Political Analyst: Rubio 'Hit It Out Of Park'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Political analyst John Hayward analyzed last night's Republican presidential debate, citing a strong performance from Marco Rubio, while pointing out that Donald Trump, and Ben Carson failed to repeat past success.
Hayward, a columnist with Breitbart, told Chris Stigall on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT that Rubio seized an opportunity to shine at Jeb Bush's expense.
"Bush and Kasich were fighting for some moderate territory that nobody should really want. I think the worst night, really as we look back on this, is going to be Bush's because he was completely supplanted by Rubio. There were a couple of spots where Rubio literally took Bush's talking points and then re-fashioned them into something interesting, you just heard that guy ramble on and it wasn't that exciting, let me show you how to do this, and he just took the same point and hit it out of the park."
He stated the debate's format limited Trump or Carson's abilities to break out like they've done previously.
"They're not really detail oriented guys. They're outsiders. They don't have political bases the way the others do and Trump isn't really big on details. Carson really isn't big on details. They speak in broad terms. They address social issues and this was not their night. That wasn't a night where those things were brought up. It also wasn't a night of conflict. Notice the one thing the moderators didn't do once is try to provoke them into attacking each other. They just threw the issues out there and they went after each other and we had some good exchanges, but it wasn't really that kind of firestorm where Trump would really show."
Hayward also attempted to explain why Carly Fiorina has failed to build on strong debate performances with increased poll numbers.
"She has a hard time capitalizing on debates. She does a really, really good job in debates. She's extremely well prepared. She's never flummoxed. She's never stumped. She never makes a mistake. She never makes a gaffe. She knows exactly what she wants to say, when it was foreign policy, when it was financial regulation, she had her bullet points ready to go. It was like a Power Point presentation. She's really got it together, but somehow, after the debate is over, she can't get out there and turn that in to rising support. She tends to disappear after the debate. She'll do a couple of media interviews the next day and then nobody really hears from her."