As a democrat I didn't know if I should have been excited or scared watching last night's debate. Once again it was a slugfest between Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz. The insults were flying and Trump was countering pretty good. Over all I would say that even though Rubio and Cruz landed punches, Trump won the debate.
The big elephant in the room was Mitt Romney. Earlier in the day he held a press conference in which he laid out a plan for a brokered convention. Essentially all candidates are to stay in the race, even if it is apparent they cannot win. The way it would work is that Trump would fall short of the needed delegates to win the nomination. After which the others candidates whose combined delegate count should be higher than Trumps would come together around one other candidate. That candidate would be the new nominee. This would not happen in a vacuum and if Trump were to get any of those delegates that he did not win, then he would be the nominee anyways.
There is a big issue with this. Trump may run a spoiler campaign on a third party ticket, a democratic win. Another problem for the GOP if they do this was pointed out by Trump himself. He is winning right now by attracting people that would be considered conservative democrats. If the person they voted for is out then why would they vote Republican come November. Another point Trump hit his opponents with was that they keep saying they are the only ones that can beat Trump; yet, he is the one that keeps beating them. Trump's biggest hit on Cruz was mocking Cruz stating that he beat Trump 3 times. Trump said he beat Cruz 10 times. Trump defended his hands because of an attack from Rubio. The attack stated Trump's hands were small and that other things might be small. In a surreal moment, Trump stated there was nothing to worry about there. Trump hit Rubio often by stating how bad he was losing and called him Little Rubio. Rubio tried to counter with Big Trump, but it did not have the effect he was hoping for. John Kasich was a cool customer and stayed above the fray. It was obvious from the questions that Fox News was giving attack lines through the questions. Kasich told them he was not going to bite and instead talked about policy. It was a sympathetic crowd for him. He would have been the big winner, but the Trump still had the most time. Trump's deliver was different too. Instead of just attacking, he would go back to the policy. The biggest problems for Trump were the attacks about Trump University. He stated it has an A+ rating but the news quickly showed it is really a D-. There is a lawsuit right now and it definitely made him look bad as he was visibly flustered.
In the end Trump supporters are not interested in him because of his record, but because of his personality. He is brash and attacks people. Those that attack him always seem to lose the optics, so his supporters believe that is how he will govern. They want an outsider and attempts by Mitt Romney only help Trump's cause.
