- Many candidates struggled to differentiate themselves sufficiently from the rest of the field. Whether it was Chris Christie trying to outhawk Lindsey Graham, or every governor trying to cement themselves as THE fiscal hawk, most of the candidates blended together into a homogeneous mass.
- Those that did manage to separate themselves in some meaningful way from the pack saw the most success of the night. Rand Paul's emphasis on privacy (and a decidedly more dove approach to foreign policy than anyone else on the stage) and Scott Walker's focus on labor reform are two examples.
- Many in the GOP field (such as Rick Perry or Rick Santorum) remain nominally dedicated to government restraint and economic growth, but advocate policies directly opposed to these goals, such as a series of complicated economic incentives with the purpose of revitalizing American manufacturing, or dramatically expanding American military presence overseas.
- Most of the candidates didn't have a particularly polished stage presence, but had instead focused on memorizing statistics and being able to vomit them out as quickly as possible.
- It was interesting to see many issues that Rand Paul originally championed coming to the discussion, namely criminal justice reform and the drug war.
- Based on tonight's performance, I would rank George Pataki, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich in the bottom three. None of the three seemed to connect well with the audience and frequently got lost in the weeds of their own discussion points.
A real debate is coming up on August 6, and is sure to be much more chaotic than tonight's relatively ordered affair.
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