The third US Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night that was supposed to be a debate on economic policy turned into a free-for-all among the candidates. Worse, the journalists in the panel also took some hits.
Moments before the CNBC-sponsored debate held in Colorado, Donald Trump quickly regained the lead in the national poll after surprisingly slipping to second place behind Ben Carson on Tuesday.
In Wednesday's poll by The Economist and YouGov, Trump was back on top at 32 percent compared to 18 percent for Carson.
The day before, Carson took the lead in the in a CBS News/New York Times poll, 26 to 22—the first-and-only major, national poll so far that showed Carson leading Trump, although four straight surveys showed him in first place among Republicans in Iowa, the state where both the Republican and Democratic parties hold their first caucuses to begin the nominating process for the presidential election in November.
As the candidates turned the debate into a slugfest, TIME reported that it was "unclear if these lines of criticism might leave the eventual nominee badly wounded—either of their own doing or from foes' barbs."
The view was first raised by Ohio Gov. John Kasich who was the first to speak in Wednesday night's debate. "My great concern is that we are on the verge, perhaps, of picking someone who cannot do this job," he said.
That lit up the verbal fireworks. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush slammed fellow Floridian Sen. Marco Rubio for his many absences in the Senate and failure to cast his votes. Rubio could not deny it since indeed he has one of the worst attendance records in the Senate. Rubio only noted that Bush did not have a problem with other senators who also missed votes. "Someone has convinced you that attacking me is going to help you," he retorted.
The journalists in the panel were brutal in their questions and quips, drawing the ire of the candidates.
"Let's be honest: Is this the comic book version of a presidential campaign?" one moderator asked Trump.
Another host told Carson that his ideas were a mess.
A third moderator challenged Carly Fiorina, who proposed a three-page tax code: "Are you using really small type?"
Trump didn't even bother to fully answer some of the questions thrown at him. Instead, he launched a personal attack on Kasich, TIME reported.
TIME said Trump is increasingly sounding "more like someone who is going through the five stages of grief: he's moved past denial to anger, with bargaining right around the corner."
The publication said Trump's rivals "worry that the brash billionaire is incapable of accepting his pending losses, and might lash out in ways that will leave the GOP unable to recover."
Trump provided fuel to this thought. "What the hell are you people doing to me?" Trump half-jokingly half-seriously asked an audience in Iowa on Tuesday. "If I lose Iowa, I will never speak to you people again."
Trump practically begged a crowd in Sioux City to cast their votes for him, calling his slipping into second place as "ridiculous."
"I mean, what is my competition, in all fairness? I mean, I am second," he told an audience of about 2,400 supporters. "It's not, like, terrible. But I don't like being second. Second is terrible to me."
Meanwhile, the Economist/YouGov poll showed a deep divide among Republican and Democratic voters. Republicans favour foreign policy topics such as the fight against the Islamic State and the nuclear arms agreement with Iran.
Democrats, on the other hand, say what matters more are domestic issues such as gun violence, campaign finance reform, climate change and economic inequality.
The Economist/YouGov poll was conducted Oct. 23-27 of 2,000 adults nationwide over 18 years of age. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
