What we finally saw at a GOP debate
Left to right, Republican presidential candidates Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, businessman Donald Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, businesswoman Carly Fiorina, and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul take the stage in the debate hosted by Fox Business and The Wall Street Journal at the Milwaukee Theatre in Milwaukee on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. Credit: Getty Images / Scott Olson
Perhaps it was having only eight candidates on the main stage this time. Perhaps it was the more expansive time allotted for answers and rebuttals, or the moderators.
Whatever it was, voters finally started to get what they needed from last night’s Republican presidential debate in Milwaukee: an exchange of ideas.
It took until round four and emerged in fits and starts but it was there in often full-throated dissent. Candidates differed with one another on matters of substance, and largely without insults.
They disagreed sharply on immigration reform, with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush saying businessman Donald Trump's mass deportation plan was unrealistic. Kasich called it childish, provoking the night’s lone putdown when Trump petulantly said he was worth billions of dollars and didn’t have to listen to Kasich.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky went after Marco Rubio’s proposed child tax credit, saying it was nothing more than another entitlement program that would cost trillions and that it proved the Florida senator is not a conservative. The remark elicited an impassioned testimonial about the importance of families from Rubio.
There were disputes regarding the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, and interventionism around the world, and whether the president should talk to Russia's Vladimir Putin, and whether to bail out big banks on the verge of failing.
The drama was both real and symbolic, as Kasich and Paul kept firing away literally from the wings of the stage. And former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina launched a series of bipartisan attacks, saying Democrats and Republicans are equally to blame for big government, the Great Recession and a litany of other maladies.
It was all so atypical that it took them a lot longer than usual to start ganging up on Democratic front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton.
And since these debates are not going to be a forum for sorting out the facts from the considerable fictions in some of the proposed tax plans, it was all good. Putting the candidates in position to attack weaknesses in each other’s proposals is the best instant fact-check we're going to get.
Still, there was one interesting disconnect that hung over much of the evening, starting with the opening question. I wonder what the people candidates love to call regular folks were thinking when several contenders said no to an increase in the minimum wage. These are candidates who have said they feel the pain of ordinary Americans and understand their struggles, but last night many of them turned their backs on many of those struggling. Work harder, Trump said, wages are already too high.
It remains to be seen whether that will cost the eventual nominee next fall. But Kasich, the eternal scold and party worry-wart, is clearly worried about the future impact of promises made now when they must be defended against a general election vote.
“If we make promises we can’t keep ... we’re in trouble,” Kasich said. “Our ideas have to add up, they have to be solid.”
Consider last night the first stab at vetting that.
