RNC Debate #9 — Greensville, South Carolina
Although, there have been an absurd amount of GOP debates, the Republicans are finally down to 6 candidates (Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Carson, Gov Kasich, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush) as Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie have dropped out of the race after disappointing numbers in New Hampshire. The hosts of the primary debate in Greensville, South Carolina @9pmEST provided by CBS news will be John Dickerson (anchor for CBS’ “Face the Nation”), Major Garrett (CBS Whitehouse Correspondent) and Kimberley Strassel (Wall Street Journal contributor). This debate will only be 90 minutes which will be awesome, because it’s like a lightning round. I think this debate will naturally focus on Foreign Policy (explained below).
What too look for
South Carolina’s Republican base (with about 58,000 military veterans within the state) has foreign policy within the top of their priorities, followed by Christian values.
Foreign Policy
Senator Ted Cruz’ tweet seems to be a pre-emptive message to show what he’s going to focus on tomorrow.
Senator Ted Cruz wants to focus the debate on Middle Eastern terrorism, which is a huge fear and could be politically good for him, although Strassel has been critical of Senator Ted Cruz’ foreign policy, which could mean she will target more. This could hurt him in debate tomorrow, however it may not hurt him as much as others.
Marco Rubio and Senator Ted Cruz will probably use their votes from Wednesday on a bill to increase sanctions on North Korea as proof that they are willing to be tough geopolitically, which should be helpful, especially for Marco Rubio because this could be the momentum Rubio needs to propel him back into the race.
We also have to look at Jeb Bush during this debate, because this seems to be his make-it or break-it point in the primary. He has done pretty poorly overall in the primaries, and hopefully (for his sake) with the help of an ad paid for by his brother George W. Bush, he can rally a win in South Carolina. He is hoping his stances on foreign policy will help him out, because it seems to be the area he has wanted to focus on aswell.
Donald Trump and Ben Carson (the only two without Medium Accounts that I can find) are known to have weaker foreign policy positions, which may end up hurting them, but this is definitely their time to show the American public that they have foreign policy plans to please the Republican base. They haven’t outlined any detailed plans for their foreign policy, and have only used soundbites in order to “make America great again.” They will need to do more in this debate in order to have victory in South Carolina. Trump can probably take a defeat, but this could be the end for Carson. We will have to really look and see if Carson is able to pull himself back into the race.
Last and not least, Gov Kasich is looking to ride his momentum from New Hampshire into another good primary in South Carolina. Gov Kasich will highlight himself as a “faithful man,” appealing to the evangelical side of South Carolina, but this race will probably come down to the foreign policy, which he has not indicated he is focusing on. Hopefully, for his sake, he will get enough support with his plan to tighten the border, however all of the candidates support that, so we’ll have to look to see what makes Kasich stand-out.
Ted Cruz’ eligibility
Trump is calling out Senator Ted Cruz on citizenship… again…
Trump seems to be very persistent in attacking Senator Ted Cruz eligibility for becoming the President of the United States, so we can expect some attacks by Trump based on that. He’s going to keep attacking as long as Cruz is present. However, this doesn’t seem to have the same effect as it did during the 2008 presidential election between Mitt Romney and Barack Obama, possibly because it is tiring rhetoric and the last time it was not effective in deterring the U.S. presidency. Anyhow, Trump is probably going to press the issue.
