RUTHFULLY YOURS

There’s no consensus on who won the latest Republican debate, but there was no question that CNBC was the big loser.

The Republican debate on CNBC was supposed to be about the economy; instead it became a debate about media bias as candidates fought moderators over dishonest questions and cynical attacks.

Instead of discussing the economic worries of a nation impoverished by two terms of the Obama Economy, Republican candidates struggled to talk about the concerns of working Americans while CNBC moderators dug up old discredited attacks from the CNN debate and fired gotcha questions at them.

Most observers would have said that there wasn’t much that could bring the Republican field together, but media bias did it. Candidate after candidate struck back at the moderators to thunderous applause from the audience. Instead of a debate between the candidates, the CNBC debate quickly became a pitched battle between the Republican contenders and the outnumbered Democratic moderators.

And by the end of the debate, CNBC moderators Becky Quick, John Harwood, and Carl Quintanilla had been outmaneuvered, beaten and humiliated by the Republican candidates in every round.

Boulder, Colo. — It was a new world order at Wednesday’s Republican presidential debate here in Boulder.

With just three months to go until the first GOP nominating contest, voters are beginning to get serious about making decisions, and candidates could not get by just introducing themselves. At this debate, they had to prove that they deserved to be on everybody’s short list.

For the first time, the outsider candidates — Donald Trump, Carly Fiorina, and Ben Carson — were largely sidelined in favor of people who conventional wisdom would say are the safer bets to win the nomination — specifically, Marco Rubio.

In previous debates, almost all the combat revolved around Donald Trump. His brash style and willingness to level uppercuts at his opponents — both on the stage and off —determined the questions, defined the narrative, and made him the most prominent voice in the debates. But the candidates descended on Boulder as the shape of the race is starting to change. Trump can no longer say he is leading in every single poll in every single state. Ben Carson has slid ahead in Iowa, and is taking up ground in national polls.

Swing and a miss.

It was the story of the night, the story of the debate, and it might soon be the story of Jeb Bush’s campaign.

After months of flicking passively at Marco Rubio — all the while dismissing talk of their collision course, and rolling his eyes at the narrative of “master vs. apprentice” — Bush finally launched a public broadside against his friend and former protégé during the third GOP presidential debate Wednesday night.

His timing was logical and yet inopportune; CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla had been quizzing Rubio about his mounting number of missed Senate votes, which prompted a Florida newspaper to call for his resignation. Rubio responded forcefully by decrying the newspaper’s “double standard” of endorsing Democratic candidates who had similarly missed votes. The audience rallied behind Rubio, roaring with approval — and just then, Bush decided to jump in.

“Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term, and you should be showing up to work,” Bush lectured. “You can campaign [for president] or just resign and let someone else take the job. There are a lot of people living paycheck to paycheck in Florida as well. They are looking for a senator that will fight for them each and every day.”

Rubio had the most consistently impressive night. He showed his political skill with the first couple of questions, which were hostile and had him playing defense, but he parried effectively and by the end he had made each one a positive for him. At every opportunity, he brings his answers back to his message of helping Americans struggling in this economy and to Hillary Clinton (he went out of his way to hit her on Benghazi). He knows his brief extremely well and almost always sounds authoritative and well-informed. You have to think after tonight more Republicans are going to realize his potential.

Cruz had the best moment of the night in his Newt Gingrich-style slam of the moderators that he carried off very effectively–perfectly timed and delivered. It will be repeated over and over online and on the radio in the next 48 hours. He faded a bit after that, but he was as fluid as always on everything else and I imagine pleased former Ron Paul voters in Iowa with his answer on the Fed. Tonight will provide more support for the rapidly congealing conventional wisdom that it will end up as a Rubio-Cruz race (caution: the conventional wisdom used to be that only Rubio, Bush or Walker could win the nomination).

In one moment, Senator Ted Cruz managed to do what no other candidate for the Republican nomination for president has done to this point: unite Republicans. He did so by pushing back against the ridiculously biased questions presented by CNBC moderators. The Hollywood Reporter transcribes:

“The questions that have been asked so far in this debate illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media,” said the U.S. senator from Texas, instantly earning applause.

“This is not a cage match,” he continued. “Look at the questions. ‘Donald Trump, are you a comic book villain;’ ‘Ben Carson, can you do math;’ ‘John Kasich, will you insult two people over here;’ ‘Marco Rubio, why don’t you resign?;’ ‘Jeb Bush, why have your numbers fallen?’ How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?”

Cruz contrasted moderators’ treatment of Republicans with their treatment of Democrats:

…every fawning question from the media was, “Which of you is more handsome and wise? …”