If I had to narrow the playing field based solely on last nights debate:
- Marco Rubio
- Carlie Fiorina
- Mike Huckabee
- Dr. Carson
- Donald Trump
Fiorina really did her homework on foreign policy, and that impressed me. She came prepared. She did lose a couple points with me for mentioning Clinton; I really wanted to hear what each candidate could verbalize without trying to look better by finger pointing at Obama and Hillary.
Trump, he managed to field a majority of the scrutiny without really saying anything at all. However, he said at one point regarding FP something to the effect of "before I'm seated I will have assembled the very best team and be up to speed". I believe that he will, furthermore is that not status quo?
Rubio really impressed me as well. His dead serious tone, clear thoughts, and obvious intimate knowledge with the issues addressed moved him into my top 5.
Dr. Carson really tried hard to play the game (and play it well IMHO) up there. You could tell he was doing some learning on the fly, and managed to hang with career camera cheesing politicians.
Mike Huckabee demonstrated respectful, calm responses. He never used smear tactics, he spoke directly of the issues and did so with maturity and logic. I appreciate his values and see him as a valuable member of a future administration. Maybe not POTUS...
Caisik stood out to me as being mature and well versed, well spoken and definitely a worthy candidate. I'll keep him on my reserve bench.
The rest of them IMHO are more of the same. Career politicians who know how to say pretty things and smile just right into the camera.
I offer my take, here, for the sake of discussion only.