Tonight’s GOP debate is the fifth of 2015, but it’s the first in which TV News talking heads have conceded the “unthinkable”: former reality-TV star Donald Trump could well the party’s nominee. He now is polling nationally at a commanding 41%, despite director Judd Apatow having dismissed him as being most like “the psycho girl” on The Bachelor.
Joining Trump in CNN’s primetime debate from the Venetian in Las Vegas: Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Chris Christie and Rand Paul.
Since the GOP candidates last debated on November 10, ISIS murdered 130 in Paris, its sympathizers killed 14 in San Bernardino, and jittery Los Angeles Unified School District officials today shuttered all of its schools after receiving an email threat.
In that environment, tonight’s debate is expected to clock a crowd that rivals the first GOP debate on Fox News Channel in August or the second on CNN in September — both of which attracted more than 23 million viewers.
It’s also the first debate in which Cruz has risen to the top of the pile, putting him in Trump’s line of fire. Not coincidentally, Trump last Sunday told FNC’s Chris Wallace that Cruz behaves “like a little bit of a maniac.”
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