Who would have predicted that one of the biggest applause lines at tonight's Republican debate would be for Jeb Bush doubling down on the virtues of his brother's national security policy? Challenged on the supposed burden of W.'s legacy, Bush declared, "As relates to my brother, he kept us safe," and the audience went wild. There is a lesson there that some of the other candidates need to heed: Republican voters feel a profound and disorienting sense of danger seven years into the Obama administration. A huge number of them miss the uncompromising way that George W. Bush stood up for American interests, even given his errors of execution. What proportion of the general electorate feels the same way? It's probably not as small as Democrats would like to believe.
That was one of a handful of revealing moments in a debate that was otherwise distinguished by CNN ceding the high moral ground to Fox News, whose hosts were responsible for a debate last month that was somehow both more serious and more entertaining. Things reached peak absurdity around 10:45 P.M. when Jake Tapper gave ample time for Donald Trump to air his anti-vaxxer suspicions. Not that Donald Trump's views needed any more time. Tapper's approach throughout the night, regardless of the issue, was to say, "Mr. X, Donald Trump said Y. Respond to him." The weird, cheap-looking lighting made everything look more real and less like a TV show, which didn't help Trump's situation. Before long, the crowd was frequently turning on him as Walker and especially Fiorina sought to draw blood.
Trump's views on foreign policy, as on many issues, were at times difficult to distinguish from Barack Obama's, something that will hurt him. On the Islamic State, he said, "Why are we fighting ISIS in Syria? Let them fight each other and let's pick up the remnants," which is not far from how current administration officials feel about the matter. On Putin, Trump was serenely confident (as Obama used to be) that he somehow possessed a special power that would allow him to talk to the Russian strong man: "I will get along, I think, with Putin." Putin thinks he'll get along with Trump, too. Putin also isn't worried at all about Rand Paul or John Kasich, who took the admittedly bold approach of running for the Republican nomination by defending Barack Obama's Iran nuclear deal.
Far more serious were Rubio, who extended his fluent, informed performance from the first debate, and Fiorina, who worked doggedly to establish her national security credentials by using what time she had to make specific, credible proposals for dealing with adversaries ("I wouldn't talk to Putin") and strengthening the American military—even going so far as to number how many Marine battalions she would like to see, which is pretty granular for a presidential candidate. Walker and Cruz were both decent on national security, and Bush had a strong night.
But what a contrast Rubio-Fiorina, or Fiorina-Rubio, channeling a confident, pro-American vision for future, would make when compared to a Democratic nomination of Hillary Clinton for president.