GOP debate: Maybe no poll movement but info was given

Most of the analyses I’ve seen of last night’s GOP debate said not much happened to change the numbers. I agree. But I think some things happened that may change some perceptions:

• Jeb Bush, for example, finally had a “good night” as judged by the talking heads who saw him be successfully aggressive against the front-runner.  He didn't look awkward, as he has in the past. I’m hoping those moments of success for Bush give him some of the self-confidence he seems to have been lacking, and one reason he sits at about 3 percent in the polls (Tangent: I don’t view, in this cycle, 3 percent as being out of it, yet). Maybe, just maybe he did enough to get people to at least hear him out.
  
• Sens. Rubio and Cruz had their moments, mostly bickering with each other.  (Tangent:  Could someone please explain carpet bombing to Sen. Cruz, who seems to think carpet bombing is a strategic use of pinpoint accuracy. It isn’t. It’s CARPET bombing, meaning dropping bombs across a broad swath, as if you’re attacking a big city. And by the way Sen. Cruz, these terrorists are not sitting together in a group with a big sign pointing down saying “carpet bomb here.” They are…terrorists! That means you never know where they’ll strike next or where they are. Have you been paying attention?) But we all got to see more of each so we can make better decisions. Though I knew a long time ago, Cruz is not my guy. And Rubio comes across as RoboCandidate -- programmed to try for the next level.
  
•  Gov. Christie, well, if we didn't know before we now know he was a former prosecutor. He said it every five minutes. (enough, governor, we heard you!) and that he has executive experience which his senatorial opponents lack. (Tangent: I happen to agree with the governor that executive experience matters in picking a president.) Christie did have a good moment when he talked about endless debates about minutiae in the Senate. And Cruz, Rubio and Paul were talking as if we all know which committee does what in the Senate, and that we really care. It's one reason we haven't elected many senators or House members as president straight out of the Congress.
  
• Carly Fiorina, well, I’m not big on form over substance, but showing a little livelier personality wouldn’t hurt in the likability area for her. We all want a serious president but also one we like. Again, saw enough to know..not my candidate.
  
•  The good doctor's his moment has past. Starting off with moment of silence I’m sure played well with his evangelical supporters but seemed a little over the top to me. But he has studied up on foreign policy to the extent that he can utter some indication he knows something. But i got the impression that's all it was -- him repeating things he's been told.
  
• We also heard just about every candidate on stage say that President Obama is “leading from behind” – a good line, once. But to keep repeating it, well, STOP!  Just stop.
  

I thought it was a rather substantive debate, as these one-minute-answer shows go. There also were those moments that happen and then are often forgotten. A few examples:

•  Because it’s live TV, sometimes awkward language is used because folks' mouths move faster than their brains.. Like when analyst S.E. Cupp said that something was a “decisive decision.” Wow. Think about that. I’ll give you a second…
  
• Or, pre-debate, when CNN had a camera in the wings while the candidates were gathering to be announced on-stage. It was nothing but a milling around of a large group of people getting ready to try to be introduced. Anderson Cooper introduced the shot as “what the audience can’t see but you can.” Wow, did the audience miss something big!! Thank you, CNN, for giving us something the audience couldn’t see, and we couldn’t care less about.
  
• How many of us remember the 1976 movie “Network”? My recollection is the graphics used in that faux news network, once it started improving its ratings, were quick cuts of flashy graphics with a voice-over of a very dramatic male voice saying introductory things. Kind of like what CNN used last night as its opening for the debate. Lord, just intro the debate, CNN, you already have our attention and advertising eyeballs, which is what you wanted. We don’t need the flashy, dumb intros as if this was the Super Bowl and each candidate is Tom Brady. Come to think of it, we don’t need that kind of intro to the Super Bowl either.
  
• Oh, did you notice that all but two of the male candidates wore red ties? Dr. Carson and Gov. Kasich wore blue. Carly wore a red dress. 
  
• Jeb had a few good lines he used against the front-runner who’s only comeback was, “oh, yeah, so’s your old man” or something like that.
  
• Wolf Blizer, who I thought lost control of the first debate, was much better last night. He won the shouting match with Cruz, which was not a good moment for the Senator as he tried to demonstrate that talking louder showed strength or something. It didn’t. 
  
• And in the "under card debate" it seemed each was trying to talk louder than the other. Each did.