The Winner? Marco Rubio

The GOP debate last night was great without Trump. I even enjoyed the early debate--all of the candidates are "right on." I understand that Trump raised $6 million for wounded veterans...time well spent.

Sunshine State News says that Rubio was a "winner."

Marco Rubio: The U.S. senator from Florida is always best when he's swinging at Barack Obama and the Republicans' opposition in this race, not at his debate opponents -- though he did score a major point against Ted Cruz, saying Cruz is prepared to do or say anything in order to get votes."We're not going to beat Hillary Clinton with someone who will do or say anything to win an election," he said. In fact, even though he was momentarily on the defensive, caught in a flip-flop, Rubio did plenty of the right thing Thursday night.

The audience roared when he took hard shots at Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, saying Hillary's first act as president may be to pardon herself over her email scandals; and Sanders "is a good candidate to be president ... of Sweden." More laughter. Also, according to Google Trends monitored during the debate, Marco Rubio has the best plan to defeat ISIS, grabbing 30 percent of Googlers, compared to Ted Cruz's 23 percent and Donald Trump's 16 percent.

On immigration, he said his No. 1 priority will be to keep ISIS out of America. He would enforce e-verify, build a fence and employ more border agents, but he says he isn't going to deport 12 million people. "Securing our borders is not anti-immigrant," he said. The Iowa audience, if not Ted Cruz, reacted warmly to his response. Rubio desperately wants to come in no further down the list than third in Iowa. It was good timing for probably his best debate.

Read more... at Sunshine State News.< br />

Eric Erickson said, "The intentional winner of the Fox News debate was Marco Rubio. He had a really good debate. He was substantive and sharp, clear and polished. He came across as likable. He came across as someone who knows foreign policy."