Donald Trump tangled with Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Jeb Bush called on Marco Rubio – his political protege – to resign his U.S. Senate seat in Wednesday’s Republican debate which turned into a cage match in Colorado.
As the CNBC hosts progressively lost control of the event, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz turned openly hostile, accusing them all of being Democrats intent on damaging the GOP field.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie soon piled on the network, with Trump wrapping up his night by claiming he had strong-armed them into shortening the debate ‘so we can get the hell out of here.’
The evening event in Boulder was billed as a purely economic discussion but turned into a referendum on America’s political media, making the Republican-on-Republican rhetorical violence a secondary sideshow.
Claims of media bias became a major theme of the night, with Cruz letting loose the night’s first scathing barrage against moderators Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood.
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UNDER FIRE: CNBC debate moderators (l-r) Carl Quintanilla, Becky Quick and John Harwood took it in the teeth from the Republican presidential field all night
MISTAKES? CNBC came under attack for Wednesday night’s Republican debate which was criticized for it’s lightweight questions and bias
ATTACK THE MODERATORS! Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (right) drew wild applause for reciting a list of CNBC anchors’ questions that he said ‘illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media’
SHAME, SHAME: Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee’s chairman, vented his disgust with the financial news network after the two-hour debate was over
‘Nobody watching at home believes that any of the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary!’ he charged.
‘The questions asked so far illustrate why the American people don’t trust the media. This is not a cage match,’ Cruz said
‘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 that people care about?’
Cruz earned the night’s loudest single wave of applause for that outburst.
Rubio followed him with additional slams on the U.S. political press corps after Trump demanded an end to ‘scam’ super PACs that ‘are causing some very bad decisions to be made by some very good people.’
‘The Democrats have their own super PAC,’ Rubio claimed. ‘It’s called the mainstream media.’
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Watch video King’s Guard horse bites and shakes tourist as she stands too close
Watch video Storm Isha batters UK with high winds and rains
Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
DISAPPOINTING: Critics blasted the CNBC Republican debate for bias with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus saying the network ‘should be ashamed’
ALL QUIET: Front-runners Donald Trump and Ben Carson made a small splash at the two-hour event
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Watch video Man DIVES into the sea off Galway coast during storm
Watch video Train conductor sparks outrage after throwing pet cat off a train
Watch video King’s Guard horse bites and shakes tourist as she stands too close
Watch video Storm Isha batters UK with high winds and rains
Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
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WINNERS AND LOSERS: Republican Primary Debate #3 goes to the White House hopefuls who attacked the CNBC moderators with the most energy
Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz emerged as Wednesday night’s three big winners, largely because they focused most of their firepower on America’s political media industry.
Financial news network CNBC was the evening’s biggest loser, drawing slings and arrows from many of the campaign organizations.
Rubio came off as presidential, cementing himself in the third-place slot. Cruz will likely gain the most traction in the polls that follow the Colorado debate.
Trump won’t lose momentum, and is likely to stay atop the leaderboard.
Jeb Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz was seen arguing with a CNBC producer offstage during the broadcast, bickering over how much time the former Florida governor was allotted.
Bush is the only candidate in the GOP’s top tier who lacked a YouTube-worthy moment after two hours of squabbling.
Trump will be remembered for declaring victory over CNBC and taking credit for negotiating a shortened debate format that let candidates ‘get the hell out of here’ – and for casting aside Ohio Gov. John Kasich by declaring: ‘You can have him!’
A half-hour after the debate ended, CNBC had turned off the TV monitors in the press filing center, effectively hiding its own post-debate broadcast coverage from the hundreds of reporters who traveled to cover the event.
Frank Luntz, the legendary Republican pollster, hosted a focus group during the debate as he has for each of the other Republican intra-party clashes.
’23 of tonight’s 26 focus group participants watched all three broadcasts.,’ he tweeted. ‘They ALL said @CNBC mod[erator]s were the worst.’
And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had few spotlight moments, lit into the moderators for asking a question about whether the federal government should regulate pay-for-play fantasy football competitions online.
‘Wait a second,’ he said, firing rhetorical bullets at the CNBC anchor desk: ‘We have $19 trillion in debt, people out of work, ISIS and al Qaeda attacking us – and we’re talking about fantasy football?’
