No clear front-runner after first GOP debates

On a raucous Thursday night in Cleveland, 17 Republican presidential candidates took the same stage where one of them likely will accept the GOP nomination for the presidency next summer.

But after they sparred in a pair of debates at the Quicken Loans Arena for more than a combined 150 minutes, it remained unclear whether a single candidate has emerged as a true front-runner.

Still, as several underdogs reminded debate watchers: It’s early.

Indeed, at this moment during the last presidential campaign, Republican Fred Thompson—who briefly took the lead in polls in 2008 contests—hadn’t declared his candidacy yet. And then-Sen. Barack Obama seemed like a long-shot for the Democratic nomination.

If the first Republican debates didn’t produce a clear front-runner, they may have deflated the notion Donald Trump can continue to lead the pack, despite polls showing the business mogul in the No. 1 spot.

Trump’s uneven debate performance culminated with the billionaire admitting he has given lots of money to Democratic politicians—and supported some of their most liberal policies—because they do everything he asks.

“I give to everybody,” Trump said about contributions to politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton. “When they call, I give. And do you know what? When I need something from them two years later, three years later, I call them, they are there for me. … And that’s a broken system.”

In a pre-debate forum with the seven lowest-polling candidates, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina aimed at Trump’s pendulum-swinging positions on a number of issues.

“He is the party’s front-runner right now, and good for him,” she said. “I think he’s tapped into an anger that people feel. … I would also just say this, since he has changed his mind on amnesty, on healthcare, and on abortion … what are the principles by which he will govern?”

Several pundits declared Fiorina the winner of the pre-debate forum, where she went head-to-head with former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, Former New York Gov. George Pataki, and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore. Later that night, the top 10 candidates, based on the latest polls, met for the primetime show.

It’s one of the largest-ever slates of GOP primary candidates, and they competed for coveted air-time to describe how they would fix other broken parts of the U.S. system, including federal funding for Planned Parenthood, a still-struggling economy, a precarious foreign policy, and threatened religious liberty.

Candidates called for defunding Planned Parenthood in the wake of a series of disturbing videos revealing its practice of providing pieces of aborted babies to medical researchers.

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said it’s time to protect unborn children and not “rip up their body parts and sell them like they’re parts to a Buick.”

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz called on the Department of Justice to investigate Planned Parenthood, and vowed to continue the fight to end the group’s funding.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said future generations would “call us barbarians for murdering millions of babies and never getting them a chance to live.”

Pataki condemned Planned Parenthood, but struggled to defend his views as the only pro-abortion GOP candidate in the field.

Questions about gay marriage drew less air time, despite the monumental Supreme Court decision legalizing the practice less than two months ago.

Still, Santorum declared gay marriage wasn’t settled law: “This is a rogue Supreme Court decision.” And Jindal joined Cruz in saying he’d sign an executive order to defend religious liberty during his first day in office.

Rubio, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush—all polling directly behind Trump ahead of the debates—leveraged their political resumes to try to cast visions of their ability to lead the country.

Bush defended a path to legal status (though not citizenship) for immigrants living in the country illegally, and said he wanted to raise the U.S growth rate to 4 percent.

Walker noted his ability to win elections in a Democratic state. Rubio confidently spoke of economic proposals, and found ways to remind voters of the general election.

“God has blessed the Republican Party,” he said. “We have some very fine candidates; Democrats can’t even find one.”

All three candidates avoided contentious confrontations with Trump and others, and appeared determined to look more presidential than pugilistic.

Other candidates, lagging in the polls, waded into controversy: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul shared a heated exchange over national security. Paul defended his criticisms of the National Security Agency’s spying programs, while Christie said he was more interested in protecting innocent Americans.

Ben Carson, one of three non-politicians in the field, combined a low-key demeanor with a hawkish tone on foreign policy and interrogation techniques.

“There is no such thing as a politically correct war,” he said.

Carson fended off claims he wasn’t prepared to lead the country and said leadership experience comes from a variety of fields. As other candidates touted their political accomplishments, the famed neurosurgeon wryly noted: “I’m the only one to separate Siamese twins.”

Carson also noted he was “the only one to take out half a brain, but if you went to Washington you would think someone had beat me to it.”