Republican Debate Takeaways: Voters’ Options Couldn’t Be Clearer
Time and time again, anxious Republican leaders have urged their more conventional standard-bearers in the race to take on Mr. Trump. Thursday night’s debate showed why that almost never works. He talks over attack lines. He refuses to admit to flip-flops, even when pressed by a moderator or hemmed in by video footage. He blusters his way past fact-checkers and rivals alike.
.. But it was impossible not to watch the debate without suspecting that the right-leaning and highly influential news network was using the evening to litigate each of Mr. Trump’s faults and vulnerabilities.
.. If the Republican establishment’s strategy now is to deny Mr. Trump the nomination by keeping the field as large as possible — diluting his chances to reach a majority of delegates on the first round of votes at the party convention in July — the debate may have offered a preview.
.. Unlike his rivals, Mr. Kasich is running as a “compassionate conservative” who is disinterested in the culture wars and who can reach out to the opposing party. If his message does not resonate, it will not be because voters did not hear it.
.. The exchange produced a CNN headline for the history books: “Donald Trump defends size of his penis.”