Rubio 'The Fish Taco' Wins...

Trump? Carson? Rubio steals the debate show

The Florida senator ditches his low profile, confronting Bush head-on and attacking the media.

By Shane Goldmacher

Donald Trump and Ben Carson may have stood at the center of the stage at Wednesday's debate, but Marco Rubio stole the show.

It was a sharp contrast from the first two contests, when Trump dominated the discussion. On Wednesday, the braggy billionaire reverted to almost just another candidate on the stage, not even involved in one of the debate’s defining moments.

That came when Jeb Bush, in need of a jolt after money woes forced him to slash his campaign payroll in the last week, attacked Rubio, his onetime Florida ally, for his Senate attendance record.

Bush lectured Rubio that if he wanted to continue skipping votes he should “just resign and let someone else take the job.”

“Marco, when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term,” Bush said. “And you should be showing up to work.”

Rubio was ready, dismissing Bush as a political opportunist turning on an old friend. “Someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you,” he said.

It was the end of discussion. The mentor had gone after the protégé but came away bruised.

While that exchange got the audience going, many of the candidates scored ovations by attacking the moderators and, more broadly, the mainstream media.

“This is not a cage match,” said Ted Cruz, blasting the CNBC moderators' questions for almost every candidate in the field. “How about talking about the substantive issues people care about?”

As the crowd roared in approval, Cruz didn’t let up. “Nobody watching at home believes that any of the moderators have any intention of voting in a Republican primary,” he added.

Facebook and Twitter said Cruz’s media assault was the most talked-about moment of the debate on their influential platforms. And focus-group guru Frank Luntz gushed on Twitter that, “Ted Cruz's focus group dials hits 98 with his attack on media bias. That's the highest score we've ever measured. EVER.”

Rubio also scored big with his media slam. When Rubio declared that, “Democrats have the ultimate super PAC. It’s called the mainstream media,” it was the second-most tweeted moment of the debate.

Carson, meanwhile, delivered another low-key performance, dispassionately refuting critical questions about his flat-tax plan and his business relationship with supplement company Mannatech. But if his past unheralded performances are any indicator, it won’t likely hurt him at the polls. Carson has soared, especially in Iowa, even recently eclipsing Trump in some surveys.

With Trump as headliner, the 2016 debates have become must-see TV and, as a result, taken on outsize importance in the contest. That is bad news for Bush who, on Wednesday, spoke the least of any candidate on stage just as most political analysts believed he needed a lift. Off stage, Danny Diaz, Bush’s campaign manager, could be seen in a heated conversation with a CNBC producer.

Rubio didn’t just shine in his showdown with Bush.

He turned around a tough question on how he’d managed his personal finances, including cashing out a retirement account early and paying thousands in fees, despite earning a six-figure Senate salary and writing a best-selling book. Rubio dismissed the inquiries as “a series of discredited attacks,” though they were accurate, pivoting smoothly to his family narrative as the son of a bartender and maid.

And Rubio earned laughs when he said he had to explain to his wife why “someone named Sallie-Mae was taking $1,000” every month to pay down his student loans. When CNBC’s Becky Quick tried to follow up that some of his questionable financial decisions came after Rubio had earned large sums from his book, Rubio quipped back, “And it's available on paperback, if you're interested.”

Rubio’s campaign was soliciting their email list for money even before the debate was over. “Marco is winning,” one email read. “If you’re not watching, get in front of a TV or computer — a radio, even — ASAP.”

It was a different story for Trump, who shrank on stage after a combative start in which he challenged the CNBC moderators about the tone and substance of their questions. He began the event on his heels when the opening question from John Harwood was about whether his big promises amounted to running a “comic-book” campaign for president.

“Not a very nicely asked question, the way you said that,” Trump replied.

Trump insisted he would build a 1,000-mile wall on the border with Mexico, and make Mexico pay for it. “We can do a wall. We're going to have a big, fat beautiful door right in the middle of the wall” for legal immigrants,” Trump said.

Harwood followed up, saying he had talked to economic advisers who have served presidents of both parties about Trump's tax plan: "They say you have as much chance of cutting taxes that much without increasing the deficit as you would of flying away from that podium by flapping your wings."

Trump exploded. "Then you would have to get rid of Larry Kudlow … who came out the other day and said 'I love Trump’s tax plan.”

Ohio Gov. John Kasich was one of the few candidates to cast himself as the adult in the debate from the opening seconds, when he said he worried that the Republican Party was “on the verge perhaps of picking someone who cannot do this job.”

"Folks, we've got to wake up," Kasich said. He also mocked Carson's tax plan and said his health plan amounted to "getting rid of Medicare and Medicaid."

"We cannot elect somebody who doesn’t know how to do the job," Kasich said.

Trump struck right back at Kasich on the Ohio economy. “John got lucky with a thing called fracking,” Trump said, adding that Kasich once worked for Lehman Brothers, the Wall Street bank that failed in the 2008 financial crisis. And he dismissed Kasich as desperately launching attacks on him.

“His poll numbers tanked,” Trump said.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina used some of her familiar and well-received lines against Clinton but did not star as she did in September, when she surged in the polls following the debate, before dropping back into the middle of the pack. She did defend her corporate record, including 30,000 layoffs under her watch, as tackling “entrenched problems head-on.”

"I cut bureaucracy down to size, reintroduced accountability focused on service, on innovation, on leading in every market and every product segment," she said. "And yes, it was a very difficult time. However, we saved 80,000 jobs, we went on to grow to 160,000 jobs, and scores of technology companies literally went out of business.”

Chris Christie, who along with Kasich, Rand Paul and Mike Huckabee is on the bubble to make the next debate, delivered a confident performance, pleasing the audience with his barbs against two popular targets: Democrats and the media.

Of the Democratic field, Christie said, “I see a socialist, an isolationist and a pessimist. And for the sake of me, I can't figure out which one is which.” He added of Clinton, “You put me on that stage against her next September, she won't get within 10 miles of the White House. Take it to the bank.”

And Christie mocked a question about fantasy football gambling as a needless media aside. “We’re talking about fantasy football?” he asked incredulously. “Enough on fantasy football. Let people play. Who cares.” Huckabee piled on the media, too: “This is just a great big game and we’re just the players.”

Cruz delivered perhaps the oddest pitch of the night, selling himself as America’s designated driver. “If you want someone to grab a beer with, I may not be that guy,” he said. “But if you want someone to drive you home, I will get the job done and I will get you home.”

Whatever momentum comes from the CNBC bout, it could be short lived. The next debate, in Wisconsin, is already less than two weeks away.