Washington Free Beacon reporter Lachlan Markay joined a Fox Business panel on Tuesday to discuss what GOP candidates needed to do during that network's debate on the economy.
Markay said he hoped the candidates focused on the substance of their proposals, rather than on showmanship.
"I want to see candidates get deeper than that and talk more about their concrete plans, policies. That is what voters want to hear. We didn't hear much of it in the last debate," Markay said.
Fox News contributor Jedediah Bila disagreed, noting that most Americans are not as immersed in policy as Markay.
"Lachlan is a bit of a policy wonk," Bila said. "Not everyone in the audience thinks like that."
Transcipt below:
LOU DOBBS: Joining us now, columnist and Fox News contributor Jedediah Bila. Good to have you here. Also Washington Free Beacon reporter Lachlan Markay.
LACHLAN MARKAY: Thank you.
DOBBS: Former Reagan White House political director and Fox News analyst Ed Rollins. I hope you hear me there in New York. I am yelling over quite a crowd here.
ED ROLLINS: I can hear you just fine, thank you. If the Milwaukee Bucks had that kind of crowd they would be doing just fine.
DOBBS: I ask you what you're expecting from these candidates? Some suggesting it will be all banking accounts and, you know, balancing everything out.
JEDEDIAH BILA: I think they will mix it up. I think the economy is the chief issue people are concerned about right now. So I think this is a huge opportunity for people like Donald Trump. He has a great business record. For someone like Marco Rubio, who has a great story. They have been talking a lot about his debt things like that. He has the kind of story that can resonate with a lot of people. Also an opportunity for someone like Ben Carson. Who people consider he might not be an economic genius. He has not been in business for years. He has this regular guy air about him. Can he be specific about policies with respect to the economy to make people believe he is the right man for the job. Also Jeb Bush—this is make it or break it situation for him. He sits on a decent record. He has decent economic background. Can he take that record and pull it forward and make people think, despite the fact I'm not most charismatic guy in the race I can get the job done. He needs to make it happen tonight or it will never happen for him.
DOBBS: Do you agree, Lachlan?
MARKAY: I am waiting for what Ted Cruz has in store for us. He will lay out broad principles people in the crowd get it, but when you get into economic policies in the weeds, you get wonky. I'm curious whether he can break it down and defend his policies on a smaller level.
DOBBS: You're right on that. Arguably Ted Cruz has most detailed, complicated proposal at this point. It is a rational one but also a radical plan. Ed, Jedediah basically intimated whatever happens here in the terms of wonk side of it it has to appeal to voters or connect with voters or it is a waste of everyone's time. What are your thoughts?
ED ROLLINS: Having watched a lot of these over the years, two or three people will come out of this making favorable impressions. Obviously Cruz did last time and Rubio has in each of the debates. Trump obviously the first debate, didn't do as well last time. There is a lot of people here with a lot at stake tonight. For the simple reason Fox deliberately, and I think correctly, bounced a couple heavyweights off the stage. I don't mean physical, but they are heavyweights, Christie and Huckabee. The warning is there, if you don't do well in this debate, kind of an eliminiation, a survival contest so people like obviously Jeb Bush has to do well. But my sense is, three or four people will come out of this making impressions. The rest may get left by the wayside.
DOBBS: As we're looking on the screen as you were talking, Ed, the theater is filling up. Lots of folks starting to build. I just want to explain to the audience again. We are surrounded by folks in motion and you can hear the excitement in their voices even if it comes across as a modest roar. The idea that Trump is going to be talking about business, I mean he has stepped square into the controversy over Starbucks, said basically he is throwing them out of one of his properties because they're coming with a red cup and that if he’s elected you're going to be able to say Merry Christmas again. Now that is arguably one heck of a business story but it's so much more and it does, I think, represent the opportunity that is available to each of these candidates with imagination and some, as Trump would say, energy to go after. What do you think?
MARKAY: Yeah I think, you know, as moderators give them a chance to hit that, maybe he will. It’s an easy issue to hit, popular with Republican voters. I want to see candidates get deeper than that and talk more about their concrete plans, policies. That is what voters want to hear. We didn't hear much of it in the last debate. I think a lot of people are very disappointed.
DOBBS: I understand what Lachlan is saying here. I agree with you to a certain extent but at the same time I don't think many people can tell you what Barack Obama's tax plan was. I don't think many people can tell you what Mitt Romney's was or certainly, you know, John McCain’s.
DOBBS: You have to go back aways.
BILA: Lachlan is a bit of a policy wonk.
DOBBS: Sure.
BILA: Not everyone in the audience thinks like that. The way candidates get elected, voters have to go in for them. Voters have to listen to what they say hear some policy specifics for sure but feel that that candidate will be able to get them a better job and put more money on their table for them and their families and do what Barack Obama has not about able to do thus far. That is the question.
DOBBS: let's go to you for the final word, ed. what do you expect, what do you want?
ROLLINS: I think Trump will rise to the occasion, I think it is his forum because it is about the economy. Carson needs to be very careful tonight. This is not the place to go defend— all Ben Carson should have said was I went to Yale, I grew up in tough environment, I became a great medical doctor, a great brain surgeon. You don't have to be brain surgeon to be president of the United States, but for him to go back and argue those points he will destroy this thing. Jeb Bush has to rise to the occasion. Rubio and Cruz will do fine. Jeb Bush, tonight a big spotlight is on him. If he doesn't do well a lot of his donors will start shifting to other people.
DOBBS: All right. Ed Rollins, Jedediah Bila, Lachlan Markey, see you later in the evening.