During last night’s GOP debate, Marco Rubio mocked Donald Trump, and Ted Cruz attacked the billionaire for abandoning conservative orthodoxy. A whole lot of dirty laundry was aired about his business practices. There was much discussion of his tax returns and Trump said he was being audited so he couldn’t release them. Rubio smugly accused Trump of repeating himself when he insisted that “getting rid of the lines” was his health care plan, and then hit him with the observation that the Israel/Palestine conflict isn’t a real-estate deal. (The Israel/Palestine conflict actually is a kind of real estate deal, but that’s beside the point.)
Rubio and Cruz finally focused on the man they actually need to beat in order to win the election. If they had done it three months ago, it might have made a difference.
Here’s an excerpt that gives the flavor of it:
BLITZER: Governor, Governor, Governor, he attacked Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump has a right to respond.TRUMP: Well, look, my response is very simple. There is nobody on this stage that has done more for Israel than I have. Nobody. You might say, you might talk, you’re politicians, all talk, no action.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I’ve been watching it all my life. You are all talk and no action.
CRUZ: Then name one specific thing you’ve done.
TRUMP: What I’ve seen up here — I mean, first of all, this guy is a choke artist, and this guy is a liar. You have a combination…
RUBIO: This guy always goes for…
TRUMP: You have a combination of factors. He can’t do it…
RUBIO: This is so typical.
TRUMP: … for the obvious reason, and he can’t do it because he doesn’t know how to tell the truth. Other than that, I rest my case.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: One at a time, gentlemen.
Governor Kasich, you have the floor. Governor…
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: You will have a response. But I promised Governor Kasich he could respond.
CARSON: Can somebody attack me, please?
The post-debate analysts all said that Trump was exposed as a lightweight on policy questions, as if that’s news. Of course he sounded like a fool talking about health care and foreign policy. But he’s never sounded even slightly competent in these debates and it hasn’t exactly hurt him. Policy is not his thing, dominance and attitude are and when he said “this guy’s a choke artist and this guy’s a liar” about the two men standing on either side of him he might as well have pounded his chest and let out a roar.
And you have to give the guy credit for chutzpah, saying after the debate that he might be being audited by the IRS because he’s such a “strong Christian” and pretending to be offended by vulgar language used by former Mexican President Vicente Fox when he complained about Trump’s plan for a wall earlier in the day. He has no shame. And that’s what his fans love about him.
Despite Rubio’s belated feistiness and Cruz’s focused aggression, they weren’t able to rattle Trump enough to make him do something that would change the dynamic, and there’s not much time left to do it. If they have any hope at all of stopping his momentum they will have to carry on a sustained attack after tonight, with new information rolling out to feed the press regularly along with some very effective advertising. It’s hard to imagine them being able to do that in a coherent fashion before it’s too late.