‘How about we get the government to do what they’re supposed to be doing?’ an agitated Christie shouted. ‘Enough on fantasy football. Let people play! Who cares?’
Moments earlier, Christie had lit into moderator John Harwood for interrupting him in mid-answer.
‘Even in New Jersey,’ he said, ‘what you’re doing is called “rude”.’
While former Arkansas Gov Mick Huckabee blasted them when they asked him ‘as a pastor’ if he believed Trump had ‘moral authority’.
‘I love Donald Trump — he is a good man. I’m wearing a Trump tie tonight. Get over that one,’ he said as the crowd booed the question.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus ended the evening castigating CNBC.
‘While I was proud of our candidates and the way they handled tonight’s debate, the performance by the CNBC moderators was extremely disappointing,’ he said, ‘and did a disservice to their network, our candidates, and voters.
‘CNBC should be ashamed of how this debate was handled,’ Priebus added on Twitter.
AWFUL: Pollster Frank Luntz heard an earful about CNBC’s debate performance from his all-evening focus group
NASTY: Debate questions were blasted as biased, unfair and mean by candidates
‘YOU CAN HAVE HIM!’ Donald Trump (2nd right) lambasted Ohio Gov. John Kasich during Wednesday night’s Republican debate, saying he ‘turned nasty’ after his poll numbers ‘tanked’
The network’s chief moderator, John Harwood, found himself in trouble early for claiming Rubio’s tax plan was the subject of an aggressive take-down at the hands of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation.
He told the debate’s audience that the organization scored the Rubio plan ‘and concluded that you give nearly twice as much of a gain in after-tax income to the top one-percent as to people in the middle of the income scale.’
‘Since you’re a champion of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, don’t you have that backward?’ Harwood asked him.
‘No,’ Rubio corrected him. ‘You wrote a story on it. You had to go back and correct it.’
‘No, I didn’t,’ Harwood insisted.
Harwood, though, tweeted his correction on October 14.
‘Tax Foundation says Rubio benefits lowest 10% proportionally more than top 1%,’ that tweet read.
Harwood also crossed swords with Trump over the planned length of the debate, insisting it was always slated to be a two-hour affair despite news reports to the contrary.
‘Everybody said it was going to be three hours, three and a half, including them,’ Trump said during his closing statement, pointing at the moderators.
‘And in about two minutes I renegotiated it so we can get the hell out of here. Not bad.’
Following a round of applause, Harwood claimed Trump had it wrong.
‘Just for the record, the debate was always going to be two hours,’ he said.
‘That’s not right. That is absolutely not right,’ Trump fired back. ‘You know that.’
COLD? Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said her big weakness was a lack of outward friendliness
OOPS: CNBC’s Harwood claimed Marco Rubio’s tax plan would advantage America’s rich more than poor people, and the Florida senator had to remind him that he himself had tweeted a correction of that claim (pictured) two weeks earlier
MASTER VS. APPRENTICE: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (left) demanded his protege Marco Rubio (right) resign his U.S. Senate seat rather than miss votes while he runs for president
NO WEAKNESSES: Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, refused to point out his own weaknesses and said he saw weakness only ‘in the three people left on the Democratic stage
Kasich came out the gate punching at tax plans unveiled by Trump and retired surgeon Ben Carson. But The Donald got the better of him.
‘Folks, we gotta wake up,’ the Buckeye governor Kasich said from the edge of the stage. ‘We cannot elect somebody who does not know how to do the job.
‘He was so nice,’ the center-stage Trump shot back. ‘He was such a nice guy. And he said, “Oh, I’m never going to attack.” Then his poll numbers tanked! That’s why he’s on the end. And he got nasty.’
‘So you know what? You can have him!’
Trump said the dramatic turnaround of Ohio’s economy was a fluke tied to the state’s energy boom, not to Kasich’s fiscal management. And he tied him to a ‘too big to fail’ investment bank.
‘First of all, John got lucky with a thing called fracking, okay?’ The Donald blared. ‘He hit oil, he got lucky with fracking, believe me. That’s why Ohio is doing really well. And that is important for you to know.’
‘Number two, this was the man that was a managing general partner at Lehman Brothers when it went down the tubes and almost took everyone with it.’
