After a long, torrid summer dominated by the outlandish figure of Donald Trump, the US Republican presidential race may have entered a new, more serious phase this week. Wednesday’s candidates’ debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California saw a number of Mr Trump’s rivals step up to expose his many deficiencies as a candidate. The real estate mogul and reality TV celebrity came off worse from most of the skirmishes and the consensus among conservative pundits was that he lost the debate.
Mr Trump owes his frontrunner status in the Republican field in large part to his successful presentation of himself as a political outsider who is unafraid to speak the unvarnished truth and is too rich to be beholden to special interests. His closest rival in the polls is another outsider, neurosurgeon Ben Carlson, a soft-spoken social conservative who has won broad support among evangelical Christian voters. It was a third outsider who presented the strongest challenge to Mr Trump on Wednesday – former Hewlett Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina, the only woman in the Republican race.
Mr Trump recently insulted Mrs Fiorina’s appearance, saying: “Look at that face! Would anybody vote for that?” and she made clear she was in no mood to forgive him. Dismissing Mr Trump as an “entertainer”, she told him pointedly that leadership was “not about braggadocio; it is about challenging the status quo, solving problems, producing results.” The candidates from the political establishment made less of an impression, although Florida senator Marco Rubio was effective on foreign policy and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker emerged briefly from the invisibility that has recently cloaked his campaign.
Mr Trump has until now turned every apparent gaffe and setback to his advantage but he appeared a diminished figure on Wednesday; just one aspiring politician among almost a dozen. If the debate marks the start of his decline in the polls, it will be good news for the Republican contest and for American politics more generally.