Thanks to everyone who came up for the debate meet-up! We had about ten people there. The bar was super-crowded, applauded every time the Donald spoke, and occasionally yelled “Trump!”. (I like to think that I helped lead these cheers.)
I was amazed by what a good job the moderators did. The questions were tough, and the follow-ups were very good.
Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but I think this debate may hurt Jeb a fair amount. As I see it, you have three candidates who come across as non-assholes — Jeb, Rubio, and Kasich — and I think that of these three, Bush clearly did the worst. Kasich and Bush probably both sounded too much like Democrats — Kasich with all his talk about “those left behind” and Bush with too many nuanced policy details (e-verify, Common Core, etc.) — but Kasich came across as more hopeful and energetic.
The other seven seemed to be competing to be the biggest asshole, with Trump obviously winning.
My view is that the Republican primary voters want an asshole. Sure, Romney was probably a RINO at heart, but he was also an asshole. I wonder if Jeb will step up the asshole quotient in the next few debates.