The squabble between the Floridians started when Bush hammered Rubio following weeks of news stories about U.S. Senate votes he has missed while running for the White House.
‘Marco, when you signed up for this, this is a six-year term and you should be showing up to work,’ Bush carped.
‘I mean, literally, the Senate – what is this, like a French work week?’
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Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
WE’RE (MOSTLY) PERFECT! Eight of the the ten Republican debaters on Wednesday dodged the job-interview question about their biggest weaknesses, with only Donald Trump and Jeb Bush doing any self-reflection
GRUDGE MATCH: Trump said he doesn’t know how to forgive people who let him down
‘You get like three days where you have to show up,’ Bush jabbed. ‘You can campaign, or just resign and let someone else take the job.’
Rubio gave as good as he got, saying Bush never took issue with Sen. John McCain missing votes when he was running for the White House in 2008.
‘The only reason you’re doing it now is because we’re running for the same position,’ the junior senator said, ‘and someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you.’
A brewing feud between the two pols has taken on new significance in recent days as Rubio’s poll numbers have eclipsed Bush’s, putting him in third place nationally behind Trump and Ben Carson.
But Rubio tried to carve out the high road, saying he wouldn’t lash out at Bush, his mentor.
‘I will continue to have tremendous admiration for Governor Bush,’ he said. ‘I’m not running against Governor Bush. I’m not running against anyone on this stage. I’m running for president because there’s no way we can elect Hillary Clinton.’
The south Florida Sun Sentinel called on Rubio to resign on Tuesday, editorializing that ‘Floridians sent you to Washington to do a job. … If you hate your job, senator, follow the honorable lead of House Speaker John Boehner and resign it.’
Rubio said he read the editorial with ‘great amusement,’ calling it ‘evidence of the bias that exists in American media today.’
FAMILY AFFAIR: The entire Trump family jetted in for the debate with Donald Trump Jr, Vanessa Haydon, Donald Trump, Melania Trump, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Lara Yunaska and Eric Trump (left to right) all in attendance
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Watch video Man DIVES into the sea off Galway coast during storm
Watch video Train conductor sparks outrage after throwing pet cat off a train
Watch video King’s Guard horse bites and shakes tourist as she stands too close
Watch video Storm Isha batters UK with high winds and rains
Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
The debate began with a round of navel-gazing as CNBC host John Harwood asked the 10 assembled candidates, job-interview style, to describe their biggest weaknesses.
Just two of the group, businessman Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, articulated anything approaching self-criticism.
‘I am, by my nature, impatient,’ Bush confessed, admitting that running for the White House ‘is not an endeavor that rewards that.’
Trump took his turn soon after, saying that he holds grudges too long.
‘I think maybe my greatest weakness is that I trust people too much,’ the billionaire said. ‘I’m too trusting. And when they let me down, if they let me down, I never forgive.’
Most of the rest of the field took the opportunity to praise themselves.
‘I don’t really have any weaknesses that I can think of,’ former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee told the panel of CNBC moderators.
‘But my wife is down here in the front,’ he added, saying she could probably think of a long list.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio polished his own apple shamelessly.
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Watch video Man DIVES into the sea off Galway coast during storm
Watch video Train conductor sparks outrage after throwing pet cat off a train
Watch video King’s Guard horse bites and shakes tourist as she stands too close
Watch video Storm Isha batters UK with high winds and rains
Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
STILL SWINGING: Donald Trump set up a future ‘told-you-so’ moment by predicting an ‘unfair’ presidential primary debate hours before it started
TRUSTING: Trump said his weakness was being to trusting and was quick to turn on John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, for turning his campaign ‘nasty’
‘I’m not sure it’s a weakness, but I do believe I share a sense of optimism for America’s future,’ he said, straight-faced.
Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon, said he regretted not thinking of himself as a viable candidate for a long time.
‘My weakness would be not seeing myself in that position until hundreds of thousands of people told me I needed to do it,’ he said.
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said her big weakness was a lack of outward friendliness.
‘At the last debate I was told I didn’t smile enough,’ she said, waiting for a beat before breaking into a broad grin.
‘But I also think these are very serious times,’ she added.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, known for his fire-and-brimstone approach to politics, joked that he was ‘too agreeable, easy-going.’
