And the Winner is!

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Watching the last Republican Presidential Debate of 2015 in Las Vegas, one theme was common among all the candidates, well almost all, which was being tough and getting rid of bad guys, such as ISIS, President Bashir Al Assad of Syria, and confronting President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

The Candidates could not wait long enough to outbid each other on toughness. The lack of depth of understanding and rationality for their responses were astonishing and disturbing.

Mr. Donald Trump:

As usual Mr. Trump had nothing substantive to say, except that he is great and he will make America great again. No one has ever asked him if America is not the greatest country now, then which country is. They way Mr. Trump talks about the USA is as if the USA is the lowest country in terms of military power, prestige, economy, and wealth. In fact the USA is the most powerful military force on earth with the largest economy in the world and controls much of the world politics as well as the economy.

Mr. Trump wanted to spend more money to make the US military force strong again. One wonders how much stronger should US military be? The reason the US is not successful in the current war fares and has not been successful in the past couple of decades of wars, is just because of its size and its vastness. USA has the most sophisticated weapons ever invented and manufactured, she has the fastest and most sophisticated fighter planes in the world and has the largest fleet of battle ships, aircraft carriers in the world along with the largest military budget on earth. What else does US military need in order to be great again?

United States spends more on military than the total budget of military expenditure of the next ten largest countries on earth. By some accounts US military expenditure exceeds the rest of the world military expenditure combined.

Saying, if I am elected, I make the US military strong and great again is just talk and feel good statements, not mentioning that it is misrepresentation of facts.

Mr. Trump continued with his tough rhetoric against the ISIS, the Russians, Syria and anyone else that the US may not be friend with. Mr. Trump has never presented any concrete and clear plan of action for any issues, where domestic or foreign. He just says that he is great and will make America great again. Wow!!! What a great leader?!

Ms. Carly Fiorina:

Ms. Fiorina, again reminded the audience that she will beat Ms. Hillary Clinton and will be a great president. Never mind that Ms. Fiorina failed miserably on her Senatorial campaign against Senator Barbara Boxer of California few years ago. An election that she could not win in her home state. Now she claims that she can win a national election against a well-known, very popular individual such as Ms. Hillary Clinton who has years of experience in domestic as well as foreign politics. Ms. Hillary Clinton, not only was a very successful attorney in Kansas, she was for eight years first lady of State of Kansas, then held the position of the US First Lady for another eight years, then became US Senator for another eight years and finally the US Secretary of States for another four years. Ms. Fiorina’s claim to fame is that she held the position of CEO at Hewlett Packard for few years where she was forced to resign, which in reality she was fired for her poor performance. She had never held any other position of importance before or after Hewlett Packard job.

Ms. Fiorina keeps making false and outrageous claims and sounds the drums of war even before she has been elected to any position of power. She believes that the only way she could show her strength is through war mongering and being tough on President Vladimir Putin. So far she has managed to incite people with her false and unsubstantiated claims such as attacking the Planned Parenthood. Ms. Fiorina has shown no substance of any degree at all.

Governor John Kasich:

Although Governor Kasich has made some reasonable and balanced arguments and has brought some sense of reason into the debate, but in his last debate, he felt that he must show that he is as tough as the rest of the candidates and made some tough, but shallow claims against the ISIS, Syria and Iran. Never mind that Iran is the biggest ally of the US in fight against ISIS in Iraq. In fact Iran is the only Moslem country who is spending blood and treasure in fighting ISIS without being ever attacked by ISIS and doing the ground work for the USA, where the US forces have refused to be, that is on the ground. The US fight against ISIS has only been limited to air attack by drones and bombers.

Governor Kasich has not showed the type of leadership that impresses the voters and attracts votes. In all likelihood Governor Kasich will be fading out soon.

Governor Chris Christy:

There goes another gun ho and ready to shoot and kill candidate. Governor Christy also talked tough and was willing to start the third world war with Russia over Syria and Iraq, should Russia violate the No Flight Zone area. Never mind that the air space belong to Syria and Iraq and USA has no business to declare no flight zone on other countries’ air space. Governor Christy said that he would not hesitate to shoot down a Russian air plane if Russia violates no flight zone area. He did not mention that he would give a warning or talk to Russia about if first, he said that he would shoot down the plane. Of course Governor Christy is either forgetting or does not know that Russia is not a small potato and they have sophisticated fighter jets and the second largest Nuclear power in the world.

Shooting a Russian plane down in that part of the world means start of a major conflict which could easily end up to be the Third World War, but this one with Nuclear bombs which could mean end of the world as we know it. How reckless of leader could Governor Christy be?

Senator Marco Rubio:

Senator Rubio is another young gun and would love to get to the White House and start ordering planes flying, ships sailing, and soldiers landing all over the world in the name of defending the United States and keeping the homeland safe from enemies without ever thinking the ramifications of his actions.

He wanted to make sure that he was not falling behind on being tough on the US enemies, never mind that some of these countries are not US enemies at all such as Syria. There is truly no business for the US attacking the Syria not now and not before.

Senator managed to dodge the question about immigration and diverting his response to issue that was not the subject of the question asked. Of course in fairness to Senator Rubio, he was not the only one to do so.

