Last Night's GOP Debate

I only watched the main event, not the little league. It's still so early so it's hard to figure out if anything means anything and there were so many candidates that "debate" is a misnomer, but it had it's moments. Here are a bunch of articles that I've read and agree with on it with a bunch of pull quotes.

Carly Fiorina won the GOP debate, but fact checkers will have a field day - Vox "This is the second debate Fiorina won. She dominated the JV stage in the Fox News debate, forcing CNN to change the rules to ensure she made the main stage in their event. She validated their decision tonight. She had the crispest answers, received the biggest cheers, and proved the only candidate on the stage capable of standing against Trump. She made everyone else on the stage — especially Trump — look unprepared. But she did it in part by playing fast and loose with the facts. Her barrage of specifics often obscured a curious detachment from reality."

Donald Trump lost the Republican debate, and it wasn't even close. - Vox "Marco Rubio schooled him on foreign policy, Jeb Bush said the tough-talking real-estate mogul's inexperience would be "really dangerous," and Carly Fiorina took Trump to task for mocking her looks."

The second Republican presidential debate, explained - Vox

FactChecking the CNN Republican Debate and Who Won the Fiction Sweepstakes in Last Night's Debate? | Mother Jones

The best, worst, and Trumpiest moments of last night’s debate: a comprehensive guide - Vox

Pundits thought Ben Carson lost the debate, but Twitter shows they're wrong - Vox

Ahmed Mohamed came up in the JV Republican debate. It didn't go well. - Vox "The candidates were clearly uncomfortable with the subject of Islamophobia and anti-Muslim bigotry and worked very hard to avoid it. Of the three candidates who answered, none could bring themselves even to say the boy's name, Ahmed Mohamed. All three attempted to shift the conversation to Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses."

Carly Fiorina is wrong about the Planned Parenthood tapes. I know because I watched them. - Vox "Carly Fiorina gave a harrowing description of the Planned Parenthood sting videos at Wednesday's Republican debate, challenging Barack Obama to watch 'a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking, while someone says we have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.' Fiorina is wrong: Nobody watching the Planned Parenthood tapes would see those things. I know, because I recently watched all 12 hours of footage."

Jeb Bush says his brother "kept us safe." He's wrong. - Vox "For one thing: The vast majority of people killed on American soil by terrorists throughout the entirety of American history were killed during George W. Bush's administration. It's not even close. And this was followed up by the deaths of an even larger number of Americans during Bush's invasion of Iraq."

Rand Paul called out the racism of the drug war — and told Jeb Bush to check his privilege - Vox "He also called out Jeb Bush as a hypocrite for smoking pot in his youth but opposing legalization now. And when Bush admitted that he smoked pot 40 years ago, Paul literally accused Bush of showing his privilege: "In the current circumstances, kids who had privilege like you do don't go to jail, but the poor kids in our inner cities go to jail. I don't think that's fair. And I think we need to acknowledge it.""

Ben Carson: Progressive taxation is socialism. Donald Trump: No it isn't. - Vox ""We've had a graduated tax system for many years," Trump said. "It's not a socialistic thing." He went on to say that his own tax plan would be "a major reduction for the middle class," and that "the hedge fund guys" would pay more. "I know people making a tremendous amount of money and paying virtually no taxes," he said, "and I think it's unfair.""

Republican second debate: candidates pick women to grace $10 bill - Vox Two named non-Americans and three named their family members. No one said Elenor Roosevelt.

Republicans Got One Question About Climate Change At The Debate, And Totally Screwed It Up | ThinkProgress "Three candidates responded: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. All three argued that nothing should be done by the American government to combat the problem, and Christie even said that he “respectfully disagrees” with Reagan’s secretary of state (gasp!). But all three also backed up their argument using a factually murky claim: that government efforts to combat climate change won’t do anything to solve the problem."

To me the climate change stuff pointed out their hypocrisy. Most of these candidates say that to combat terrorism in the middle east we need to lead. If we act, we'll bring other allies in. They then go on to say that acting alone in climate change will accomplish nothing. Why not lead? And it's not like the rest of the world is doing nothing, even China is acting. We're the ones who aren't even following.

Here's an interesting way to measure the debate, how many twitter followers they got. Pundits thought Ben Carson lost the debate, but Twitter shows they're wrong - Vox