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Iowans see gains for Fiorina, Christie in GOP debate

Wednesday night’s free-for-all of a debate among 11 Republican presidential candidates opened several new lines of attack against front-runner Donald Trump — and proved that Carly Fiorina belongs on the big stage, Iowa political experts and observers said.

The second Re­pub­lic­an pres­id­en­tial de­bate cer­tainly de­livered on its prom­ise: The 11 can­did­ates on stage at­tacked one an­oth­er, and fre­quently, over the course of a three-hour slug­fest at the Ron­ald Re­agan Pres­id­en­tial Lib­rary in Cali­for­nia. That ad­ded up to a good night for a hand­ful of the pres­id­en­tial hope­fuls. For oth­ers, it’s one they’d rather for­get.

It can be dangerous to predict how the polls will move in response to debates. On the one hand, journalists and political pundits don’t have so much in common with the Republican voters who are watching the debates at home. On the other hand, the post-debate narratives and “spin” sometimes matter more than what happened on the debate stage itself.

Lady and the Trump

In a race that lately has turned on who is the most convincing outsider, Carly Fiorina staked a forceful claim on Wednesday night that a political newcomer need not be full of bluster and loose facts to make a mark.

GOP insiders: Carly crushed it

Carly Fiorina nailed it in the second Republican debate.

That’s the assessment of GOP insiders in a special edition of the POLITICO Caucus, our weekly survey of the top operatives, activists and strategists in Iowa and New Hampshire.

The GOP debate: 6 takeaways

Carly Fiorina — the lone woman among 10 male GOP candidates onstage — was very nearly excluded from the second debate of 2016 at the Reagan Library. Donald Trump probably wishes she had been.