Detroit — It was not immediately clear which of the four remaining candidates won Thursday’s Republican presidential debate here. But there was no shortage of losers.

Marco Rubio, needing a strong performance to reassure donors and persuade voters ahead of Florida’s do-or-die primary on March 15, spoke with a hoarse voice that rendered him incapable of topping Donald Trump in their frequent shouting contests. He looked and sounded fatigued, and was outshone by Ted Cruz in the race to ridicule Trump.

Trump, who in the debate’s opening minutes assured the American people of his sufficient genitalia, was on the defensive from start to finish. Cruz, Rubio, and Fox News’s moderators skewered him relentlessly on his shifting positions, his allegedly shady business dealings, and his fitness for the presidency. At one point Megyn Kelly, reunited with Trump for the first time since they feuded at the first debate in August, quoted an appeals-court ruling that said Trump had acted like a “con artist” in administering Trump University and compared his victims to those who fell for Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme.

Cruz and John Kasich were the evening’s finest performers, delivering sharp arguments to their respective target audiences. Cruz prosecuted Trump as a phony conservative, openly asking that the front-runner’s supporters consider defecting to his campaign. And Kasich repeatedly gave the audience a breath of fresh air — and appealed to centrists in the Midwest and nationwide — by breaking up extended tit-for-tats with affirmative, detail-oriented soliloquies. But both men were squeezed for speaking time as Trump dominated the stage and found himself in the middle of practically every exchange.

Cruz and John Kasich were the evening’s finest performers, delivering sharp arguments to their respective target audiences. Cruz prosecuted Trump as a phony conservative, openly asking that the front-runner’s supporters consider defecting to his campaign. And Kasich repeatedly gave the audience a breath of fresh air — and appealed to centrists in the Midwest and nationwide — by breaking up extended tit-for-tats with affirmative, detail-oriented soliloquies. But both men were squeezed for speaking time as Trump dominated the stage and found himself in the middle of practically every exchange.

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Source: Tim Alberta, www.nationalreview.com