Arizona political experts see few fireworks in 4th GOP debate

PHOENIX — Valley conservative political expert Stan Barnes said it was a good night for most of the Republicans onstage during Tuesday’s presidential candidates’ debate.

The fourth debate between the hopefuls chasing the 2016 GOP nomination was held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

“All of them held their ground and each had their moments,” Barnes said.

“It was also interesting that the candidates uniformly took serious shots at Hillary Clinton, now that she’s solidified her role as the future Democratic nominee. There was a lot of that, which is a newer thing for Republicans.”

Barnes once again was less than impressed with the performance of Jeb Bush.

“If you’re reaching for nonwinner in the debate, it might be Bush. He’s suffering from a lot of negative attention and is in serious need of a breakout moment. He has yet to deliver that moment. He didn’t do poorly but he didn’t hit any home runs.”

KTAR political expert Mike O’Neil predicted Rand Paul will be the next man out of the race.

“He was on life support to begin with and it’s not that he did horribly,” O’Neil said. “He’s teetering on the edge and didn’t do anything to reverse that.”

O’Neil also saw nothing from Bush to restart his campaign and gave the night’s strongest performances to Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

“Rubio is very smooth, very polished. Cruz is just red meat to the really angry ideologues. The real question is, can Rubio become the next real establishment candidate to pick up the support that Bush is losing?”

The next Republican debate will be in December.

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