CBS Republican Debate: Live Coverage

Gloves off. Trump calls Cruz the “single biggest liar.” Worth noting: Cruz hit Trump hard in an ad on the issue of eminent domain, also discussed in the debate. But that attack ad has been deemed partly false.

The political ad wars are heating up in South Carolina. Residents are seeing ads from Ted Cruz touting his legal record, from Marco Rubio attacking Hillary Clinton, and from Donald Trump — whose campaign has largely relied on media coverage as opposed to ads — attacking Cruz on immigration. A tool called the Political TV Ad Archive allows you to see the ads — here’s the Trump attack ad — plus how often they’ve aired and in which markets.

Cruz chose to make job creation the centerpiece of his response to a question on how to lift people out of poverty. U.S. workers have been hit by a one-two punch. Globalization means U.S. jobs are directly affected by offshoring, which Trump took on in his answer, and secondarily when our markets are responsive to other global financial indices, like China’s. Second, disruptive innovation by tech companies often includes automation, with some companies creating wealth rather than jobs and leading some analysts to posit there will be a “jobless future.” (Others vehemently disagree with that thesis.)