Cox Media Group Special Report
Daniel Malloy writes about politics for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Cox Media Group, which includes The Austin American-Statesman, The Dayton Daily News and The Palm Beach Post. He has traveled the country to cover the 2008, 2012 and 2016 presidential elections. Malloy has been based in Washington since 2009, spending much of his time roaming the halls of Capitol Hill.
Next on the campaign trail
Wednesday’s debate has ended, but the campaign goes on. Many of the Republican presidential hopefuls are now headed to South Carolina for this weekend’s Heritage Action for America forum in Greenville. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution will be there, too, providing live coverage on ajc.com and MyAJC.com.
Surging in the polls, the three outsider candidates for the Republican presidential nomination who have never held elected office showed strikingly different approaches as they clashed in Wednesday night’s second debate.
Real estate magnate Donald Trump was once again the center of attention, as he taunted his foes, bragged of his successes and dodged foreign policy specifics.
Neurosurgeon Ben Carson was calm and measured, refusing opportunities to take on Trump. After CNN moderator Jake Tapper brought up a previous Carson comment dismissing a Trump plan to immediately deport more than 10 million immigrants living here illegally, Carson declined to criticize the polling leader.
“If (someone) can specify exactly how that is going to be done and the cost and it sounds reasonable, then I think it’s worth discussing,” Carson said.
Businesswoman Carly Fiorina, the new entry on the overstuffed 11-candidate main stage, struck aggressive contrasts on foreign policy, sharply denounced Planned Parenthood and gave a cutting response to Trump for reportedly saying of Fiorina: “Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that?”
“I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,” Fiorina said to wild cheers.
Trump smirked, then replied, “I think she’s got a beautiful face, and I think she’s a beautiful woman.”
Fiorina was stone-faced in response.
In the literal shadow of a retired Air Force One at the Ronald Reagan presidential library, the field wrestled over a foreign policy that would best resemble that of the 40th president — who remains a near-saint to Republicans.
For several candidates, that meant more muscle. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said the U.S. should refuse a state visit for China. Fiorina said the country should send more troops to Europe and stop talking at all to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Kentucky U.S. Sen. Rand Paul went a different direction, pointing out that Reagan kept talking to the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. Ohio Gov. John Kasich departed from many rivals by saying he would not immediately rip up the Iran nuclear deal but enforce it with vigor. That approach he said would keep the world consensus together on Iran’s nuclear program “and project across this globe with unity.”
Trump had promised to lay out a detailed foreign policy on the decks of the U.S.S. Iowa on Tuesday in nearby Los Angeles, but he gave little detail. His pledge on stage Wednesday was similarly vague.
“I will get along, I think, with Putin, and I will get along with others,” Trump said. “And we will have a much more stable, stable world.”
On immigration, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush contrasted “the Reagan approach” to provide a path to legal status for some illegal immigrants, compared with “the Donald Trump approach that says everything is bad, everything is coming to an end.”
Trump hit Bush on perhaps his greatest weakness as he battles flagging poll numbers: family baggage. Trump told Bush that his brother George W. Bush was the reason Barack Obama became president because “it was such a disaster those last three months that Abraham Lincoln couldn’t have been elected.”
Bush has struggled to find the proper balance of distancing himself from his brother without dumping on his own family. His reply: “One thing about my brother, he kept us safe.”
Bush was generally more assertive in taking on the polling leader, to which Trump replied with sarcasm: “More energy tonight. I like that.”
Paul said Trump’s appearance-based insults were “junior high” stuff. Trump obliged, saying of Paul: “I never attacked him on his looks and, believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter right there.”
Trump needled Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio for missing more votes than any other senator as he travels the country running for president. Rubio did not back down, saying he has been disillusioned in his first term in the Senate. “The political establishment in Washington, D.C., in both parties is completely out of touch,” Rubio said.
The earlier “kids’ table” debate had the four lower-polling candidates straining for a breakout moment.
South Carolina U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham showed off his sense of humor — saying that as president “we’re going to drink more” to solve Capitol Hill disputes — but he also clashed with his rivals. A key difference of opinion came between him and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, who derided “the surrender caucus” of Senate Republicans against Obama.
With a spending showdown looming at month’s end, Graham struck back that it was a losing battle to shut down the government over Obamacare or Planned Parenthood.
“I’m tired of promising people things I know we can’t do,” Graham said.
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