We will add updates to the top, critique from me will be in [ ]. We will sticky this to the top, and newer posts will be posted below.
Here’s a link to livestream.
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Drudge Poll (which is unscientific)
TRUMP 48.68% (37,048 votes)
CRUZ 24.29% (18,483 votes)
PAUL 11.41% (8,683 votes)
RUBIO 7.37% (5,608 votes)
CHRISTIE 2.32% (1,764 votes)
FIORINA 2.14% (1,632 votes)
BUSH 1.6% (1,218 votes)
CARSON 1.36% (1,034 votes)
KASICH 0.83% (630 votes)
Total Votes: 76,100
Closing Statements:
Paul – greatest problem is our national debt and it’s problem of both parties.
Kasich – No Republicans have won without winning Ohio [but you’re not even leading in Ohio]
Christie – Radical jihadist terrorism is real to me, I dealt with it as fed prosecutor, I want the chance to protect America.
Fiorina – I too remember Sept 11. I protected my company. We need to beat Hillary. We need to be better than our government. We need to unify our party to take our country back. [I hate that expression]
Bush – Ask yourself which candidate will keep you safer? Hillary has aligned herself with Obama. I don’t make false promises, I deliver results.
Rubio – one of most important elections in a generation. For over 200 years it has been a special country. This is about electing President who can reach more people, rebuild this country, a new American century.
Cruz – judgment, strength, clarity, trust. Reagan won, we win, they lose. I will do the same, to defeat radical Islamic terrorism.
Carson – I thank God every day that I was born in this country, the greatest country on earth. And that’s why I’m not willing to give away American values for political correctness.
Trump – If I’m elected we will win again and be greater than ever before.
Trump – I am ready to reassure everyone that I wouldn’t run as an independent. I’m totally committed to the Republican party. I will do everything in my power to beat Hillary.
Carson – I wouldn’t if there isn’t any subterfuge.
Trump- Cruz has a wonderful temperament.
Cruz – judgment is most important for voters and it’s a standard I’m held to and everyone else is held too.
Neither bit for the obvious attempt to make them fight.
My eyes are beginning to glaze over here, start whacking on Hillary, please!
Cruz – Rubio has muddied the waters. Some chose to stand with BO and support amnesty (Rubio). Border security is national security. When you’re letting people in when people can’t fix them we will build a wall that works and I’ll get Donald Trump to pay for it.
Trump – And I’ll build it.
Cruz – the firefighter and the arsonist aren’t the same. I was fighting against amnesty, Rubio was fighting for it. You enforce the law. Bill Clinton deported 12 million illegal aliens.
Carson – there’s a false narrative that only the political class can be president. I’ve had a lot experience, I don’t do a lot of talking I do a lot of doing. Look and see what I’ve done and that says volumes about strength.
Fiorina – Obama and Hillary are responsible for ISIS because of leaving Iraq with no exit plan.
Christie – I would shoot down Russian planes if came in no fly zone.
Paul – that’s a recipe for WW3 [here comes the isolationism again] We’re talking about someone who might shut down a bridge because they don’t like their friends [cheap ding at Christie].
Christie – If you think a no fly zone is reckless, you’re welcome to try something else because it’s not working now.
Bush and Trump go at it. T
Trum- I’m at 41, you’re at 3, Jeb.
Is the middle east better off with dictators?
Carson – we need oxygen right now. We need to think about our interests before we go diagnosing other people’s problems.
Bush – getting rid of Saddam was a pretty good deal, but this president had no deal to get out. It isn’t a fight between us, it’s that Hillary wants to double down on a failed foreign policy.
Paul – regime change allows terrorism to rise out of it
Trump – we can’t be fighting everyone at the same time.
Christie – ISIS was formed because of Assad’s attacks. [no, they weren’t, they were created because of ideology]
[Paul clearly has folks in the audience]
Cruz- can’t topple secular leaders and create openings for ISIS.
Rubio – if assad goes will not shed a tear.
Cruz – moderate rebels end up being jihadis, we need to focus on American interests.
Kasich – Assad has to go.
[Cruz is the only one noting that removing secular leaders creates vacuum for ISIS]
Trump – don’t spend money trying to nation build. [someone is being disruptive in audience].
Fiorina asks when are you going to ask me a question?
Rubio sounds like he had been given that last question, answering it almost before it was asked.
Fiorina – If you want something talked about ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman.
Carson – we have a phobia about boots on the ground. We need to realize there have to be boots on the ground, or there will be boots on the ground over here, and it will be their boots. [great point]
Can you prosecute a war that could kill thousands of children
Carson – I would be tough and resolute.
