George W. Bush: From South Carolina cameo to starring role

In their debate Saturday night, the GOP candidates insisted that President Barack…

At first blush, those changes should further move the debate within the GOP into territory where Cruz is comfortable and can make a compelling case for his candidacy.

The fiery debate last Saturday night in Greenville appears to have boosted Rubio.

Could Cruz explain his denunciation of Trump as a closet liberal?

On abortion, Trump once claimed that he was “very pro-choice”.

“You’ll have a good mix of people who are donors, people who are donors and workers, and people who are just workers”, Groover told the station. Lindsey Graham, who announced his support for Jeb Bush after ending his own bid for the White House. You are [the] single biggest liar.

“I’ve got to tell you, this is just insane, huh?” Cruz won Iowa, with Trump finishing an embarrassing second after proclaiming for weeks he would win. This guy will say anything, nasty guy.

“It’s up to Mitch McConnell and everybody else to stop it”, Donald Trump said. Both of which were offensive and wrong.

A Cruz ad accuses The Donald of having been a sleazy businessman.

TRUMP: Where did I support?

At least one of those things can be proven untrue: Trump is not a conservative.

CRUZ: So I’ll tell you what…

She also has the support of all but one of the state’s all-Democratic congressional delegation; Sen. Since Trump has said he gave big bucks to politicians to help him on the real estate front, the charge is not exactly new.

“I think they’re rejecting the war in Iraq. So I’m looking forward to the event we should have a great crowd and it’ll help my campaign a lot”.

Leaving behind the talk about lies, that was the very point Trump was trying to make in his criticism of the Iraq war and what lessons we should draw from it. He mentioned the cost, how it has led to further destabilization in the Middle East and how a post-Saddam Iraq has empowered Iran.

Bush provoked another outburst from Trump by saying the Republican nominee should be someone “who doesn’t brag, for example, that he has been bankrupt four times”. Challenged Trump: “They lied”. This time he made it personal, accusing Bush of lying about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as the pretext for the 2003 invasion. “There were none, and they knew there were none”. “There were no weapons of mass destruction”.

“I’m rescinding the invitation”, Bush said.

Trump fired back: “The World Trade Center came down during your brother’s reign”.

There was the issue of eminent domain.

On Saturday’s ninth Republican presidential debate, Donald Trump made a surprising accusation against Jeb Bush. Trump has defended such uses of eminent domain as a way to foster economic development.

Bush went on to deny the “mooning” accusation.

The audience booed him again.

Trump was unapologetic Sunday, saying he is a truth-teller and that the majority of Americans would heed his call. “We spent $2 trillion on that war and we have nothing”.

The Republican nomination battle may be settled on February 20 in SC when the candidates compete in a hotly contested, money-flush primary.

Boisterous, indeed. Caleb Howe, writing for RedState, said the debate “turned into a carnival ride early and never looked back: shouting, shenanigans, insults, interruptions”. “If all the people who say, ‘I love Ben Carson and his policies, but he can’t win, ‘ vote for me, not only can we win, but we can turn this thing around”, he said in closing.

Going into the debate, Trump had just won the New Hampshire primary, beating John Kasich, who came in second, by more than two-to-one.

The attack on George W. Bush carries risk for Trump, given the Bush family’s long social and political ties in SC and the state’s hawkish national security bent, bolstered by more than a half-dozen military installations and a sizable population of veterans who choose to retire in the state.

Donald Trump has been leading national polls for months, and he is seen by Republican and independent debate watchers as the most likely – with 42 percent – of the six candidates to win in November should he get the nomination.