The GOP’s early-bird debate: a quartet of also-rans

The Kansas City Star’s editorial board assesses the four candidates in the early round of the GOP debates Wednesday night. Here are takeaways from each challenger. What they lacked in viewership they gained in elbow room and time. Still, it’s all uphill for this group of low-ranking candidates.

The challenge: He had to invoke his hard-line credentials on foreign policy, but those will not likely give him much more of an audience than he already has.

The reality: Graham found the energy and argument to present himself as “ready to be commander-in-chief” rather than taking a chance on “another novice.” In an entertaining and spontaneous spell of real back-and-forth, he one-upped Santorum on immigration reform, reminding the former senator that whatever bill he said he offered in 2006 went nowhere — during the administration of a Republican president, George W. Bush. Graham’s strongest message: send ground forces to uproot the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria before they attack us on American soil. A sense of humor and pragmatic assessment of how political power works gave Graham a leg up, especially over Santorum and Jindal. “Hispanics are Americans,” Graham said at one point, bringing common sense to the debate. In a nod to the power of bipartisan politics, Graham noted the practice of leaders of the past, who talked over cocktails: “That’s the first thing I’m going to do as president: We’re going to drink more.”

The challenge: He had to recover from earlier flubs on immigration and global issues.

The reality: A broken record on the immigration issue and stuck on the idea that we must “not turn the American dream into a European nightmare.” He challenged Graham on the power of Senate Republicans to stop the Obama administration on Obamacare, the Iran nuclear deal and Planned Parenthood funding, and Graham retorted that essentially Jindal was shooting in the dark — the objective was to win the White House in order to reverse the agenda. Jindal was way over the top in attacking Planned Parenthood and in defending Kentucky clerk Kim Davis and her absurd refusal to approve marriage licenses for gay couples. Nothing Jindal did tonight advanced his flagging cause.

The challenge: Will GOP voters continue to wonder just why he entered this race?

The reality: Not surprisingly, Pataki called on his post 9/11 credentials, though his strategy for fighting the terrorist threat today remains unclear. A somewhat more moderate voice, he separated himself from Santorum and Jindal by not standing up for Kim Davis, refreshingly noting that the rule of law outweighs the personal beliefs of an elected official.

The challenge: The evangelical vote — Santorum’s strongest suit — is hanging on with Mike Huckabee and flirting with Donald Trump and Ben Carson.

The reality: Santorum won some applause, presumably from evangelicals, for suggesting that the U.S. president had a right and a duty to violate the law in order to defend Santorum’s view of “Christian principals.” But most Americans understand that to be a flawed interpretation of the U.S. rule of law. On other issues, Santorum did little to persuade anyone that he’s something more than a short-lived novelty of the 2012 election cycle.

This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 2:55 PM with the headline "The GOP’s early-bird debate: a quartet of also-rans."