Of course much of the interest in Cleveland and on national TV had to do with billionaire businessman Donald Trump whose candidacy was laughed at by many but has apparently resonated with a lot of voters as he’s the current GOP front-runner.  I’ll sum up his performance by sharing a tweet I sent around 10:30 pm.

I think many of us expected Trump to tone down his act but that was not the case, especially in the beginning when he refused to rule out running as an Independent candidate should he not get the Republican nomination. That did not sit well many in the boisterous Quicken Loans Arena as well as the other nine candidates on stage who all pledged their support for the eventual party nominee.

Top-Polling GOP Candidates Participate In First Republican Presidential Debate
Top-Polling GOP Candidates Participate In First Republican Presidential Debate
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Trump also showed his disdain for the moderators who spent a good portion of the night trying to get under the skin of the candidates. Clearly Trump was the star, good or bad,because he seemed to be the main topic of the evening.  I don’t necessarily think he helped himself all that much but he didn’t hurt himself either although I still don’t believe he can win this thing.

Maybe the surprise of the night was the performance of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie who I thought handled himself very well even though at times you wondered if he was there.  There were only a few one-on-one confrontations and Christie was involved in two of them: one with Kentucky Senator Rand Paul who looks like he could have been one of the Cabbage Patch kids and the other with former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.  I though Christie more than held in own in both and finished among the night’s big winners along with Florida senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich.  Among those in the top half of the field Rubio might be the one who benefitted the most by last night.

Next were former Florida Governor Jeb Busch who was not particularly sharp and seemed a bit off his game but was okay and neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who for much of the night looked like he would fall asleep but did close very strong.

As for the others, .Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Paul, Huckabee I just don’t think they did anything to help themselves.  Maybe the biggest winner of the night was Democratic front runner Hillary Clinton.

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