“HAMLET” without the prince—or perhaps, more aptly, a circus without its elephant, or a pantomime without its villain: without Donald Trump, the other Republican candidates essayed the odd internecine spat in their latest debate, in Des Moines, Iowa, but their hearts didn’t really seem in it. In that respect it was, as Mr Trump might have put it, a low-energy affair, the drama seeping from the marathon debate schedule (this was the seventh) even as the actual voting begins. But it did offer some potentially telling moments.
Fox News, the hosts, introduced a new tactic of confronting some of the candidates with clips of old remarks—a ruse that might have embarrassed Mr Trump had he turned up. In particular, both Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz had to face down evidence that their positions on immigration had evolved, albeit in opposite directions: Mr Rubio vowing to oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants then supporting it; Mr Cruz seeming to entertain it, but subsequently insisting that he never had. “You’ve been willing to say or do anything in order to get votes,” Mr Rubio told Mr Cruz, as the Texan senator—in Mr Trump’s...Continue reading
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