Grade the debate performances

[Maxwell]

Use this thread to grade the debate performances and explain why you graded the way you did. I'll start


Trump - A+, he reached emotionial depths I have rarely seen a politicians reach so eloquently and yet so simply - "we smelt death", "tears" - he's truly a one man political machine who perfectly encapsulates America's frustrations. When he said "I accept the mantle of anger", I saw him win the Presidency. What a show.

Christie - B, he was fiesty, energetic, punched hard and had fun. Christie is looking like a stronger contender everyday, as long as you don't include TRUMP in the picture.

Cruz - C-, When Cruz didn't engage TRUMP or Rubio, he gave his typical star studded performance. He only narrowly lost his first engagement with Trump on the birther issue, where he got a good start but Trump closed the gap by continuing to leave a question in the voters minds. Trump demolished Cruz in the second engagement, and Rubio demolished Cruz on immigration, which was the biggest shocker of the night. I was surprised he didn't have a better retort other than "Jeff Sessions, Steve King". The loss in two engagements immediately bumps him down two letter grades.

Carson - D, he was more alive than he ever was when he was the frontrunner, joking around with the moderators, interrupting at times. But as soon as he gets started stringing words together, he loses whatever energy he brings with the beginning. At this point, Carson's a noncandidate peddling his scams. At least he isn't Mike Huckabee.

Rubio - D, his early performances are looking worse and worse in the rear view mirror. Rubio sounded unhinged and flailing, and even though Christie didn't deliver an absolutely killing blow, Christie embarassed Rubio. Rubio would be an F if it weren't for his last minute shock on immigration.

Bush - D-, lul wut, why is he still here? Whenever he answers a question, no matter if its "What's your dogs name?" or "How are ya?", he answers it as if its a really tough question and he has to bend and jerk his body in order to come up with an answer. His severe lack of confidence immediately devalues anything he has to say content-wise (not that he has content, but that's a different story). As Robert DeNiro said in a movie, "clean up, go home"

Kasich - D-, what are you doing dude? Any time I hear Kasich talk its like all the oxygen and energy is being sucked out of the room and he just is doing an impression of Charlie Brown's teacher. Every answer he has to recite his record as Ohio's Governor, a tactic that has proven to be very ineffective with living, breathing voters. The only positive thing that I can say about Kasich's performance is that he's learned from his past performances, and so he doesn't try to become aggressive, interrupting, and unhinged, he instead sticks to his whole moderate nice guy routine. Ultimately, Kasich felt like the guy at the end of the table saying "OH WAIT I HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY TOO" only to be ignored for the more popular and pertinent people. This guy registers a "Clean up, Go home" reaction.

[VPH]

Christie: A
Chris Christie forged a good place in the establishment and built on his previous debate performances. While he didn't register quite the same zingers as Rubio, Christie did come out as an attack dog who could also tackle policy issues. Also, his plays to the outsider crowd were good.

Rubio: A-
While at first he wasn't very exciting at all, he got better as the debate progressed. His defining moment was calling Cruz out for flip flopping. That was a powerful attack and it looks good for Rubio. Moreover, he finished off strong with a great closing statement. All around, a good debate.

Cruz: B
Cruz had a great debate other than his fatal demolition at the hands of Marco Rubio. He was skewered and failed to answer the charges properly. This moment easily outweighs any of his specific successes (getting Trump on the citizenship battle). While holistically, it all averages out for this specific debate performance, I can see Rubio's charges harming him in the polls.

Bush: C
Jeb Bush did well. It's too late for him to salvage the mess he calls his campaign, but he showed a little more intensity than usual and seemed less like a robot and more like a human. Moreover, he made himself stand out and tied his platform to common sense. At the end of the day though, he was still Jeb Bush and he didn't register any huge moments.

Trump: C-
Look, I don't think Trump won. He lost his exchange with Cruz about citizenship, he lost his exchange with Jeb Bush later, the crowd booed him at numerous points throughout, he talked nonsense on China, etc. 

Kasich: D+
Kasich was a non-factor. I liked what he said on trade, but otherwise I really didn't notice him. He shied away too much from brawling with Trump, which is the only way he's been staying remotely relevant.

Carson: F
How does he still have supporters? Carson looked asleep, notably tried to delay a foreign policy question he had no answer to, and lacked any sort of energy or drive to debate. His campaign is in freefall, and this is partly why. I don't comprehend why he doesn't educate himself on current affairs.

[Maxwell]

We're obviously going to disagree on the insights we get from these debates, and that's good. But I'm not sure Jeb's problem was ever being "robotic". Jeb is too awkward and goofy to have a Mitt Romney robot problem.

[The Other Castro]

Cruz: A-
Trump: B+
Christie: B
Rubio: C
Bush: C-
Kasich: D
Carson: D-

[Dorko Julio]

Cruz: A, I felt that this wasn't really his best debate, but he was his usual high energy self. He expressed his views well. I think he won the exchange over immigration with Rubio and held his own with Trump on the birther issue/non-issue, but lost the one with Trump over 'New York values'. Overall he was solid, I don't think he hurt himself at all, but he won't get a bump in the polls or anything either.

