I watched the entire GOP presidential debate, and I firmly believe that 7 of the 17 candidates are really strong and can most certainly beat Hillary (with two L's) Clinton.

Well, if the focus group Fox does during the debates is accurate, Trump lost about half of his support after just one night. Not too surprising since most of his answers were the same old platitudes and generic answers aimed at ginning up the base. Of course, once we get to the debates they get to contrast the platitude givers to people with actual plans and ideas. According to that focus group, Cruz seems to have gotten a few new supporters. So, I'm glad about how this is playing out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IYpb38IpYA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HxZMQIIgqc

yeah there we go.

This is fox. Trump never had a chance as a top contendor.

Might as well read sonyfanboy.com for xbox news.

perry should watch more children tv....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc3xTj3g9QQ
there was no president raven...

He never did, anyway.  After people got over the "he says what's on his mind and I like that" mentality, they would start looking into his actual views, or the fact he has changed parties at least 6 times. 

my takeaways:

- Trump looks/sounds bad on stage. i think when he's off on his own people look at him more as a celebrity but when he's actually on stage next to professional politicians his outrageousness and offensiveness comes out more and it made him look bad. the Fox focus group seems to support that, although it's best not to place much faith in that. (They implied a blowout for Romney in '12)

- Rubio performed well. he didn't exactly stand out (except for the his comment on Hillary) but all of his answers (except for the whole abortion one which is apparently murky in terms of whether it was true or not) were very concise  and smooth.

- Bush actually screwed some of his questions up really badly. the question on the company that donated to Planned Parenthood or whatever he gave an amazingly awful answer on and so far i haven't seen any media really pick up on it. he seems to be a pretty poor "under pressue" speaker.

- i was surprised that Rand came on stage ready to fight with everybody. he made himself seem like a loudmouth hothead in this debate.

- Christie and Huckabee both performed better than my expectations.

- Kasich delivered some very good answers.

- Walker and Carson are both so boring, i can't for the life of me understand their appeal. Carson is sometimes a good speaker and has an interesting voice to listen to but otherwise i don't understand the hype.

- Amazed that there was no question on facing Hillary in the general election.

- Walker's answer on abortion was lunatic, so sad how it's considered not unusual to have a view like that in the GOP.

- Cruz and Carson both got pretty bad questions. a shame given that Cruz is an excellent debater. i have no idea why "do you support sanctuary cities" is a question in a Republican debate and especially why they would give that question to one of the most conservative candidates there?

lol ted cruz is such a clown... yeah we kill all those terrorist, thats how we win... is this guy retarded?

and paul has atleast some principles...

just one thing, im not american, but i think if trump really becomes president we are going straight to WW3. this guy does neither have the intellect, political knowledge or empathy to handle todays global and national challenges. he will react with aggression to everyting and sustainable politics will seem like a dream from long forgotten days. i really hope the us citizens dont vote him.

there's a theory that's been put forth for a while now that Trump is actually a Democratic plant designed to derail the GOP primary and make the party look bad. with evidence being his previously (now supposedly revoked) liberal views and support/friendship with the Clintons.

i know that sounds crackpot and i'm not saying that's true but what if?