# Miami GOP Debate 3/10/2016 **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [March 11, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613 "2016-03-11T02:33:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/1 "2016-03-11T02:33:01Z")
News that Ben Carson will endorse Trump tomorrow morning was breaking in the hours before the debate. Reince Priebus, who’s name qualifies him to be an intelligent undead nemesis in any good d and d campaign, gave a weird announcement before the beginning of the debate that basically amounted to saying “what potential fatal party schism?” with a shrug, and “oh, we are going to come together and support whoever get’s chosen as the nominee, I don’t know why anyone would say otherwise, what are you talking about?” Half an hour in and the candidates are being very civil so far, in comparison to everything else I have seen between them. I wonder if they made some sort of pact to stay away from the Tiny Hands Donald and Little Marco Pee-Pants stuff, in order to start the party realignment and coalescence that will have to happen of they are going to beat Clinton. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/2 "2016-03-11T02:39:45Z")
Cruz just actually said that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act led to the Depression. Og, when is that stupid meme going to die?! ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/3 "2016-03-11T02:46:41Z")
Trump is the best. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/4 "2016-03-11T02:49:30Z")
> [@truthSeeker2](#): > > Trump is the best. Best asshole, I agree. Though it’s a close race there. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/5 "2016-03-11T02:53:53Z")
Where’s the mudslinging? Where’s the dick length comparisons? 🙂 Actually, this may be the best GOP debate of the season. They’re actually talking about issues. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/6 "2016-03-11T02:58:48Z")
Trump was just now talking sense about Israel and Palestine. (Just before he promised to scrap the Iran nuclear deal.) ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/7 "2016-03-11T03:01:53Z")
Wow. These guys got a serious talking to before this debate. They’re acting like the kids who got in trouble with the principal who are being good for the next school day or two. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/8 "2016-03-11T03:09:04Z")
Rubio just shouted out Bernie due to their cooperation on a Veteran Administration bill Rubio was bragging about. ---
**Author:** ![raventhief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/raventhief/32/4_2.png) [@raventhief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/raventhief)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/9 "2016-03-11T03:09:25Z")
I was expecting fireworks. None so far. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/10 "2016-03-11T03:20:57Z")
> [@raventhief](#): > > I was expecting fireworks. None so far. Just wait. Racism is an issue, Trumpy is in the room… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/11 "2016-03-11T03:23:41Z")
After the last few debates, the only place left to escalate was into straight up fisticuffs. So I guess it makes sense they’re trying to keep things calm. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/12 "2016-03-11T03:23:45Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Cruz just actually said that the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act led to the Depression. Og, when is that stupid meme going to die?! Um, when it stops being true? Or at least partially true? You can’t pin the depression on one single factor, but the Smoot-Hawley tariff certainly contributed to the downturn. After its passage U.S. trade exports and imports dropped by over 50%. If you think that was a good thing, I suggest a refresher course in basic economics. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/13 "2016-03-11T03:36:06Z")
I can’t help staring constantly at Trump’s comb-over. At what point does he not have enough to, well, comb over? It’s so thin you can see right thru it. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/14 "2016-03-11T03:38:10Z")
The moderator asked Cruz about the fisticuffs happening at Trump rallies, and Cruz responded by accusing Obama of acting like an emperor. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/15 "2016-03-11T03:41:37Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Um, when it stops being true? Or at least partially true? > > You can’t pin the depression on one single factor, but the Smoot-Hawley tariff certainly contributed to the downturn. After its passage U.S. trade exports and imports dropped by over 50%. If you think that was a good thing, I suggest a refresher course in basic economics. It is worrisome to note here that Trump wants to do virtually the same, to press for tariffs against nations like China and other punitive measures to force companies to “bring jobs back”. It is no wonder that experts are worried about Trump too. > **[Trump trade plans could cause global recession: Experts](https://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/trump-trade-plans-could-cause-global-recession-experts.html)** > > Even those saying GOP front-runner Donald Trump has rightly diagnosed a problem with U.S. trade policies are wary of his prescriptions. > [@](#): > > Even if the welfare of the rest of the globe is excepted, such a tax on