Rooney’s Verdict: Trump wins thoroughly inauthentic debate

By Matt Rooney | The Save Jersey Blog

Yes, Save Jerseyans, the winner of Saturday’s Manchester, New Hampshire debate was the guy who won an ‘endorsement’ from Jimmy Carter last week. Hands down.

Why?

The Donald is not a conservative but conservatism wasn’t on the menu last night as the GOP hopefuls clashed in person from the last time before the Granite States weighs in this Tuesday. We didn’t get a discussion of competing visions for America. It was a nasty, substance-less, personal and counterproductive exchange that left Trump unscathed as he continues to nurse a healthy lead there and in the next state, too.

trumpWhat most pundits are reporting today is Marco Rubio’s less-than-inspiring response to Governor Chris Christie’s kamikaze attack on the Floridian federal legislator’s lack of executive experience. I’m surprised he didn’t have talking points ready to go beyond the repetitious lines served up. He needs to start reading Save Jersey.

Now, I tend to agree with the crew over at FiveThirtyEight (they’re rarely wrong) that New Hampshire voters won’t care quite as much as the pre-decided permanent political chatter-ocracy do this morning. 

Let’s assume, however, that the exchange DOES hurt Marco. Badly. Christie – averaging between just 4-to-6 points heading into Saturday’s exchange – would need a 10+ point bump in 72 hours, almost unheard of coming out of a weekend debate, to unseat Rubio or Kasich who are neck-in-neck for the second place slot. Would fourth do him much good? Probably not. So maybe there is an alliance between Bush and our governor

Yet Bush didn’t capitalize since he lacks Chris Christie’s debating skills. The only memorable Bush moment transpired when, unbelievably, Christie and Bush teamed up to attack Rubio for being… too pro-life

What gives? Well, while Bush and Christie hold themselves out as pro-life governors, New Hampshire is an “open” primary state where independents and Democrats are allowed to participate. So while Christie is attacking Rubio for inauthentic responses, he and Bush are pandering to non-Republican voters who don’t even share our Republican pro-life values to win a primary. Oh, sweet irony…

christie new hampshireAll the same, when the dust ultimately settles, the governor lane is too crowded. None of these guys is likely to triumph at the end of the day. They can sabatoge Rubio. I’ll let you decide if that’s a good or bad thing.

Cruz, on the other hand, the only other young conservative who doesn’t have marble mouth disease, played it safe and didn’t take on Trump – the man he’ll need to beat in South Carolina – content to let the feeding frenzy on an under-prepared (or over-prepared?) Marco Rubio continue unabated.

Again, it’s all about the polls. It was all feigned authenticity. No one tried to take out the only true “RINO” on the state – Donald Trump – instead electing to fight each other viciously over the scraps based on what their consultants and pollsters suggested with an eye on “positioning.” No one argued FOR conservatism in their attacks. 

The dispositive proof for my thesis: Did you also notice how the Donald couldn’t stop grinning last night? There’s little wonder why. It was a great night for both him and whoever ultimately wins the Democrat nomination.

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Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.

17 Comments

  1. “Uncle Slow Joe” Biden will be the Democrat nominee. Odds are pretty good that The Donald will capture the GOP crown.

    As for Matt Looney, he won’t be home sucking his thumb on election day: after casting his ballots for all the GOPe hacks on the local level (and giving a major shout out for lying crapweasel pseudo-conservative Leonard Lance), Matt will be cheering hard for the NJGOPe.

  2. Rubio was backed by the tea party against the “establishment ” in Fl and that’s why republican money raisers like Christie went after him. He didn’t have a strong night, but outside his position on immigrants, he hits most conservative buttons. He isn’t the establishment guy, bush, Christie and kasich are. Trump won again because he let all the so-called professional politicians sink each other’s ships.

  3. rubio is a major assclown cuban born piece of illuminati dog shit he pulls his fag prick he helped with mccain to create isis he is so corrupt voted for the bailouts to attack all the countries we did he is a major NEO CON THIS GUY FRITZ THE CAT IS A COMPLETE FOX NEWS CNN FOOL MARCO RUBIO IS NEW WORLD ORDER LIKE RAFAEL ILLEGAL CRUZ U R SOME FOOL .. and trump is not presidential and I’m not a dope that labels myself a liberal demodope or a conservative republodope

  4. I don’t know about that Fritz Sickels. Consider this: Rubio does have support of many longtime Republican donors, including billionaire Paul Singer. Singer was the major force $$$ behind the Rubio-Obama amnesty and immigration explosion push in 2013.
    * Trump..” I see Marco Rubio just landed another billionaire to give big money to his Super PAC, which are total scams, Marco must address him as sir”.
    * Rubio supports a new American economy on migrant labor and wants to triple the controversial H-1B visa program.
    * Rubio has co-authored two pieces of legislation that would massively expand the wage depressing H-1B visa program, used to replace AMERICAN workers in white collar jobs.
    * Rubio’s most recent bill know as I-Squared, would triple the number of H-1B visas imported into the United States, despite that the U.S. Census Bureau reports that 3 in 4 Americans trained in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) are not employed in those fields.
    * The Walt Disney company used H-1Bs to lay off hundreds of AMERICAN workers and forced them to train their low-wage foreign H-1B replacements. Disney’s CEO has endorsed Rubio’s I- Squared Bill. Terrific, screw more American workers.
    * Donald Trump has called on Disney to hire back all of Rubio’s laid off constituents…” Lobbyists write the rules to benefit the rich and powerful. They buy off Senators like Marco Rubio to help them get rich at the expense of working Americans by using H-1B visas-so called “high tech” visas – to replace American workers in all sorts of solid middle-class jobs.Senator Rubio works for Lobbyists not for America, that is why he is receiving more money from Silicon Valley than any other candidate in this race”.
    * According to open-secrets Goldman Sachs has been one of Rubio’s biggest financial boosters since 2011. Goldman Sachs wss the top donor to Rubio’s campaign committee. Interestingly Goldman Sachs is also among the top 50 corporate users of the H-1B visa, which labor experts called an”indentured servitude” program. Goldman Sachs is ranked #33 among the biggest users of the H-1B visa program according to USCIS data analyzed by Computer World’s Patrick Thibodeau.
    Hey Marco take a hike.

  5. John Kasich is the winner. He is the only conservative who can appeal to moderates and independents, whose votes Republicans will need to beat Democrats in November.

  6. If I didn’t know better, Gene, I’d think you were supporting Biden for President.

    If Hillary is indicted, wouldn’t Sanders win the nomination? He’d be the only one left on all the state ballots.

    As for Matt Rooney, his analysis is spot on.

  7. Leonard Lance is not a “pseudo-conservative”. He is a solid, mainstream conservative tempered by moderation and pragmatism. That is why New Jersey’s leading movement conservatives, Mike Doherty and Steve Lonegan, have endorsed his re-election.

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