But ‘I think my biggest weakness is the exact opposite,’ he said ultimately. ‘I’m a fighter.’
Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, said he saw weakness only ‘in the three people left on the Democratic stage.’
‘I see a socialist, an isolationist, a pessimist, and I can’t tell which is which,’ he said.
THE DONALD: ‘I am now in Colorado looking forward to what I am sure will be a very unfair debate!’
CNBC BIAS? The financial network will host Wednesday’s debate on the economy, with center-stage occupied by Trump – whose ‘Apprentice’ show still airs on CNBC
Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and John Kasich, the governor of Ohio, dodged the query entirely.
‘My great concern is that we are on the verge perhaps of picking someone who cannot do this job,’ Kasich mused. ‘We need somebody who can lead, we need someone who can balance budgets, cut taxes.’
Trump declared earlier in the day that the debate would be stacked against him.
On the heels of a speech to a packed crowd in Sioux City, Iowa, Trump tweeted his prediction that the event would be geared to help his opponents.
‘After a great evening and packed auditorium in Iowa, I am now in Colorado looking forward to what I am sure will be a very unfair debate!’ he wrote Wednesday morning on Twitter.
more videos
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Watch video Man DIVES into the sea off Galway coast during storm
Watch video Train conductor sparks outrage after throwing pet cat off a train
Watch video King’s Guard horse bites and shakes tourist as she stands too close
Watch video Storm Isha batters UK with high winds and rains
Watch video Rule, Britannia! is ‘NOT a racist song’, academic insists on GMB
Watch video Starmer accuses Tories of ‘sabotaging’ charities to stretch services
Watch video Travel chaos: Liverpool to London train jam-packed due to Storm Isha
Watch video Moment shamed Post Office boss Paula Vennells dances to Pixie Lott
Watch video Adorable moment Royal guard inspects little fan in miniature uniform
Watch video Market blast in Donetsk leaves scores dead and damage
Watch video Storm Isha whips up large amounts of sea foam at Wexford lighthouse
Watch video Shocking dashcam footage shows drink driver in head-on collision
Trump was at center-stage as the ten poll-leading GOP White House hopefuls squared off.
Despite falling behind Dr. Ben Carson in a national New York Times/CBS News poll this week, he maintains a strong lead in an average of recent opinion surveys and is far ahead in every state except Iowa.
He insisted to Politico on Wednesday that he meant what he wrote, saying: ‘No, I don’t expect the debate to be fair.’
Spokespersons for five different Trump rivals declined to swing at him following his pre-emptive complaints, with one confiding on background that ‘we’re not going to poke that bear.’
THE 2016 FIELD: WHO’S IN, WHO’S QUIT AND WHO’S STILL THINKING IT OVER
A whopping 18 people from America’s two major political parties are candidates in the 2016 presidential election.
The field includes two women, an African-American and two Latinos. All but one in that group – Hillary Clinton – are Republicans.
At 15 candidates, the GOP field is without two early dropouts but still deeper than ever after one current and one former governor bowed out.
A much smaller group of three Democrats includes a former secretary of state, a former governor and a current senator.
REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE
Jeb Bush
Former Florida governor
Age on Election Day: 63
Religion: Catholic
Base: Moderates
Résumé: Former Florida governor and secretary of state. Former co-chair of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.
Education: B.A. University of Texas at Austin.
Family: Married to Columba Bush (1974), with three adult children. Noelle Bush has made news with her struggle with drug addiction, and related arrests. George P. Bush was elected Texas land commissioner in 2014. Jeb’s father George H.W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States, and his brother George W. Bush was number 43.
Claim to fame: Jeb was an immensely popular governor with strong economic and jobs credentials. He is also one of just two GOP candidates who is fluent in Spanish.
Achilles heel: Bush has angered conservatives with his permissive positions on illegal immigration (saying some border-crossing is ‘an act of love) and common-core education standards. His last name could also be a liability with voters who fear establishing a family dynasty in the White House.
Chris Christie
New Jersey governor
Age on Election Day: 54
Religion: Catholic
Base: Establishment-minded conservatives
Résumé: Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder and lobbyist.
Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder. Former statehouse lobbyist.
Education: B.A. University of Delaware, Newark, J.D. Seton Hall University.