Trump: A, He was VERY HIGH ENERGY! and seemed to really take over when discussing the economy (particularly trade issues) and had his spotlight moment with Cruz over New York. He seemed to be a strong presence throughout the debate as well, like he really had something to prove and wanted to firmly establish himself as #1. Really Cruz and Trump basically owned this debate for me.

Christie: B+, he could be higher, but he seemed to be overshadowed by Trump and Cruz. He did good though, he stated what he did as governor, talked about what he would do as President (undoing Obama's damage, make the USA strong and respected again) while going after Hillary and not really attacking the other candidates too much, except when he had to (his take-downs of Rubio). A really solid debate performance.

Rubio: B, he did well, though I'm not really a Rubio fan. He made good points and wasn't afraid to take on any candidate, but I felt like he got owned by Christie twice, first when Christie called Rubio out and repeated the quote Rubio used against Bush in an earlier debate (roughly "someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you) and then proceeded to say all of his accusations against him were false. To me that made Rubio look pretty bad. Then when he said "Sorry Marco, you had your chance but you blew it". Basically Christie told Rubio to STFU both times, and he did. His support for the Gang of 8 bill still haunts him, as evidenced by the exchange with Cruz. But again overall I felt he was articulate and the people who like him probably like him even more now.

Jeb: C, he tried, but Jeb Bush still didn't do much to help himself tonight. Trump managed to get the better of him again, though he held his own (sorta). Asking Trump to change his mind on the Muslim ban was pretty memorable, and he's obviously trying to be feistier to combat his low energy image. Basically Jeb was Jeb, and I was not at all swayed by his debate performance tonight. This was probably one of his better performances, but that's not saying much. I certainly wasn't swayed by it.

Carson: C-, I feel like Carson's whole act isn't working anymore. At first his quieter, subdued approach was refreshing, but it's obvious to me that he just doesn't know enough about the issues to be President (most notably foreign policy). Basically the only thing I liked about his performance was his personality, he seemed to actually be having fun at times. Honestly he strikes me as the least Presidential of all the candidates, even Trump.

Kasich: D, I feel bad for rating him so low but he's never impressed me in these debates. He's experienced and he's Governor of Ohio and a congressman and head of this and that and part of this committee or whatever, but he really drives those points into the ground to the point where he becomes annoying. I think he made sense on the economy and I thought it was funny how he took that shot at Sanders ("if he's the nominee we'll win every state"). I felt he was just rambling with a few of his answers. He didn't seem as angry or impatient as before, but he was the least interesting candidate on that stage.

Anyway, this is my mediocre analysis. I might watch the debate (or parts of it) again, it's sorta hard to process all the candidate's performances and talking points all at once without forgetting something that was said or done.

[TJ in Oregon]

Cruz: A-
He was fiery tonight, delivering some brutal attacks on trump, and coherently explained his loan scandal in terms that make him seem sensible. He would get higher except for the thrashing he got at the end by Rubio.

Bush: B+
He was alive finally and did give some good rebuttals to Trump about China. If he'd looked like this from the start he might be in a totally different position right now.

Rubio: B
He looked nervous and uncomfortable at the beginning when he came out guns blazing. He lost the exchange with Christie but more than redeemed himself in the China exchange and that brutal evisceration of Cruz at the end.

Kasich: C
His posture looked improved, so there's that. He was kind of boring but coherent at least.

Christie: C
He was sort of flat compared to his earlier debates but had no major screwups. He did manage to win his exchange with Rubio, although he lied about his support for Sotomayor and PP donation to do it. He also dodged the gun control question.

trump: D
Cruz tore him apart about the birther stuff and, although he set trump up on the 9/11 comment, Cruz got the better of the rest of the exchange. His comments about China were mostly nonsense like everything else he says, but knowing American politics his polling numbers will probably go up.

Carson: D
This was truthfully one of his better performances. His speech about values was well done and meritorious. It's far too little too late though and he doesn't seem to possess much insight into the political issues that dominate most of our national discussion.

[Lexii, harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy]

Cruz: A
Trump: B+
Rubio: C+, despite not answering  any questions  straight forward
Jeb!: C+
Christie: C
Kasich: D, he was irrelevant
Carson: D-

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Bush: who cares out of ten


Cruz: three life sentences for grand corruption and creepiness out of ten

Trump: Bored out of 10



Rubio: 18.015 g/mol out of 10


Kasich: A interesting and riveting as I imagine the state of Ohio to be



Christie: probably the best, tbh



Carson:



Bonus:
Rubio attempts to fight Christie:

[SillyAmerican]

Trump: A
Trump won, hands down. His 9/11 segment knocked it out of the park; I actually think it may make folks take a closer look at the Donald.

Rubio: A-
Rubio has a command of the facts, and is always well prepared. I thought he had an excellent evening, and had what I believe to be the best of the closing statements. All things considered, the establishment should be happy with Rubio's performance.

