The good, the bad and the ugly of the third GOP debate

The good

Donald Trump: Trump was never supposed to be sailing above all the other candidates, but somehow — like the Army’s JLENS blimp — he broke loose from his tether, caused a massive uproar, and spends his days being chased by Fox News cameras. Unfortunately, unlike JLENS, he can’t be remotely deflated. I rip on Trump a good bit, but he’s good TV. Millions of people are watching the Republican primary because of him (which helps the candidates who aren’t household names get noticed). He’s great for zingers and he’s fun to watch, but he was a little quieter this time around. His best moment was an ad hominem zinger directed at Ohio Gov. John Kasich: “That is why he is on the end.”

{mosads}Carly Fiorina: Why does Fiorina win every debate? Simple: She’s all facts. In her book Tough Choices, she describes how she was able to blaze a trail through the business world, where she climbed from secretary to CEO. She was in an environment where many of the men she worked with didn’t take her seriously because she was a woman; her ideas were marginalized because she was a woman. She combatted that attitude by always knowing more than anyone else in the room. Every debate, we are watching Fiorina blaze a new trail, and she’s doing it the same way.

When Ben Carson, Donald Trump and some of the other candidates were griping about the length of the debate, Fiorina was saying “bring it on.” She’s not scared of CNBC. She’s not scared of the other Republican candidates, and she’s not scared of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton because she has more facts than all of them put together.

Republicans are all about opportunity: creating it, grasping it and making the most out of it, but if they pass on Fiorina in this primary, they’ll be throwing away a huge opportunity to give this country a president who actually has the skills to solve our economic problems. She’s the no-gimmicks, no-empty-populism, platitude-free choice.

The bad

Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.): Paul’s campaign has a burn rate of 181 percent, and the $4.5 million he spent in the third quarter of this year has gotten him from 8 percent in the RealClearPolitics poll average to 3.5 percent. I was expecting him to come out of the gate desperate and swinging, but he looked more like he has given up. He wasn’t his usual feisty self: He didn’t pick any fights and he rarely fought for precious seconds of speaking time. He answered the questions he was asked, plugged his filibuster a couple times and called it a night.

The moderators: I hope media outlets won’t forget to include the moderators in their fact-checks. Led by John Harwood, they were antagonistic and intrusive. The best moment of the entire debate was when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said to Harwood, “Do you want me to answer or do you want to answer? Because, I’ve got to tell you the truth, even in New Jersey what you’re doing is called rude.”

The ugly

Former Gov. Jeb Bush (Fla.): Bush can’t get out of his own way. Everything he says is dripping with inauthenticity. Every time he speaks, it seems like he’s trying something an adviser suggested. Obviously, attacking Trump blew up in his face. Now, he’s attacking the other establishment candidates. The logic, of course, being that if he can sink them and collect their share of the votes, maybe he can cobble together enough support to beat Trump.

He went after Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) hard on his voting record:

But Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work. I mean, literally, the Senate — what is it, like a French workweek? You get, like, three days where you have to show up? You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job.

But Rubio zapped him back:

I don’t remember you ever complaining about [2008 Republican nominee] John McCain’s vote record. The only reason why you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position, and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.

And when Rubio said that, everyone watching knew it was true.

Bush came off as the most desperate candidate on the stage. Months ago, it was hard to imagine how anyone was going to be able to beat him in this race. Now, it’s impossible to imagine him coming back to win.

The undercard candidates: I have a job and a life, so I didn’t have time to watch never-will-be candidates with burn rates over 100 percent argue about what they would do in an office they’ll never set foot in. If they were ever going to get out of the cellar they’d be out by now. Time for these guys to follow withdrawn candidates Gov. Scott Walker (Wis.) and former Gov. Rick Perry (Texas) out the door.

Zipperer is assistant professor of political science at Georgia Military College.