Family: Married to Mary Pat Foster (1986) with four children.
Claim to fame: Pugnacious and unapologetic, Christie once told a heckler to ‘sit down and shut up’ and brings a brash style to everything he does. That includes the post-9/11 criminal prosecutions of terror suspects that made his reputation as a hard-charger.
Achilles heel: Christie is often accused of embracing an ego-driven and needlessly abrasive style. His administration continues to operate under a ‘Bridgegate’ cloud: At least two aides have been indicted in an alleged scheme to shut down lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution for a mayor who refused to endorse the governor’s re-election.
Carly Fiorina
Former tech CEO
Age on Election Day: 62
Religion: Episcopalian
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: Former CEO of Hewett-Packard. Former group president of Lucent Technologies. Former U.S. Senate candidate in California.
Education: B.A. Stanford University. UCLA School of Law (did not finish). M.B.A. University of Maryland. M.Sci. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Family: Married to Frank Fiorina (1985), with one adult step-daughter and another who is deceased. She has two step-grandchildren. Divorced from Todd Bartlem (1977-1984).
Claim to fame: Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, something that could provide ammunition against the Democratic Party’s drive to make Hillary Clinton the first female president. She is also the only woman in the 2016 GOP field, making her the one Republican who can’t be accused of sexism.
Achilles heel: Fiorina’s unceremonious firing by HP’s board has led to questions about her management and leadership styles. And her only political experience has been a failed Senate bid in 2010 against Barbara Boxer.
Lindsey Graham
South Carolina senator
Age on Election Day: 61
Religion: Southern Baptist
Base: Otherwise moderate war hawks
Résumé: U.S. senator. Retired Air Force Reserves colonel. Former congressman. Former South Carolina state representative.
Education: B.A. University of South Carolina. J.D. University of South Carolina Law School.
Family: Never married. Raised his sister Darline after their parents died while he was a college student and she was 13.
Claim to fame: Graham is a hawk’s hawk, arguing consistently for greater intervention in the Middle East, once arguing in favor of pre-emptive military strikes against Iran. His influence was credited for pushing President George W. Bush to institute the 2007 military ‘surge’ in Iraq.
Achilles heel: Some of his critics have taken to call him ‘Grahamnesty,’ citing his participating in a 2013 ‘gang of eight’ strategy to approve an Obama-favored immigration bill. He has also aroused the ire of conservative Republicans by supporting global warming legislation and voting for some of the president’s judicial nominees.
Bobby Jindal
Louisiana governor
Age on Election Day: 45
Religion: Catholic
Base: Social conservatives
Résumé: Governor of Louisiana. Former congressman. Former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation. Former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.
Education: B. Sci. Brown University. M.Litt. New College at Oxford University
Family: Married to Supriya Jolly (1997), with three children, each of whom has an Indian first name and an American middle name. Bobby Jindal’s given name is Piyush.
Claim to fame: Jindal’s main source of national attention has been his strident opposition to federal-level ‘Common Core’ education standards, which included a federal lawsuit that a judge dismissed in late March. He is also outspoken on the religious-freedom issues involved in mainstreaming gay marriage into the lives of American Christians.
Achilles heel: During his first term as governor, Jindal signed a science education law that requires schools to present alternatives to the theory of evolution, including religious creationism. His staunch defense of businesses that want to steer clear of providing services to same-sex couples at their weddings will win points among evangelicals but alienate others.
George Pataki
Former New York governor
Age on Election Day: 71
Religion: Catholic
Base: Centrists
Résumé: Former governor of New York. Former New York state senator and state assemblyman. Former mayor of Peekskill, NY.
Education: B.A. Yale University. J.D. Columbia Law School.
Family: Married to Libby Rowland (1973), with four adult children.
Claim to fame: Pataki was just the third Republican governor in New York’s history, winning an improbable victory over three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo in 1994. He was known for being a rare tax-cutter in Albany and was also the sitting governor when the 9/11 terror attacks rocked New York CIty in 2001.
Achilles heel: While Pataki’s liberal-leaning social agenda plays well in the Empire State, it won’t win him any fans among the GOP’s conservative base. He supports abortion rights and gay rights, and has advocated strongly in favor of government intervention to stop global warming, which right-wingers believe is overblown as a global threat.