Christie: A-
Chris Christie also had a good night. I would not be surprised to see Christie move up a bit in the standings. He's definitely the strongest of the governors running, so continues to look like a strong establishment candidate.  It will be interesting to see whether Christie or Rubio come out on top in the early states.

Cruz: B
Cruz was good. One can tell that he's comfortable with this format. I just think he's done better in some of the earlier debates. For whatever reason, this time around he seemed a little off. But I believe he'll do very well in Iowa, so we'll see.

Carson: C
Carson doesn't do well in debates like these. I would have given him a lower grade, but thought his sneaking in the comment about the WSJ support was a nice touch. It sounds as though his campaign is in complete disarray, and I don't think his performance gains him anything.

Bush: C-
Jeb Bush showed up, and made some good points. Unfortunately for him, the electorate isn't interested in another member of the Bush family residing in the White House. I don't see him gaining in the standings, and think he's on his way out.

Kasich: D
Kasich continues to be a non-factor. I like what Governor Kasich says, but just can't get excited about his candidacy.

[DS0816]

Donald Trump will win the presidential nomination from his party.

There reeks of desperation statements by those who figure that the establishment won't allow it. But, their preferred pick—at one point it was this candidate and then it became that candidate (and, lately, it appears to be Marco Rubio)—is not engaging self-identified Republicans to let the establishment do their voting for them. They are responding to Donald Trump.

Quick Assessments of the Other "Candidates" (no special order)

John Kasich—Ineffective and the Republican equivalent of Democratic candidate Martin O'Malley. (People are not, and will continue not to be, gravitating toward him.)

Chris Christie—Not viable. He destroyed his chances with the bridge scandal. And, at this point, he's appearing in the debates to possibly entertain us.

Jeb Bush—Rejected (for quite a while now)!

Rand Paul—Not viable. He only appeared to be an attractive possibility circa 2012 and/or 2013.

Ben Carson—Exposed himself a few weeks ago. (Well, to those people who seriously thought he was a candidate who has substance.)

Marco Rubio—The apparent, preferred establishment pick. (A complete whore.) Rubio is relying on Donald Trump to fail.

Ted Cruz—Maybe he can win Iowa. Just like Mike Huckabee (2008) and Rick Santorum (2012) did with the last two presidential primaries/caucuses for the GOP. Ted Cruz's potential is on par with Newt Gingrich from 2012.

Carly Fiorina—Done (and, at this point, she is only possibly useful for spouting off about Hillary Clinton; which is what is expected of Fiorina by her party).

Mike Huckabee—He was never in contention.

Jim Gilmore—Same as Mike Huckabee.

Rick Santorum—Same as Mike Huckabee and Jim Gilmore.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Trump - A.  He did what he had to do and turned a Cruz attack into a gaffe.  It wasn't as if Trump was heads and tails about everyone else, but he came off as more Presidential, and folks could visualize him as President to a greater degree after this debate.

Christie - B+.  He's worked at making himself more likeable.  I suspect that Christie actually might be gaining traction as the Establishment favorite.  I'd give him an A if Trump had done worse, but my grades are on the curve, and Trump did what he had to do to establish himself as a strong frontrunner.

Rubio - C+.  He had a commanding grip on facts and was a strong debater, but his tone and intensity was that of someone who was desperate to impress.  He came off as trying too hard.  He reminded folks of the Nixon of 1952; eager and in a hurry.  This scares people.  Part of my grade for Christie stems from the fact that Christie came off as more relaxed and mature than Rubio, and this matters when it's a choice for the President of the United States.

Cruz - C. Cruz handled the Goldman-Sachs loan questions well, but he said too much regarding his issue of being born in Canada.  He could have just asserted "I'm a natural born American citizen.  That's that.", but he didn't.  He muddied waters that were clear.  He also had to defend his "New York Values" statement, which Trump slammed him on.  This aspect of Cruz's performance detracted from his image of a guy who doesn't commit gaffes.  "New York Values" was a gaffe, and this undermines one of the strongest aspects of Cruz's appeal; the appeal of a disciplined candidate.  Cruz is a narcissist, not unlike a lot of folks who run for office, but when you get caught making statements about whole groups that are derogatory and you project yourself as a victim of liberals who just want to lie to get you "in trouble", it undermines the position of strength you wish to project and makes your narcissism less savory.

Kasich - C-.  He came off as reasonable, but he didn't do anything to put him on anyone's A list who is still undecided.

Jeb! - D.  Jeb! tried to be the voice of reason.  He doesn't get it.  No one wants that.  I don't see where he gained any support.  "He didn't hurt himself." isn't good enough for Jeb! at this point, and he knows it.

Carson - F.  Carson is a guy who could rival Trump, but at no time did he act like he was running for President.  People are waiting for Carson to show them something, but he's not doing so.  He comes off as a guy not up to the job, and his lack of specificity in his answers reinforces this.  Carson is a guy who could well be elected to Bill Nelson's Senate seat in Florida in 2018, but he's a statement candidate.