goods imported from China would “tremendously” hurt the poor by jacking up the prices on many of the products they most frequently use, said Caroline Freund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. > > But extreme tariffs would also hurt American manufacturing — the very sector that Trump says he seeks to bolster — by raising the prices on production inputs sourced from abroad. Steel from China, for example, would become significantly more expensive for more U.S. firms, Freund said. > > “So many U.S. companies are deeply involved in global supply chains: I can’t even imagine what that would look like with high tariffs,” she said. > > Expanding the economic view to the global level, experts said Trump’s strong measures would likely start an international trade war that cripples everyone involved. One argument economists make is that high tariffs on goods from a country like China will lead to an oversupply of products unable to be sold in the U.S., so those goods will go for even cheaper than normal in other countries, and those countries will then respond with tariffs of their own. The end result is high prices around the world, and a slowdown in international growth — or even an outright recession. > > Some countries might raise taxes on American goods just as a reaction to a more isolationist economic policy, experts said. > > “If you take (Trump’s) position as real, that we would do this, then it would take the world down the road that we saw in the 1930s that we saw with the Smoot–Hawley Tariff,” Freund said. “The world would definitely fall into a recession.” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/16 "2016-03-11T03:56:03Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > It is worrisome to note here that Trump wants to do virtually the same, to press for tariffs against nations like China and other punitive measures to force companies to “bring jobs back”. It is no wonder that experts are worried about Trump too. > > [Trump trade plans could cause global recession: Experts](http://www.cnbc.com/2016/03/10/trump-trade-plans-could-cause-global-recession-experts.html) Totally agree. The effect of a trade war would be devastating - much worse than the original Smoot Hawley tariff. The world is economically globalized now, and you can’t stop trade without destroying domestic production as well. A domestic car can have electronics from Japan, a transmission from germany, Steel fromChina or South Korea, software from india or Canada, tires with rubber from South America, upholstery from Italy, and on and on. Only the final assembly makes it ‘American’, unless of course it was assembled in Canada or Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/17 "2016-03-11T12:46:53Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > Wow. These guys got a serious talking to before this debate. They’re acting like the kids who got in trouble with the principal who are being good for the next school day or two. Boy, it sure seemed that way, didn’t it? But everything I’ve seen and read in the past has not led me to believe that the party has that kind of power. So despite appearances, I still have to wonder if it was instead just individual decisions on the part of candidates and their advisors. Drumpf of course had the most obvious reason to cool it down: to try to, if not stop the Stop Drumpf chorus, at least bring it down to a dull roar. Rubio said he and his family felt embarrassed when he got down in the gutter, and of course he hasn’t done well since. I actually enjoyed his mudslinging mode, but I can understand why he took a different tack. And Cruz was really about the same as always. He hit Drumpf on being too liberal and supporting Democrats like he has in past debates. It seemed different only because Drumpf didn’t rise to the bait and get nasty and interrupt-y in his usual way. Speaking of Cruz, [TPM](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/trump-moves-to-close-the-deal) had some good insights on his performance: > [@](#): > > Cruz is a consummate bullshit artist. But on his hand-raising gyre, shifting from Trump’s heil-hand-raising rallies to raising his own hand at his inauguration next January, that was some quality bullshit. No question. There’s a certain earnest, unironic and treacly sentimentality that is like mother’s milk for traditionalist American conservatives - think Ronald Reagan, embodying an American eagle, on a flag background, on a blue sky. Cruz was deep in that groove tonight and I think he helped himself. I wonder what it’s like to enjoy that kind of treacly and tacky stuff completely unironically. I cannot imagine it whatsoever. And I think this is a big part of what makes many conservatives so angry, that we elitist liberals are sneering at them and their jingoistic sentimentality. They might be more gentle in some respects if they were blissfully unaware that anyone would even dream of laughing at that kind of thing. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/miami-gop-debate-3-10-2016/748613/18 "2016-03-11T12:59:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I can’t help staring constantly at Trump’s comb-over. At what point does he not have enough to, well, comb over? It’s so thin you can see right thru it. When someone with Trump’s money and ego decides that’s the best he can do, it paints a grim picture of the current state of hair replacement technology. ☹