Marco Rubio
Florida senator
Age on Election Day: 45
Religion: Catholic
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: US senator, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, former city commissioner of West Miami
Education: B.A. University of Florida. J.D. University of Miami School of Law.
Family: Married to Jeanette Dousdebes (1998), with two sons and two daughters. Jeanette is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who posed for the squad’s first swimsuit calendar.
Claim to fame: Rubio’s personal story as the son of Cuban emigres is a powerful narrative, and helped him win his Senate seat in 2010 against a well-funded governor whom he initially trailed by 20 points.
Achilles heel: Rubio was part of a bipartisan ‘gang of eight’ senators who crafted an Obama-approved immigration reform bill in 2013 which never became law – a move that angered conservative Republicans. And he was criticized in 2011 for publicly telling a version of his parents’ flight from Cuba that turned out to appear embellished.
Donald Trump
Real estate developer
Age on Election Day: 70
Religion: Presbyterian
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: Chairman of The Trump Organization. Fixture on the Forbes 400 list of the world’s richest people. Star of ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’
Education: B.Sci. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
Family: Married to Melania Trump (2005). Divorced from Ivana Zelníčková (1977-92) and Marla Maples(1993-99). Five grown children. Trump’s father Fred Trump amassed a $400 million fortune developing real estate.
Claim to fame: Trump’s niche in the 2016 campaign stems from his celebrity as a reality-show host and his enormous wealth – more than $10 billion, according to Trump. Because he can self-fund an entire presidential campaign, he is seen as less beholden to donors than other candidates. He has grabbed the attention of reporters and commentators by unapologetically staking out controversial positions and refusing to budge in the face of criticism.
Achilles heel: Trump is a political neophyte who has toyed with running for president and for governor of New York, but shied away from taking the plunge until now. His billions also have the potential to alienate large swaths of the electorate. And his Republican rivals have labeled him an ego-driven celeb and an electoral sideshow because of his all-over-the-map policy history – much of which agrees with today’s Democrats – and his past enthusiasm for anti-Obama ‘birtherism.’
Ben Carson
Retired Physician
Age on Election Day: 65
Religion: Seventh-day Adventist
Base: Evangelicals
Résumé: Famous pediatric neurosurgeon, youngest person to head a major Johns Hopkins Hospital division. Founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which awards scholarships to children of good character.
Education: B.A. Yale University. M.D. University of Michigan Medical School.
Family: Married to Candy Carson (1975), with three adult sons. The Carsons live in Maryland with Ben’s elderly mother Sonya, who was a seminal influence on his life and development.
Claim to fame: Carson spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, railing against political correctness and condemned Obamacare – with President Obama sitting just a few feet away.
Achilles heel: Carson is inflexibly conservative, opposing gay marriage and once saying gay attachments formed in prison provided evidence that sexual orientation is a choice.
Ted Cruz
Texas senator
Age on Election Day: 45
Religion: Southern Baptist
Base: Tea partiers
Résumé:U.S. senator. Former Texas solicitor general. Former U.S. Supreme Court clerk. Former associate deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush.
Education: B.A. Princeton University. J.D. Harvard Law School.
Family: Married to Heidi Nelson Cruz (2001), with two young daughters. His father is a preacher and he has two half-sisters.
Claim to fame: Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours in September 2013 to protest the inclusion of funding for Obamacare in a federal budget bill. (The bill moved forward as written.) He has called for the complete repeal of the medical insurance overhaul law, and also for a dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service. Cruz is also outspoken about border security.
Achilles heel: Cruz’s father Rafael, a Texas preacher, is a tea party firebrand who has said gay marriage is a government conspiracy and called President Barack Obama a Marxist who should ‘go back to Kenya.’ Cruz himself also has a reputation as a take-no-prisoners Christian evangelical, which might play well in South Carolina but won’t win him points in the other early primary states and could cost him momentum if he should be the GOP’s presidential nominee.
Jim Gilmore
Former Virginia governor
Age on Election Day: 67
Religion: United Methodist
Base: Conservatives
Résumé: Former governor and attorney general of Virginia. Former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Former U.S. Army intelligence agent. President and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation. Board member of the National Rifle Association
Education: B.A. University of Virginia.
