Detailed interviews with a dozen Republicans who watched the presidential candidates’ debate confirmed a spike in support for former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, suggested that Jeb Bush made no progress and uncovered emerging doubts about Donald Trump, even among his supporters, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Quite honestly, I don’t think he wants it that bad,” retired insurance agent John O. Green of La Mesa is quoted as saying of Bush. “It’s like he’s going through the motions.”
According to Green, Fiorina’s command of the stage showed she could “annihilate” Hillary Rodham Clinton in a debate. He was torn between Fiorina and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, the Times reported.
“She was just so awesome,” he told the Times. “Her mind is so quick, so facile. And she has facts. Boom. Boom. Boom.”
Trump has characterized Hewlett-Packard under Fiorina as a “disaster” in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
That doesn’t bother Fiorina supporter Chris Elliott, a florist, who told the Times, “I don’t have any uncomfortable feelings about her getting kicked out at HP.”
“I’m tired of the Bushes, and I don’t think Bush has the oomph to get us there,” Ben Carson supporter Corky Frye of Murrieta is quoted as saying.
Park Cockerill, a retired teacher who lives in La Cresecenta, backed Trump before the debate but changed his mind after watching Trump quarrel with multiple rivals and has switched to Rubio, the Times reported.
“I don’t like the name calling,” he told the Times. He was thankful that Trump forced immigration to the top of the campaign agenda.
Rene Marcaux, a U.S. Naval Sea Cadet Corps commander who lives in Westminster, remains a Trump supporter, although she was reported to have been left uneasy by his responses on foreign affairs questions.
“I’d like to see a little more depth to him,” she told the Times. “He’s entertaining, but if he’s going to really go for it, he needs to step up and start producing.”
—City News Service