Carly Fiorina has done it again, but this time at the big kid's table

Carly Fiorina out shined everyone once again.

Wednesday saw the second Republican Presidential Debate take place at the Reagan Library in California. It was a glorious yet terrifying setting, as the candidates stood in front of President Reagan's plane, with which he effectively ended the Cold War. 

Once again there were two debates, and once again there were two clear winners. In the second tier debate, a surprise victor emerged, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. No one expected this, but it was a very clear victory in the end for the veteran. And in the main event of the night, there were several interesting performances, but Carly Fiorina clearly collected her second victory of the debate season. If you didn't do it so far, you definitely have to watch out for her from now on.

Let's start with the earlier debate and say that it was much better than expected. It was a huge opportunity for the four participants, as they now had more airtime due to Jim Gilmore not being invited, and Rick Perry dropping out. CNN also moved the debate to later in the day, so they had a bigger audience than last time. 

Senator Graham put on a very surprising show, made lots of jokes, and clearly stood out. It was funny to see how he ‘destroyed’ Santorum at times.  It was especially surprising, since previously he could barely utter one sentence without being so boring that one might fell asleep. He had absolutely no charisma, no talent in public speaking. That changed last night. 

Jindal tried too hard, and Pataki was pretty flat once again, though he did get a few claps and cheers at times. The biggest loser was Santorum. He failed to defend himself from Graham, and he just felt so out of place. We don't know what happened to him since 2012, but it's bad. So while we don’t agree with everything that Graham said, he clearly won, and expect him to rise a few points in the polls. It is much needed for him, but even this will probably be not enough to repeat what Mrs. Fiorina did after the last debate.

 

Alright, now to the main debate. 

Don’t be surprised if Trump will drop a few  points after this debate. It's not that he didn’t do well, he just didn’t say anything that outrageous or noteworthy this time around, and that’s when he seems to rise in popularity. Also some of the candidates did better than him, so if they are going to rise, someone will have to fall. Trump also had to defend him more, as many candidates attacked him relentlessly with varying success. The crowd was smaller too, and it was much more of a professional debate, so he couldn't rely on his fans and Megyn Kelly. He didn't do bad, but he didn't really stand out.

Scott Waker is in big trouble. The Wisconsin Governor, who was the frontrunner in many aspects a few months ago, was barely visible. Recently he has greatly slipped in the polls, only to be outdone in this perspective by Hillary Clinton. Walker promised that he will be more lively and attack back. He failed to do that, he was once again barely recognisable. We predict more trouble for him down the line.

Jeb Bush performed a lot better than last time. He was more energised, lively, friendly, open to the audience and even cracked some jokes. It was nice to see him like this, and will probably put back some hope and momentum to his campaign. He also performed well with the questions. He attacked Trump, and defended his wife and use of spanish on the campaign trail. We found out that he has smoked marijuana before in High School and that he would like to see Margaret Thatcher, a great friend of his father's, on the $10 note. It was also nice to talk about her in Reagan's library, as we all know how close the two world leaders were. We loved Bush. He was great. But Fiorina was even better.

Many analysts said that this debate will be Fiorina's break-or-make moment. It turned out to be the latter. She performed really well. She defended Trump's attack in a very respectable manner, and fired back with success. She was great on policy issues as well, especially on Foreign policy. She also stood up to Planned Parenthood and Hillary Clinton. She engaged with the audience, and they loved her once again. In a more touching moment, she talked about how she had to bury her stepson who lost his battle to drug addiction. It was truly an emotional moment, and one that will resonate with voters. It will also fire back at the many politicians who think that Nixon's War on Drugs is a failed system. It is not! Drugs and Marijuana are bad for people, so we should fight it! Her response to this question also gave her credibility, and showed her human side as well as her professional side. It was great.

Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz performed alright as well, though Rubio's joke on the California drought was physically hurting. They both seemed incredibly knowledgeable on their subject matters, and appealed to their base. Although it is unclear if they swayed any new voters to their side, but they sure made their current ones happy. Both candidates should be in this race for a long time.

Ben Carson and Chris Christie had a quieter night, but they didn't do bad either. At least they were recognisable, unlike Mike Huckabee. Where was he? Even during the Kim Davis debate, he wasn't really seen. Senator Paul did better than last time, but he just seems to be so out of touch with everyone. It's kind of scary to see. But he did perform better against one on one conflicts with Trump than last time.

This is an original material of Finchley 1959.