Republican Undercard Debate: Live Coverage

After CNBC’s fiasco (at least according to many observers), the Fox Business debate hosts promoted their debate as “the real debate on the economy.” So far, they’re keeping their promise (for the JV debate at least). A third of the way through, all questions have been on economic issues, two per candidate. Though Santorum, unsurprisingly, managed to find an opening to talk about incentivizing marriage.

Yeah, Chris Christie just attacked Hillary Clinton, as he has done before. Talk about knowing who your audience is. Clinton has just a 7 percent favorable rating to 90 percent unfavorable rating among Republicans, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released last week. That -83 percentage point net favorability rating is far below even the most unpopular Republicans.

I’m impressed at how consistently Christie has gone after Clinton, since the very first debate. It’s a no-brainer, as Nate points out, but I also think it shows he’s playing the GOP establishment game. He’s sending a signal to the donors and potential endorsers out there that he has his eye on a bigger prize. Much of the GOP establishment itself doesn’t love the direction that the primary process pulls candidates, and he may be catering to that frustration.