Paul – Trump is not a serious candidate, are you going to violate the Constitution.
Trump – I’m not talking about shutting down the internet, i’m talking about shutting things where ISIS is in Syria, targeting them. [again crowd seems different from prior crowds, booing Trump there]
Cruz- we need to use overwhelming air power, we need to be arming the Kurds. It is not a lack of competence. It’s PC the Nidal Hassan, Tashfeen Malik, DHS didn’t monitor because of PC, and not on bad guys. ISIS is gaining strength because of the perception they are winning, we need a president focused on defeating ISIS.
Rubio- they cannot be defeated just by airstrikes, but also by Arabs on the ground, with the help of Special ops. we need to reverse the budget cuts, we need to win the propaganda war.
Bush – he is not serious.
Trump – you’re trying to build up your energy there, Jeb. We need a tough man, and strength for president, not an act of love.
Bush – you can’t insult your way to the presidency [seems more gop establishment controlled crowd]
Trump – I didn’t want young impressionable people to be taken by ISIS thru the internet and secondly we should be using Internet to find ISIS.
I would be open to closing areas that we would be at war with.
Kasich – no I don’t think that’s a good idea. Encryption is a major problem.
Monitoring of people?
Carson – if people are there radicalizing, we need to be looking at it. We are at war, and are in grave danger. What MB said during Holyland trial is that they will use our PC to get us. You have to ask Rubio and Paul who is right between them, I don’t want to get in between them. [smart answer]
Bush – we can’t disassociate ourselves from peace loving Muslims, but we should be focused on a strategy against ISIS.
How are you going to stop people who aren’t on any watch list?
Kasich – we need to destroy ISIS in a coalition.
Cruz – voted against metadata collection so it wouldn’t reach into records of ordinary Americans.
Rubio – essential to get data to stop terrorists
Paul – Marco has opposed increased security to prevent people from getting into the country. More allegiance to Chuck Schumer, Dems, Gang of Eight. He is the one for the weakest one on national security.
Trump ban on Muslims:
Trump: we’re not talking about isolation, we’re talking bout security. We’re not talking about religion we’re talking about security.
Bush – we need to destroy ISIS in the caliphate. [you shouldn’t give them the acknowledgement by actually calling them a caliphate].
This is not a serious proposal.
Rubio – president hasn’t kept us safe, that’s why people are liking it, but it’s never going to happen. It’s growing in territory, in Libya, Yemen and has its eye on Jordan. What we are doing now is not working.
Cruz – [they try to duke him into attack on Trump, he parries] FBI has said can’t vette the refugees, my legislation would suspend immigration from areas where ISIS is. It’s not a war on a faith, it’s a war on a political and theocratic ideology that seeks to murder us.
Fiorina – we need to stand for solutions.
Christie – we need to restore tools to NSA and we need a President and a cabinet who realize that the most important duty is to protect Americans.
Opening Statements:
Paul – Does Trump want to censor the internet? If we want to defeat terrorism, boots on the ground have to be Arab, hope that we remember Bill Of Rights in the process.
Kasich- My daughter doesn’t like politics because there’s too much fighting. Jobs, defense, we will never get there if we just fight, we need to unify to strengthen our country.
Christie – America has been betrayed by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Think of the threat in Los Angeles today and the effect on the children, the mothers and the fathers. What has BO and Hillary done to this country? When most basic duty is defend the American people? When I get in WH, America will be safe.
Fiorina- Time to take our country back. I have been tested. I fought my way into they election and onto this stage, it is time to take country back from political class.
Bush- Our country is under the gun and the Dem candidate is under investigation. America is an exceptional country. I will keep our country safe secure and free.
Rubio – This is the greatest country in the history of all mankind. There are always people who think America should be more like the rest of the world and one of those was was elected in 2008. If you elect me president you will have a president who believes America is the greatest country in the world and acts on it.
Cruz – Everybody on this stage is better prepared than BO and Hillary. If I am elected, we will stop the attacks before they occur. we will not be admitting jihadis as refugees.
Carson – please join in moment of silence for San Bernardino victims. right now U>S is the patient and will not be cured by PC or timidity. I am asking the congress of declaring war on ISIS and bring peace prosperity and safety back to America.
Trump – I began with focus on national security. People liked it, people respected it. A month ago radical Islam came into the fore in a big way.
8:45
Can someone explain to me why John Kasich is still there? And Chris Christie, you need to get longer pants, they’re too short.