First CNN Republican Debate

The much awaited spectacle taking place in the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California proved to be better moderated by CNN then expected. Jake Tapper did a commendable job during the course of a grueling 3 hour debate in directing the proceedings. Where as Fox news had prognosticated that all the GOP candidates would try to be knocking Donald Trump while the CNN correspondents would be asking “Gotcha” questions proved to be inaccurate.

In remembrance

In the spirit of the late President Ronald Reagan, it seemed the spirit of his accomplishments and his contribution to America were present. The imagery of the stage with Air Force One of Reagan’s time under the bright lights made for an interesting setting. It proved to be an effective visual for a prolonged query that was officiated by Tapper and seemingly in effective fashion.

Early battles

Early on, it was apparent that Carly Fiorina had an axe to grind with Donald Trump over the comment he made about her face a week ago and tried to focus his shot at her as being a general affront to all woman in America who must have heard him even though women voters overwhelmingly approve of Trump. Donald shot back after telling her that she was a beautiful lady that he wouldn’t have her running any of his companies in view of her ejection from Hewlett Packard and the recent layoff by her former employer of 25 to 30 thousand employees.

Immigration

Jeb Bush wanted The Donald to apologize to his Latino wife for his comments on the illegal immigrant problem which has proven to be rife with large percentages of criminals and drug cartel offenders. Other GOP hopefuls even alluded to the fact that without Trump’s mention of the issue the subject never would have been addressed by the media or Republican establishment. It seemed as the debate ended and the candidates began to disperse that Bush and Trump got on well together.

One true voice

It is notable that the only true Constitutional conservative there, Ted Cruz, was given little time to speak and literally took John Kassich to task on the subject of the Iran Nuke Deal as the former Ohio governor rationalized that any violations would result in the re-enactment of sanctions and or military option. However, as Cruz pointed out, when the Iranians are trusted to monitor themselves, the deal is nothing more than a hoax, an illusion, that can never be trusted. He was right.

It was remarked that Marco Rubio sounded very presidential, that Ben Carson made some good points on the need for creating opportunity and not dependency in US society, but ran into a stumbling block with Donald Trump over vaccination caused autism. Trump pointed out that young children were being given way too many vaccines too early in life resulting in the large incidence of autism while Doctor Carson claimed there was no proof that the disease was connected mocking Trump as a “So so” doctor which stirred a laugh from everyone but did concede that the medical community should issue fewer vaccines over a shorter longer period of time.

The Governors

Governor Scott Walker made some very good points about his ability to take on big unions, state employee issues, and even facing death threats in order to serve the people of Wisconsin. As he stated, he had lowered taxes, solved the state deficit, and improve job growth which he would apply to Washington DC. John Kassich was quick to point out his credentials on budget committees in Washington while fixing state budgets in his state of Ohio, but got taken to the woodshed over his faith in the Iran Nuke Deal in his exchange with Ted Cruz.

Chris Christy, Governor of New Jersey, gained ground in the debates in blaming President Obama’s faulty leadership causing a general mistrust in the government while causing people to lose their faith in the future of this country. His analysis was correct. Mike Huckabee proved himself to be a worthy opponent when criticizing Planned Parenthood for their atrocities against the unborn and the need for a moral compass in American society and government so that American values make a difference. It would be pleasure to watch Mike Huckabee debate President Obama on a number of issues, but we can count on the oval office executive to dodge any direct confrontations as he continues to push his left wing agenda.

Keeping US citizens safe

Jeb Bush could be characterized as a nice man who is reticent to take any definitive stance while agreeing with most of his GOP brethren over economic issues, but one thing he did say that stood out in defending his brother George W. was that he did defend America and kept us safe after the 9-11 tragedy. That brought about applause from the audience.

Jindal’s frustration

In the earlier debate consisting of four of the low polling candidates, Bobby Jindal, Governor of Louisiana, was definitely on fire in his debate with Lindsay Graham, who has voted too many times alongside Democrats, but was firm on stopping ISIS. Jindal effective expressed the frustration with the American people over a Senate and House majority of Republicans that still cannot put up a fight and stand for the issues they campaigned on. His words definitely resonated for all Americans who want a swift end to the Obama presidency.

CNN’s platform

All in all, the CNN debate was generally fair and allowed many of the issues to be discussed with clarity and without a lot of infighting between the GOP hopefuls. All Republicans there showed an amazing solidarity over addressing the problems facing America. Even Hugh Hewitt, who many consider to be heavily leaning toward the establishment Republican side did do an excellent job of asking well thought out questions designed to get answers not to provoke a frothy debate between candidates.

Unexpected outcome

CNN could have slanted the proceedings further to the left and made the debate more combative, but in view of the general public’s low level of confidence in the US media, probably thought better of that approach. Instead the debate may well have come across better than that of Fox News who were definitely being vindictive toward Trump over his comments about Megyn Kelly. The presentation could have been interpreted many different ways, but I watched all 3 hours of it, and was pleasantly surprised over it.