Depth Analysis: Four Candidates Aim to Make Up Ground at Undercard Debate

The quote of the night, for the undercard GOP debate held on FOX Business Tuesday, has to go to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who likened New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to a youth soccer player while attacking his record.

Chris, I’ll give you a ribbon for participation & a juice box.

“In a world where we have Al Qaeda and ISIS, the mullahs in Iran and Vladimir Putin, the woman who asks to run and represent all of United States says that her greatest enemies are people like you in this audience and us here”, he said.

Rick Santorum, has yet to make the primetime debate in any of the four debates.

“I saw the most disgraceful thing I’ve seen this entire campaign a few weeks ago”, he started.

Putting aside gauzy prophecies in favor of more concrete talk, Santorum proposed a 20% flat tax plan, which applies to individuals and corporations alike. “That’s not a record of cutting”.

Jindal also critiqued Huckabee’s tenure as governor, saying that Huckabee did not do enough to reduce spending.

Not all the candidates reciprocated Christie’s cease-fire.

“I got the scars all over my back to prove that people jumped to conclusions”, Christie said, again referring to the bridge scandal. “I think the way we govern matter”.

Fifty-three percent of New Jersey Republicans think Christie should stay in the race, although 40 percent think he should drop out. It has gone up 5 million dollars in New Jersey, it’s gone down 9 million dollars in Louisiana.

Jindal then turned the tables on Christie, attacking the New Jersey’s governor’s ability to trim his state’s budget. “Because they fight! They are willing to stand up and fight and take it straight to us”.

That’s when Christie jumped in and reminded both Jindal and Huckabee who the real enemy is: Hillary Clinton. Candidates have been told that if they go over their allotted time, they will hear a buzzer.

“That’s the person you want on the stage prosecuting the case against Hillary Clinton”, he said, one of several times Christie pointed to his history as a US attorney.

He dismissed a suggestion from Jindal that the candidates who spent time in Congress didn’t have accomplishments, citing his work on welfare reform in the 1990’s under Democratic President Bill Clinton. The debate, sponsored by Fox Business Network and The Wall Street Journal, was created to zoom in on the Republican candidates’ economic philosophies and strategies as well as to promote the network as the “anti-CNBC”. He said he was appalled when Clinton said during the Democratic presidential debate that Republicans were her enemy and accused President Obama of failing to support police officers.

Rick Santorum says he wants to change the tax code to be pro-family.

As the debate occurred on the eve of Veterans Day, Santorum said he would improve the Veterans Affairs Department’s healthcare system by abolishing it since the best method is the private sector health insurance industry, but unique problems can be addressed in a “centers of excellence”. But don’t expect it to earn Christie a return to the big leagues.

“We need to repeal Dodd-Frank, get away that authority from the Fed and put them under more scrutiny”, he said. “That they’re allowing lawlessness to reign in this country”.