There are two things certain after any debate.\u00a0 One is that the professional pundits will get it wrong.\u00a0 The other is that the real impact of a debate never shows up immediately.\u00a0 Sad to say, the Fox News panel was actually worse than CNN.\u00a0 That is incredible when one considers the pathetic liberals that dominate CNN.<\/p>\n
For weeks we have watched the Republican establishment attack Donald Trump, only to make him more popular. \u00a0Yet the recommendation was always to attack Trump.\u00a0 The more people attacked Trump the bigger he looked.\u00a0 Rubio, in an act of desperation, listened to this advice and attacked Donald Trump with disastrous results.\u00a0 Yet, again tonight there was Charles Krauthammer saying that Rubio and Kasich missed an opportunity to attack Trump.\u00a0 Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.<\/p>\n
Donald Trump did appear more Presidential tonight but I am not sure that helped him.\u00a0 A large part of the appeal for Donald Trump is that he was the politically incorrect outsider who fought off his attackers.\u00a0 He was always the most out of control guy in the room and voters furious with the establishment absolutely loved it.\u00a0 Well tonight the fighter never showed.\u00a0 Instead we saw a kinder, gentler Donald Trump.\u00a0 The result was that Trump stumbled badly on important issues.\u00a0 When Trump gets into an adult policy debate with Ted Cruz he loses badly.<\/p>\n
So how bad was this.\u00a0 Perhaps we can take a clue from the Drudge Report.\u00a0 A lot of people have noticed that the Drudge Report has been very favorable to Donald Trump.\u00a0 I always checked the instant poll on Drudge after every debate and in every case Trump was the big winner.\u00a0 At times was almost shocking because to me Trump was acting like a spoiled eighth grader.\u00a0 But his supporters loved it and he typically won the instant poll by huge margins.\u00a0 Ted Cruz usually came in a distant second, at around 20%.\u00a0 Rubio always came in just below Cruz and no one else mattered.\u00a0 Tonight the results were very different.\u00a0 Donald Trump still won, but by a much smaller margin.\u00a0 Approximately 49.5% percent of people thought Trump won the debate, but this time 43.5% thought Cruz won.\u00a0 Rubio and Kasich barely registered with 3.75% saying Rubio won and 3.14% saying Rubio won.<\/p>\n
This is not a scientific poll; it just measures people who read the Drudge Report and then vote.\u00a0 But the enormous change in results is still significant.\u00a0 There is no doubt that Donald Trump did a lot worse, Cruz did a lot better and Rubio and Kasich were considered irrelevant.\u00a0\u00a0 I was surprised because I thought Rubio had a really good night, but I suspect the results reflect the obvious fact that Rubio has no chance at winning the nomination.<\/p>\n
How will the new Trump play?\u00a0 No one knows for sure.\u00a0 All we know is that things have changed.<\/p>\n
TDM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are two things certain after any debate.\u00a0 One is that the professional pundits will get it wrong.\u00a0 The other is that the real impact of a debate never shows up immediately.\u00a0 Sad to say, the Fox News panel was … Continue reading