By JORDAN EVANS
Columnist
Over a week has passed since the Republican Debate last Wednesday, but I’m going to take a moment to review it nevertheless. The 11 presidential hopefuls used their time together to discuss their beliefs, some current national problems and attempted to tear down their opponents. With such a large field, I won’t be able to converse about each of them, so I will just touch on the standouts. The obvious winner of the debate was Carly Fiorina. She was not only powerful when she spoke, but her answers were well thought out, and she explained her stance in a respectable and direct manner. Her victory is now official with her poll number soaring, placing her in second overall behind Donald Trump, whose number took a small hit. The cause of Trump’s decrease in his backing is likely the fact he was caught with his foot in his mouth many times throughout the night. One example was Fiorina’s response to his quote in Rolling Stone stating “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?” Fiorina’s response to this was “I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said.” Granted Trump was the target for many of the questionings though the night, but that’s what happens when he put a bulls-eye on his back by attacking every candidate any chance he gets.
Another notable candidate was Marco Rubio. Rubio proved his knowledge though his well-spoken banter with the other candidates, his stance on foreign policy and his understanding of the need to communicate with the growing Hispanic population. In response to Trump’s criticism of Jeb Bush speaking in Spanish, he stated, “If they get their news in Spanish, I want them to hear that directly from me. Not from a translator at Univision.”
Ben Carson has been making some noise in the polls recently, yet he was relatively quiet in the debate. His soft voice and timid demeanor left him in the shadows of the others.
Jeb Bush is another who didn’t stand out much in the debate. He took to the offensive during the debate, calling out Trump’s statement that Bush is soft on immigration due to his wife’s heritage. Bush asked Trump to apologize to his wife, and yet Trump refused. Another Bush highlight was his announcement that he had smoked Marijuana once 40 years ago, stating it should be a state’s right to decide on its legality.
Overall this debate probably won’t have a huge impact on the actual election, yet it was a great chance for a few candidates to get their name out there and to narrow the field a bit. In my opinion, the ones to watch in the Republican race will be Bush, Fiorina, and Rubio.