As the crowd thins, it’s almost harder to
recognize the clear winners and losers in the debate among those who want to represent the Republican Party in next year’s presidential election.
But Ladra’s gonna try anyway. It’s late and it was long, so some of these observations may be fuzzy, but here are Ladra’s knee jerk winners and losers from the fourth GOP debate Tuesday night:
WINNERS:
Marco Rubio: Sure, I am considering his overall performance, including the stellar show at the last debate last month, because he is the most consistent candidate. Or consistently good candidate. There have been consistently bad ones. And we’ll get to Jeb later. Sen. Rubio shows the most depth on foreign policy issues and thoughtfulness on economic issues. He also is the only one of the 
candidates who demonstrated what pundits and reports called optimism for America, which voters want to see. Rubio made the crowd laugh and got some of the biggest applauses of the night. He also fended off a jab from Rand Paul on defense spending by saying that, yes, he knows that the world is safer when America is strong militarily. He also won points when he said that the terrorists don’t hate us because we back Israel. “They hate us because our girls go to school. They hate us because our women drive. Either they win or we win. This isn’t going away on its own.” Frankly, Rubio was the only candidate that looks and sounds like he can step into the commander in chief position today.
Ted Cruz: The other Cuban senator, the one from Texas, did a really good job of standing out among the other self proclaimed conservatives with his bread and butter campaign against the “Washington cartel.” He also made people think when he talked about the economic cost 
(read: jobs and salaries) paid to illegal immigration. He bashed the media at the same time, because that went so well for both him and Marco at the last debate. “The politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande. Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press, then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation,” Cruz said. He knows this crowd.
Fox Business Network moderators: Maybe it’s because they’re a bunch of nerds, and maybe it’s because there were fewer candidates, only six on stage, but the debate Tuesday night was the best as far as getting information on policy questions and answers to substantive questions about tax reform, immigration, healthcare, minimum wage and jobs, entitlements and foreign policy — and how each of the candidates would be a different president than Hillary Clinton. The moderators were funny just a few times and didn’t become the stars of the show. They did their jobs and they did them well. So good, in fact, that Ladra doesn’t even remember their names. One is British, I think. Kudos, the three of you, and thank you for bringing the standard back.
Carly Fiorina: The only woman in the GOP field made another strong case for her candidacy. Fiorina was forceful and strong and had concrete answers to questions about economic policies. But she’s also at the bottom of the winners because she stopped smiling again and seems really angry about everything. Also, her refusal to talk to Vladimir Putin is on the one hand, honorable, and on the other hand crazy for Cocopuffs. She reminds me of Cruella de Ville.
Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor easily stole the show in the JV debate before the real debate. Maybe going to the kiddie table is the best thing that ever happened to him. Because as the bully that he is, he will rule that school. Christie may be history as far as the nomination is concerned, but
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