Senator Rubio has learned and improved his debate skills and undoubtedly he was a better debater than before, the given the vacuum of logics from his statements and blindly sounding the drums of war made his debate ineffective. Of course for some of the audience at the debate hall his statements sounded great and he received applause for his toughness.

Senator Ted Cruz:

He is the man to be afraid of, Senator Cruz is very sleek in his tactics. No wonder he is the most disliked Senator in the House of Senate. He is very much disliked among even Republican Senators. He also sounded tough in dealing with US enemies, but was more tactful and used some more reasons. For example he was not interested and in fact against overthrow of President Bashir Al Assad of Syria, as he correctly argued that removing President Assad would bring a more fanatical and radical faction in power.

Although in private gathering Senator Cruz had criticized Mr. Trump, but when he was asked to challenge Mr. Trump during the debate, he dodged the questions and refused to do so. It seems that he is trying to be selected as the running mate of Mr. Trump. He has realized that Mr. Trump will win the Republican nomination and why not to be on his good side so to be elected as running mate.

Mr. Trump also might have realized this fact and was soft on Senator Cruz. If Mr. Trump is elected as the nominee of the GOP party, then having Senator Cruz as his running mate could help him for two reasons if not more. First, Senator Cruz brings in legislative experience and legal experience given that he is a lawyer and for many years he was the law clerk for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Rehnquist. Second, Senator Cruz is popular among the evangelists and could bring more votes. It is also good not to have everyone on the podium as his enemy and attacking him.

Former Governor Jeb Bush:

Governor Bush who has suffered tremendously in the polls and has fallen way behind in the polls tried hard to make an impression by sounding tough and strong and attacking Mr. Trump. Unfortunately for Governor Bush, he carries a baggage which is that of Bush name and in particular being brother of forty second president, Mr. George W. Bush. Defending his brother’s foreign and domestic policies are the biggest mistakes that Governor Bush has made. During President George W. Bush, the United States suffered the most horrific era. The Presidency of George W. Bush started with the most tragic terrorists attack on the World Trade Center and ended with bankrupting the United States and major economic, financial, and real estate crash since the great depression. There is nothing good could be said about the presidency of the George W. Bush. For Governor Jeb Bush defending his brother’s policies is putting nails on the coffin of his presidential candidacy.

Governor Jeb Bush could be a reasonable candidate, but he must sound tough and act tough in order to impress the same voters as the rest of the candidates are going after and by doing so, he loses his originality and reasonableness. As stated earlier defending his brother’s policies does not help at all.

For whatever reason, Governor Bush has not been able to pull himself ahead of the pack and has fallen behind and keeps falling behind. Soon he may have to throw the towel if he does not improve his polling numbers. At the beginning he seemed to be the shoe in for the nomination, but as other individuals joined the presidential campaign, in particular Mr. Trump, then Governor Bush suffered and fell behind. Although it may be premature to write him off as the history has shown that those where were ahead at the beginning of the campaign were kicked out during the latter part of the campaign. If Governor Bush could remain in the race, then his luck may change as others quit the race.

Dr. Benjamin Carson:

Dr. Carson has proven to be a disgrace to the medical profession. Everyone has always said that the doctors are the intelligent and smart groups. But listening to Dr. Carson and his idiotic logics, one wonders how ever became a doctor and a neurosurgeon.

His fanatical and shallow thinking is beyond belief. He also wants to be very tough on the US enemies, again never mind that these groups or countries are not really the US enemies, but the hostilities created by the US intervention and interference in other countries’ affairs.

During the debate he was asked that if he would be willing to order the military to drop bombs on cities that are controlled by the ISIS and in the results killing thousands of innocent children, he responded in indirect way positively. For a doctor who had taken the oath of saving lives he would be so willing to kill thousands of innocent children and others so easily is beyond imagination. He tried to cover his response by stating that when he was doing brain surgery he would tell the children that he had to cut them up and they would hate him for that, but at the end he would have to do what needed to be done. He failed to realize the brain surgery is done to save lives, bombing innocent people is not saving any lives, but destroying lives.

Dr. Carson for a short while enjoyed becoming second in some polls and in a few for a very limited time even took the first place from Mr. Trump. Fortunately, now days he is third or fourth in many polls.

Dr. Carson’s evangelical views and beliefs did not help him. For a while it was thought that he might be running for another reason, but for the White House for the way he was talking and using the biblical texts. That belief may still be true. It is hard to imagine Dr. Carson occupying the White House. If that day comes, may God help America.

Senator Rand Paul:

Senator Rand Paul surprisingly was the MOST logical and reasonable candidate among the group. He never showed any eagerness to attack any group or countries in the name of defending the US. He was well balanced in his argument and incorporated much sound reason for his views. He managed to bring out the costs of wars and what the other candidate, in particular Governor Chris Christy’s views on war with Russia.

Senator Paul was calm and used logics when making statements. He was not there to impress the audience with toughness and machoism, but showed how an effective leader should act and be. Unlike other candidates who were so eager to show how tough they could be and how much pro military they are, Senator Paul showed maturity and wisdom and cost/benefit analysis of actions offered by the other candidates.

It was heartening to hear applauses for Senator Paul every so often. That gave hope that not everyone in the Republican Party has lost his sense of logic and reason.

Undoubtedly the winner of this debate was Senator RAND PAUL. Job well done.