Family: Married to Roxane Gatling Gilmore (1977), with two adult children. Mrs. GIlmore is a survivor of Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Claim to fame: Gilmore presided over Virginia when the 9/11 terrorists struck in 1991, guiding the state through a difficult economic downturn after one of the hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon. He is nest known in Virginia for eliminating most of a much-maligned personal property tax on automobiles, working with a Democratic-controlled state legislature to get it passed and enacted.
Achilles heel: Gilmore is the only GOP or Democratic candidate for president who has been the chairman of his political party, giving him a rap as an ‘establishment’ candidate. A social-conservative crusader, he is loathed by the left for championing the state law that established 24-hour waiting periods for abortions. Gilmore also has a reputation as an indecisive campaigner, having dropped out of the 2008 presidential race in July 2007.
Mike Huckabee
Former Arkansas governor
Age on Election Day: 61
Religion: Southern Baptist
Base: Evangelicals
Résumé: Former governor and lieutenant governor of Arkansas. Former Fox News Channel host. Ordained minister and author.
Education: B.A. Ouachita Baptist University. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (did not finish).
Family: Married to Janet Huckabee (1974), with three adult children. Mrs. Huckabee is a survivor of spinal cancer.
Claim to fame: ‘Huck’ is a political veteran and has run for president before, winning the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and finishing second for the GOP nomination behind John McCain. He’s known as an affable Christian and succeeded in building a huge following on his weekend television program, in which he frequently sat in on the electric bass with country & western groups and other ‘wholesome’ musical entertainers.
Achilles heel: Huckabee may have a problem with female voters. He complained in 2014 about Obamacare’s mandatory contraception coverage, pussy licking saying Democrats want women to ‘believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar.’ He earned more scorn for hawking herbal supplements in early-2015 infomercials as a diabetes cure, something he has yet to disavow despite disagreement from medical experts.
John Kasich
Ohio governor
Age on Election Day: 64
Religion: Anglican
Base: Centrists
Résumé: Governor of Ohio. Former chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee. Former Ohio congressman. Former Ohio state senator.
Education: B.A. The Ohio State University.
Family: Married to Karen Waldbillig (1997). Divorced from Mary Lee Griffith (1975-1980).
Claim to fame: Kasich was Ohio youngest-ever member of the state legislature at age 25. He’s known for a compassionate and working-class sensibility that appeals to both ends of the political spectrum. In the 1990s when Newt Gingrich led a Republican revolution that took over Congress, Kasich became the chairman of the House Budget Committee – a position for a wonk’s wonk who understands the nuanced intricacies of how government runs.
Achilles heel: Some of Kasich’s political positions rankle conservatives, including his choice to expand Ohio’s Medicare system under the Obamacare law, and his support for the much-derided ‘Common Core’ education standards program.
Rand Paul
Kentucky senator
Age on Election Day: 53
Religion: Presbyterian
Base: Libertarians
Résumé: US senator. Board-certified ophthalmologist. Former congressional campaign manager for his father Ron Paul.
Education: Baylor University (did not finish). M.D. Duke University School of Medicine.
Family: Married to Kelley Ashby (1990), with three sons. His father is a former Texas congressman who ran for president three times but never got close to grabbing the brass ring.
Claim to fame: Paul embraces positions that are at odds with most in the GOP, including an anti-interventionist foreign policy, reduced military spending, criminal drug sentencing reform for African-Americans and strict limits on government electronic surveillance – including a clampdown on the National Security Agency.
Achilles heel: Paul’s politics are aligned with those of his father, whom mainstream GOPers saw as kooky. Both Pauls have advocated for a brand of libertarianism that forces government to stop domestic surveillance programs and limits foreign military interventions.
Rick Santorum
Former Penn. senator
Age on Election Day: 58
Religion: Catholic
Base: Evangelicals
Résumé: Former US senator and former member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Former lobbyist who represented World Wrestling Entertainment.
Education: B.A. Penn State University. M.B.A. University of Pittsburgh. J.D. Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.
Family: Married to Karen Santorum (1990), with seven living children. One baby was stillborn in 1996. Another, named Isabella, is a special needs child with a genetic disorder.
