CNBC Republican debate

Best debate ever.

I still think it is the best debate I've ever seen. Excellent responses all around.

Chris Christie is doing surprisingly well. I don't like him but I must admit he is practiced and appealing.

CHRISTIE: I don't see a lot of weakness on this stage, quite frankly. Where I see the weakness is in those three people that are left on the Democratic stage. You know, I see a socialist, an isolationist and a pessimist. [trained pause as we visualize the trio and match them] And for the sake of me, I can't figure out which one is which.

Fiorina gave a very solid defense of her record at Hewelett Packared CNBC's Becky Quick who cited by name the individual Fiorina only mentioned she had a dispute and who fired her, and who later remarked he was mistaken and that Fiorina performed excellently shouldn't have been fired. Quick, having interviewed the president who fired Fiorina knows the man says a lot of strange things, thinking this her zinger for the night she listed a few. Fiorina said, "thus our disagreements."

Ted Cruz, instead of answering a question directly, quickly summarized the questions asked each candidate to that point, all common liberal attacks and nothing of substance, the same things discussed on right-wing sites as well, pointing out the obvious media bias contrasted with tongue bath of Democrat debate.

Candidates are demanding they're allowed to finish.

Rand Paul, somewhat disgusted.
John Kasich much more aggressive than before.

Uh oh, talking about marijuana now in Boulder. Kasich blowing it, switches subjects.

Each candidate gets so little time they feel they have to spill it all out at once. It doesn't work well for most who each get into blabber battle with moderator trying to corral them, more interested in time management than in having a coherent message completed. Carson handles this very well. CNBC's Carl Quintanilla asked Carson a bogus question regarding his board associations mentioning one place where he only gave paid speeches. Quintanilla defended his question, time's up, audience boo's Carson says, "They know" and the audience erupts, yes, everyone there is aware of bias so obvious that is simply cannot be disguised by the lines of questions asked by them and the audience erupted applauding.

The candidates are doing very well, I think. They're representing a vigorous party. They're all doing well at addressing liberal bias inherent in questioning, "Don't you think government must do _____ (anything reasonable). Fiorina delivers great conservative position statements, moderators with few exceptions as it goes on, appear impervious to responses, more move on to the next item and less follow up as when listening.

Even Jeb seems reasonable and somewhat attractive. I'm impressed.

They're getting applause for contrasting with Hillary and with Democrats and with establishment Washington. There is a great exchange of ideas, two very separate approaches for addressing entitlements from Huckabee and from Christie both defended by various candidates. It's showing a lot of vigor and a good deal of intelligence and grasp. These are my perceptions so far. The thing is still going. Please comment.