Who Won the Fox News Debate?

Who won the Fox News Debate? There were seventeen candidates in all. Seven of them were on the stage at 5:00 and ten were on the stage at 9:00. The prime time debate had the top ten in an average of polls. The rest were at the earlier debate.

The bulk of the coverage leading up to the debate was about Donald Trump and then who would qualify to be on the Prime Time debate. Trump has tapped into something in this race that the pundits are trying to figure out and explain at the same time.

They call his comments controversial. Mostly because he doesn’t speak as a politician. Well, he’s not a politician. When Trump announced he was running for President, he gave his speech. It didn’t appear to be a written speech. He had an order he wanted to say things but he spoke off the cuff, I believe. Here’s what started it off:

“The U.S. has become a dumping ground for everybody else’s problems. Thank you. It’s true, and these are the best and the finest. When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.

But I speak to border guards and they tell us what we’re getting. And it only makes common sense. It only makes common sense. They’re sending us not the right people.

It’s coming from more than Mexico. It’s coming from all over South and Latin America, and it’s coming probably— probably— from the Middle East. But we don’t know. Because we have no protection and we have no competence, we don’t know what’s happening. And it’s got to stop and it’s got to stop fast”.

Trump was right. He just wasn’t polished in what he said. Remember the summer of 2014? We were bombarded with stories of people coming from south of the border. They were taking trains through Mexico to get here. They were walking and crossing the border by foot. Children were being raped and murdered. Some were crossing with other adults that they weren’t related to. Then when caught here they were placed in facilities with scabbies, lice and other medical problems. We were flying them to other facilities because they were filling up at the crossing in Texas.

Donald Trump is a businessman. He’s a presence. He walks into a room and is dynamic and outspoken and upbeat. But he really doesn’t dot the “I’s” and cross the “t’s”. He hires the lawyers to put those things together. He’s like that with his run for presidency. He’s not a refined politician. He says what he thinks in a rambling sort of way then spends a day cleaning up others misunderstandings of what he’s said. It appears though that the American people, or a substantial number of them, understand what he means. He’s saying what they think. This has the “professional” politicians confused and upset.

Politicians have the wording down pat for the most part. They’ll say their piece, but not be overly offensive. They all get along together for the most part. They play war on debates, but they are pretty much buddy buddy the rest of the time. This has them very confused when it comes to Donald Trump.

Let’s look back. In 2008, did we really want John McCain for our candidate? Was he really the best? Just a couple of years earlier there was speculation that he was going to change parties. He wasn’t and isn’t a conservative. My own personal opinion was that I was not going to vote for him. I was going to leave the President selection on my ballot blank. But then he brought in Sarah Palin as his VP nominee. I could then vote for him. But it was really a vote for her. He just happened to be on the ticket.

2012. Mitt Romney. He wasn’t conservative. But he wasn’t Obama. He didn’t have socialistic tendencies. Was he the best we could have put out there? No. Also in 2012, we had the Republicans take over the House and make gains in the Senate although not enough to become the majority. The House promised to take three days to read bills. To be more inclusive with the Tea Party who were really putting the Republicans back on the map. But they didn’t follow through.

In 2014, they promised to defund Obamacare, not fund the executive order on amnesty. This gave the Republicans record numbers dating back to the 1920’s and in the Senate a substantial gain giving them the  majority. But once in office, they did everything the opposite  of what they’d promised. Trump has no hesitation in saying what we think.

Then the attacks come from the politicians on Trump. Senator Rand Paul and Senator Lindsay Graham claim that Trump isn’t qualified to be President. They should know better. Rand Paul shouts about the constitution all of the time. He should read it. Trump is qualified.

In the 2014 election, where I used to live Representative Justin Amash had an opponent, Brian Ellis, in the primary. He refused to debate Ellis. His reason was that he didn’t think his opponent was running a proper campaign. He said that Ellis didn’t have a “serious or credible” campaign. Now we’re seeing much the same thing with this crop of candidates regarding Donald Trump. Trump is not playing by their rules. They don’t know how to handle him.

The American people have heard the politicians and then seen if they do what they say when applying for the job and find that they don’t. How many years have we been hearing about fixing Social Security? Anything been done?

However, Donald Trump was not the winner in the Fox News Debate. There are seventeen candidates.

Former Governors: Bush, Gilmore, Huckabee, Pataki and Perry.

Sitting Governors: Christie, Jindahl, Kasich, and Walker

Former Senators: Santorum,

Sitting Senators: In their first term;Cruz, Paul and Rubio, and one experienced Senator, Graham.

Private Sector Candidates: Dr. Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina, and Donald Trump.

Governor Kasich, Senator Cruz, Senator Rubio, Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina were probably the highlights and Fiorina wasn’t even on the prime time stage.

Having said all of this, you’re probably guessing that Donald Trump is thought to be the winner of this debate. You would be guessing wrong. The true winner of the Fox News Debates was actually the trio of Bret Baier, Meghan Kelly, and Chris Wallace!

They came prepared. They each asked very tough questions, especially in the first round of questions. They pointed out the contradictions of each candidate and what they’d said in the past and what they say now and asked them to explain themselves.

Fox News is ridiculed by the mainstream media as being biased towards Republicans. Even they were praising the debate and how Fox did. When have we seen this tough of a debate in the past? CNN throws softball questions at Democrat candidates. Last time, Candy Crowley went so far as to tell Mitt Romney that he was wrong about Obama’s words in the Rose Garden following the attack in Benghazi. Crowley was wrong but due to her interference and challenge to Romney where Obama wasn’t challenging him, Romney was off his game and many thought the debate went to Obama. It really went to CNN and Candy Crowley.

The same could be said for ABC, NBC, CBS when they moderate debates. It’s softball questions, or “feel good” questions to the Democrats. Fox News though was very tough on all of the candidates. That includes the early debate with Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum as moderators.

Fox News and their moderators were by far the winners in the debates!

You’re welcome to comment.

Brett