.

“This is going to be a show-me-don’t-tell-me election”, Perry said.

Fiorina acknowledged the real estate mogul has risen to the top of the polls because he is tapping “into an anger that people feel” about American politics as usual.

Jindal also positioned himself as a “doer, not a talker” with his record in Louisiana.

At this moment in the campaign, seven GOP candidates are fighting for relevancy, respect and their political futures.

Referring to his service as a pilot in U.S. Air Force, Barbour said, “Nobody else in either debate has served in the military and as chief executive of the most successful job-creating state in the nation”.

The best hope, she said, is someone who is not from the status quo “but who can see it, who understands it and who has the courage to change it”. Still, he said, the Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion has been law for decades.

Trump, the Republican front-runner, went on to say he thinks a major problem with America is its trend toward being “politically correct”.

Trump’s presence was inescapable. “I talked about Donald Trump from the standpoint of being an individual who was using his celebrity rather than his conservatism”, said Perry.

“What we’ve been doing is building up momentum with donors, with supporters, with money”.

Many people will get their impressions from news coverage and social media, said Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster who has studied young voters.

That news was not going to last long, because then came a primetime debate that was hugely entertaining but at times seemed in danger of veering off the rails with loopy and sometimes embarrassing answers from Donald Trump.