Claim to fame: Santorum won the 2012 Republican Iowa Caucuses by a nose. He won by visiting all of Iowa’s 99 states in a pickup truck belonging to his state campaign director, a consultant who now worls for Donald Trump.
Achilles heel: As a young lobbyist, Santorum persuaded the federal government to exempt pro wrestling from regulations governing the use of anabolic steroids. And the stridently conservative politician has attracted strong opposition from gay rights groups. One gay columnist held a contest to redefine his name, buying the ‘santorum.com’ domain to advertise the winning entry – which is too vulgar to print.
REPUBLICAN DROPOUTS
Rick Perry, former Texas governor
(withdrew Sept. 11, 2015)
Scott Walker, Wisconsin governor
(withdrew Sept. 21, 2015)
DEMOCRATS IN THE RACE
Hillary Clinton
Former secretary of state
Age on Election Day: 69
Religion: United Methodist
Base: Liberals
Résumé:Former secretary of state. Former U.S. senator from New York. Former U.S. first lady. Former Arkansas first lady. Former law school faculty, University of Arkansas Fayetteville.
Education: B.A. Wellesley College. J.D. Yale Law School.
Family: Married to Bill Clinton (1975), the 42nd President of the United States. Their daughter Chelsea is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, whose mother was a 1990s one-term Pennsylvania congresswoman.
Claim to fame: Clinton was the first US first lady with a postgraduate degree and presaged Obamacare with a failed attempt at health care reform in the 1990s.
Achilles heel: A long series of financial and ethical scandals has dogged Clinton, including recent allegations that her husband and their family foundation benefited financially from decisions she made as secretary of state. Her performance surrounding the 2012 terror attack on a State Department facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been catnip for conservative Republicans. And her presidential campaign has been marked by an unwillingness to engage journalists, instead meeting with hand-picked groups of voters.
Bernie Sanders*
Vermont senator
Age on Election Day: 75
Religion: Jewish
Base: Far-left progressives
Résumé:U.S. senator. Former U.S. congressman. Former mayor of Burlington, VT.
Education: B.A. University of Chicago.
Family: Married to Jane O’Meara Sanders (1988), a former president of Burlington College. He has one child from a previous relationship and is stepfather to three from Mrs. Sanders’ previous marriage. His brother Larry is a Green Party politician in the UK and formerly served on the Oxfordshire County Council.
Claim to fame: Sanders is an unusually blunt, and unapologetic pol, happily promoting progressivism without hedging. He is also the longest-serving ‘independent’ member of Congress – neither Democrat nor Republican.
Achilles heel: Sanders describes himself as a ‘democratic socialist.’ At a time of huge GOP electoral gains, his far-left ideas don’t poll well. He favors open borders, single-payer universal health insurance, and greater government control over media ownership.
* Sanders is running as a Democrat but has no party affiliation in the Senate.
Martin O’Malley
Former Maryland governor
Age on Election Day: 53
Religion: Catholic
Base: Centrists
Résumé:Former Maryland governor. Former city councilor and mayor of Baltimore, MD. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.
Education: B.A. Catholic University of America. J.D. University of Maryland.
Family: Married to Katie Curran (1990) and they have four children. Curran is a district court judge in Baltimore. Her father is Maryland’s attorney general. O’Malley’s mother is a receptionists in the Capitol Hill office of Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski.
Claim to fame: O’Malley pushed for laws in Maryland legalizing same-sex marriage and giving illegal immigrants the right to pay reduced tuition rates at public universities. But he’s best known for playing guitar and sung in a celtic band cammed ‘O’Malley’s March.’
Achilles heel: O’Malley may struggle in the Democratic primary since he endorsed Hillary Clinton eight years ago. If he prevails, he will have to run far enough to her left to be an easy target for the GOP. He showed political weakness when his hand-picked successor lost the 2014 governor’s race to a Republican. But most troubling is his link with Baltimore, whose 2016 race riots have made it a nuclear subject for politicians of all stripes.
DEMOCRATIC DROPOUTS
Jim Webb, former Virginia senator
(withdrew Oct. 20, 2015)
Lincoln Chafee, formerRhode Island governor
(withdrew Oct. 23, 2015)
Marco RubioUS Election 2016
Read more:
Sen. Marco Rubio should resign, not rip us off – Sun Sentinel
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