from Bill Still
Donald Trump won – again in Republican Debate #11 last night in Detroit, Michigan.
As of 8 am, Trump led in all post-debate polls. Trump’s dominance befuddled his critics again because both Cruz and Rubio launched well rehearsed, blistering attacks against the front runner time and time again.
The Drudge poll – typically the largest – gave Trump 58% of over 325 thousand votes cast –a 34% lead over second place Ted Cruz who got 24% of the vote. John Kasich was third with 13% and Marco Rubio dead last with less than 5%.
Notable in the polling after this, the next-to-last Republican Presidential candidate debate, is that Marco Rubio finished dead last in every poll, Ted Cruz placed third in all but two polls, and John Kasich came out with his strongest debate yet, and finished in second place in the majority of polls.
Even the most Cruz-friendly poll, Glenn Beck’s The Blaze, gave Trump 52% – a 17 point lead over Cruz who managed 35%, with Kasich third at 8% and Little Marco bringing up the rear again at only 5%.
Since the debate was held in Detroit, let’s look at the hometown newspaper, the Detroit News: Trump 85%, followed by Kasich 10%, then Cruz at 4% and little Marco bringing up the rear again with his worst performance of the debates at less than 2%.
New Jersey dot com shows Trump at 64%, Kasich second with 18, Cruz with 8, and little Marco at 6.5%
The Right Scoop showed the same pattern: Trump 71, Cruz, 14, Kasich 11, and Rubio trailing with only 3%
Heavy showed Trump at 66%, Kasich 20%, Cruz 8% and little Marco at 6%.
The Wall Street Journal; Trump 58, Kasich 19, Cruz 13, and Rubio 10.
Focus group guy Frank Luntz noted Rubio’s plummet and Kasich’s rise.
[insert Luntz tweet]
“The longer this goes, the higher Kasich climbs and the lower Rubio sinks with my focus group.”
Twitter gains showed the same pattern.
[insert Twitter gains]
Trump dominated Twitter, followed by Kasich, Cruz, and little Marco dead last.
[insert Talk Time]
A new talk-time graphic showed that Trump got clearly more talk time this debate as compared to the others.
Perhaps the most interesting new metric was provided by Google Trends, which measured minute-by-minute Google search rankings.
[insert Google Trends all]
You can go to this URL and search your state, or even what issues were searched throughout the debate. Not surprisingly, the number one issue searched throughout the debate was immigration, and the second most-searched was ISIS. Candidates take note.
[Insert Delegate Count – The Telegraph]
Here is the current delegate count, according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump leading with 329, Cruz with 231, Rubio with 110, and Kasich with 25.
To sum up debate #11, according to Dylan Matthews, writing for Vox:
“At this point, the three non-Trumps are basically kamikaze pilots.”
“Realistically, the GOP nomination will either go to Donald Trump outright, or be decided in a brokered convention. For the latter to happen, each of the remaining candidates has to keep campaigning and win a few more states — knowing that there’s zero chance any of them becomes the nominee.”
And according to news this morning, yes, Mitt Romney is hoping against hope that this is the scenario that plays out because it is the only way he can jump into this race – something he apparently desperately wants to do.
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.