"How much does the vagueness of Trump’s proposals matter? ... he doesn’t have any detailed policies. They asked for those details. Again and again. He responded with insults and boasts."

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COMMENTS: 
*  unlike democrats, neither republican candidates nor voters wish to have serious policy discussions, instead discourse is characterized by insults and character assasination
really bizarre, stupid, and frightening*  When I see these debates I am genuinely fearful for our country.
*  People don't like government because they don't like Congress. The reason they don't like Congress is because it is gridlocked, and doesn't get anything done. The reason it does't get anything done is because Mitch McConnell embarked on a strategy of overt obstructionism. The reason another Democrat will be elected is because of Mitch McConnell. Thanks Mitch!
*  The Trumpster; a silver spoon-fed misogynistic spoiled princeling of a teenager who has never needed to grow up. What a joke.
*  The unfabulous Three screaming that the others did not have a Policy, only rhetoric, would be hilarious were it not so grave and ominous. Three nasty jokers in dapper, designer suits. I cringe when I think about the rest of the world looking into our Country, a Country which is the very bed of Democracy, a Constitution and prides on Exceptionalism. Yes, these Three has made us very exceptional indeed - exceptional as the only circus with rabid, nasty, frightening clowns in the world.
*   GOP pundits wishfully continue to cite policy gaffs that will tumble Trump. There are no gaffs or policy blanks that can tar him; his appeal is fearless belligerent ignorance with a dollop of bravado & magical thinking, bluster, humor and street sneers. Rubio&Cruz lack the charm, gravitas, or even likability to cause much trouble.  I suspect Trump will pick Kasich for VP...he'll want someone with basic governing cred.
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Five Big Questions After a G.O.P. Debate That Targeted Trump
By Frank Bruni, February 25, 2016

Were Brakes Just Put on the Trump Juggernaut?

Something profound happened on the stage in Houston on Thursday night. Both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz stopped focusing on each other long enough to turn toward the person who is actually beating both of them and at this point favored to win the Republican nomination: Donald Trump.

Cruz dismissed Trump as someone who’d discovered certain concerns — who’d discovered conservatism, really — only when he became a candidate. Cruz said that while he was working to combat the illegal immigration that so inflames Trump now, “Where was Donald? He was firing Dennis Rodman on ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’”

But Rubio turned in Trump’s direction with particular force. With ferociousness, in fact. He recited a meticulously memorized litany of Trump’s transgressions, especially those that contradict Trump’s words now: the illegal immigrants that Trump reportedly hired for his construction projects, the litigation against a college bearing his name, multiple bankruptcies associated with him.

Referring to Trump’s promised barrier along the Mexican border, Rubio sniped: “If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he’ll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.”

He went after the notion that Trump is a good businessman. He went after the idea that Trump is a straight talker. He called Trump a liar — repeatedly.

In other words, he finally hit Trump where Trump lives: image-wise. This had to happen, because one explanation for Trump’s success is how reluctant his adversaries have been to confront him as they quarreled with one another instead.

And this had to hurt Trump, because he was shown in a harsher light than he’d been shown in at any previous debate, and his face reddened in the glare.

But Thursday night may well have been too late, and Trump has been made to mimic a ripe tomato before — with minimal political damage to him.

Besides which, Trump at times pushed back as effectively as possible, brushing off charges of hypocrisy and painting Rubio as a pipsqueak with no knowledge of business, and Cruz as an obnoxious scold despised by his Senate colleagues. Those were the smart colors to apply to them.

Did Rubio Go Too Far?

Almost each of his attacks on Trump made good sense. All were entirely fair. But as they piled up higher than even the most majestic Trump-envisioned border wall could ever reach, he came across as strident, mocking, condescending, bratty.

And it was impossible not to wonder if he was doing precisely what Chris Christie had when he tried to take Rubio down in the debate just before the New Hampshire primary: bloodying his adversary at a cost of seriously wounding himself.

He talked over Trump. Trump talked over him. He talked louder over Trump. Trump talked even louder over him. There was one extended exchange, with each of them accusing the other of being more robotic and programmed, that will live on in highlight reels forevermore.

“Now he’s repeating himself,” Rubio pointed out, referring to Trump.

“I don’t repeat myself,” said Trump.

“You don’t repeat yourself,” Rubio responded — disbelievingly, facetiously.

And so it went. Rubio’s hectoring melody overlapped Trump’s exasperated harmony.

But when music gets that ugly, everyone involved can wind up sounding equally bad. And the flip side of Rubio’s — and Cruz’s — assertiveness was desperation. They were both on the offensive on Thursday night because they were both on the ropes. Some viewers undoubtedly perceived it that way.

What’s more, Rubio undercut his considerable efforts so far to be — and to label himself as — the candidate of optimism, uplift, positivity. He took another risk as well. He incurred Trump’s wrath, and while Trump has savaged Cruz and Jeb Bush during this campaign, he hasn’t vilified Rubio to the same extent.

Tomorrow and the next day and the day after that, he will.

How Much Does the Vagueness of Trump’s Proposals Matter?

It was predictable that Rubio and Cruz would portray Trump as someone whose campaign contributions over time, comments from yesteryear and herky-jerky swerves in the present all call into question how committed and trustworthy a conservative he is.

But they lavished nearly as much energy on revealing Trump as an empty suit — as someone who cannot provide any policy details because he doesn’t have any detailed policies. They asked for those details. Again and again. He responded with insults and boasts.

The moderators pressed him for those details. He responded with boasts and insults. And at one cringe-inducing moment, he batted away a question from Hugh Hewitt by saying: “Very few people listen to your radio show.”

Trump never got around to explaining how his health care plan would keep people from dying in the streets without committing the government to significantly increased spending. He never got around to explaining much of anything.

And in the context of that void — and of Rubio’s imitation of a typical Trump answer — his most shopworn, banal phrases stood out.

“We’re going to win a lot,” Trump said, for the millionth time.

“Believe me,” he said, for the trillionth. Those two evasive words sounded smaller and sillier than ever.

Should Someone Have Organized a Search Party for Ben Carson and John Kasich?

The lack of time given to these two was absolutely criminal.

Granted, Kasich has only a prayer of going on to win the Republican nomination. And Carson doesn’t even have that much.

But they showed up. There were five candidates on that stage, not three. And fair is fair.

Besides which, Kasich, when he did get to speak, was a typically welcome relief from the fractiousness and the “I-loved-Antonin-Scalia-even-more-than-you-did” happening to his side.

In his oratory and proposals, he’s the least divisive of the remaining Republican presidential aspirants. He’s also the closest to the center and, because of that, might be the fiercest adversary for any Democratic nominee.

But he was elbowed out of a debate format and debate rules that gave extra time to anyone who was attacked, meaning more and more words for and from Trump, Rubio and Cruz.

Carson perfectly captured this dynamic by blurting out: “Can somebody attack me please?”

Do Trump, Rubio and Cruz Have a Future as 1960s-Style Girl Group?

I previously mentioned the interweaving voices of Trump and Rubio. Toward the end of the debate, these candidates did a reprise, and Cruz also stormed into the song, so that all three of them spoke at the same time and formed a clangorous chorus.

As that chorus continued and its volume rose, CNN’s camera pulled back far enough to show the men standing there side by side, in almost identical dress. I couldn’t help thinking that they were performing an audition or a concert — that they were some modern, male, unendurable antonym to Diana Ross and the Supremes.

In Houston for one night only, ladies and gentlemen! Donald Trump and the Extremes.
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