Analysis: A new and rougher phase in the GOP debate

Luke Skywalker · Oct 29, 2015

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[h=4]Analysis: A new and rougher phase in the GOP debate[/h]For Bush and other candidates who trail, the 3rd GOP debate may be an existential challenge.

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The top ten GOP presidential candidates faced off during CNBC's two hour debate. Here are the best moments in under three minutes. VPC

Jeb Bush speaks at the Oct. 28, 2015, Republican debate in Boulder, Colo., while fellow candidates Mike Huckabee, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump look on.(Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

The clock is ticking and the heat is rising.
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, once political allies, tangled furiously at the third presidential debate Wednesday as both scrambled for footing in a shifting presidential race. Bush suggested Rubio resign from the Senate if he was going to miss so many votes — “You should show up for work” — and Rubio countered that his former mentor had been convinced by consultants to launch that attack for political advantage.

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AP Political Reporter Nicholas Riccardi says Florida Senator Marco Rubio scored big points at Wednesday night's GOP debate. He also said front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson largely disappeared. (Oct. 29) AP

Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich led the charge against the field’s emerging leader, Ben Carson, saying his economic proposals were “a fantasy” and warning, “We’re on the verge of picking someone who perhaps cannot do this job.”
The debate, sponsored by CNBC and held at the University of Colorado in Boulder, reflected a rougher phase of the GOP campaign, and one in which Donald Trump for once wasn’t the center of all the action. Bush and Rubio seemed locked in one battle to be the establishment alternative, while Trump and Carson were in a separate contest to be the leader of the political outsiders, the category that has dominated the contest so far.
USA TODAY
Republican candidates go after one another — and the media

The sharper tone reflected shifting fortunes —*Trump seems stung that Carson now leads in three Iowa polls and one nationwide one — and the calendar. In 100 days, the opening Iowa caucuses will be history. The candidates will be making their final pitch to New Hampshire primary voters in a field that is likely to be smaller than the 10 candidates who were on stage Wednesday night, not to mention four others in the undercard debate that preceded it.
Wednesday’s showdown will help determine who survives to make it there.
The exception to the sharp tone of the evening: Carson, who announced in his first answer that he would abide by former president Ronald Reagan’s “11th Commandment,” not to speak ill of another Republican. That might have made some of the others more reluctant to attack him, and he wasn’t the central figure that Trump had been when he was the front-runner in the first two debates.

Republican Presidential candidates John Kasich, Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, Ted Cruz, Chris Christie, and Rand Paul take the stage before the start of the CNBC Republican presidential debate.* Robyn Beck, AFP/Getty Images

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Still, Carson seemed tentative in defending his proposal to replace the tax code with a flat tax, responding to a question about whether it would leave the government trillions of dollars short of what it now spends. The debate focused mostly on the details of economic issues, not the social issues on which he talks more comfortably on the stump.
“You also have to get rid of all the deductions and also the loopholes,” he said. “It works out very well.”
At that, Kasich, a former chairman of the House Budget Committee, exploded in apparent exasperation at Carson’s tax plan and Trump’s promise to deport 11*million undocumented workers now in the USA. “This is the fantasy that I talked about at the beginning,” Kasich said. “You can’t do it with empty promises.”
Trump fired back, pointing at Kasich and charging he played a role in the catastrophic bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in 2008. (Kasich protested that he was simply an Ohio-based banker working with Lehman, not a member of the board, as Trump said.) “He was such a nice guy,” Trump said mockingly of Kasich. “Then his poll numbers tanked.”
ONPOLITICS
The most quotable moments from the third Republican debate

The question ahead is how Republican primary voters will view the evolving personas on stage. Trump seemed to temper his bluster a bit, and he criticized Carson only indirectly. Even that was in considerable contrast to Carson, who continued to display a lower-key style than a typical candidate.
The Republican establishment only in recent weeks seriously wrestled with the notion that a real-estate mogul and reality-TV star could end up as its nominee. Now Carson, who leads in Iowa and one nationwide poll, would be an even more unlikely prospect. A celebrated surgeon, he would have the least extensive history in public affairs of a major-party nominee in modern times.
Asked about his strategy for Wednesday night’s forum, Carson told USA TODAY’s Capital Download earlier this month that he had no plans to change his style. “The pundits after both of the first debates said, ‘Carson didn’t do that well,’ but my numbers went up, so I’m not really worried about the pundits,” he said.
For several other candidates, the debate posed a nearly existential challenge.
Bush, viewed as the top contender before the race began, by the third debate had lost his prime position at the center of the stage, where positions were determined by poll standing. He was*forced to counter the perception that his heart isn’t really in it. “I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around being miserable,” he had told a South Carolina audience last week.
ONPOLITICS
Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio clash over missed votes

He may not have succeeded in doing that. When he launched his attack on Rubio, the Florida senator was ready to respond in kind.
Meanwhile, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz objected to the questions being posed as media bias designed to encourage combat. “This is not a cage match,” he protested.
On that, at least, the candidates on stage seemed to agree. The audience booed when the moderators pressed Carson and others on questions. “The Democrats have the ultimate super PAC,” Rubio scoffed at one point to cheers. “It is called the mainstream media.”
More coverage of the GOP debate:*
USA TODAY
Colorado debate: Highlights from Republicans' third faceoff

ONPOLITICS
Ted Cruz blasts media during the debate

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Carson questioned over association with supplement firm

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Trump denies calling Rubio 'Mark Zuckerberg's personal senator'

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Jeb Bush willing to sell kisses for tax cuts

USA TODAY
Long-shot GOP candidates debate economy in Colorado

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Hillary Clinton is totally unfazed by #GOPdebate

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Trump says he carries a gun 'on occasion, sometimes a lot'

ONPOLITICS
Chris Christie not amused by fantasy football question

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Analysis: A new and rougher phase in the GOP debate

Luke Skywalker

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