The Republican race for president just got a lot more serious.
At the second Republican presidential debate, there was minimal name-calling and personal insults by Donald Trump, and all of the candidates not named Donald Trump rushed into the void, taking advantage of an opportunity to make a good impression — succeeding more often than not.
The clearest winner of the debate was Carly Fiorina, who successfully challenged Donald Trump — criticizing his wisecracks about her personal appearance and challenging his credentials as a global businessman by deftly ticking off hot spots around the world and suggesting ways she would tackle them.
But other candidates took turns at laying out specific plans and contrasting their ideas with those of their rivals.
Sen. Rand Paul, a libertarian, took issue with Jeb Bush’s vow to crack down on recreational marijuana, and Chris Christie jumped into the conversation to warn about the dangers of marijuana use leading to abuse of harder drugs — a point underscored by Fiorina, who talked about the death of her stepdaughter, who was a drug user.
The big news in all of this was that the field of candidates weren’t dancing to Trump’s tune: instead, they talked in a serious way about serious issues, and for considerable swaths of the debate it was possible to forget Trump was on stage at all: Marco Rubio and Christie went back and forth on climate change, and Ted Cruz debated Bush over the process and criteria for naming Supreme Court justices. Ben Carson argued for a two-tier minimum wage.
It remains true that a large percentage of the Republican voting base is disgusted by politicians and convinced that a brash straight-talker like Trump might fix this. But the debate served as a reminder that Trump’s 30% support also means that 70% of Republican voters are looking for a different candidate to support.
The debate proved they have plenty of viable choices.