Image copyright Reuters 
 
 So this is what a Republican debate would have looked like in an alternate universe, where Donald Trump was still a reality show celebrity and a failed steak salesman. 
 
 With a few notable exceptions, all the candidates kept their balance and stayed on their talking points. It's as if the unconventional Trump's absence from the hall made everyone a bit more restrained and, well, political. 
 
 But this was still a debate, and every debate has winners and loser, so here they are. 
 
 Winners 
 
 Jeb Bush 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 Hello there, stranger, where have you been for the last 12 months? The former Florida governor is still not the most skilful debater, but without Trump around to constantly kick proverbial dirt in his eyes, he gave his best performance of the campaign. He practically admitted as much when he sarcastically noted that Trump was "a little teddy bear to me" and they "had such a loving relationship". 
 
 Best moment: When asked about a "culture of hatred" directed toward Muslims, he said: "We're never going to win elections unless we have a broader, unifying message". This was big-tent Bush, the kind of campaign he said he wanted to run but hasn't been able to. 
 
 Biggest stumble: It's perhaps telling that his worst moment was still pretty good. During the debate's biggest conflict, over immigration reform, he stood by his position on giving undocumented migrants a pathway to permanent residency. That probably won't help him with rank-and-file Republicans, but disavowing his previous stance wouldn't have either. 
 
 Chris Christie 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 Since being temporarily relegated to the undercard debate, the New Jersey governor has managed to string together several strong debate performances. He's a winner because, like Bush, he was best able to shine in Trump's absence. His forcefulness, whether talking about Hillary Clinton or national security, comes across in much sharper contrast when the New York billionaire isn't there to steal his thunder. 
 
 Best moment: The immigration portion of the debate was pivotal for many of the candidates, and it was tailor-made for Christie to contrast his executive experience as governor. After Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz struggled to explain their sometimes contradictory records on the issue in the Senate, Christie pounced: "I feel like I need a Washington to English converter" to understand Rubio and Cruz. He added that governors can't hide behind "parliamentary tricks". 
 
 Biggest stumble: Christie was asked about the Bridgegate scandal and, despite it hanging over his head all campaign, he simply doesn't have a convincing answer. His offering, "I knew nothing", is not what you want to hear from a man who brags about being a take-charge leader. 
 
 Donald Trump 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 If Trump loses the Iowa caucuses, his decision to skip this debate will likely be labelled a mistake. At least for now, however, it looks like he made it through the evening unscathed. Save for a few gentle jabs, he largely avoided attacks from the debaters and dodged the sharp questions from moderators that bedevilled other candidates. 
 
 Cruz and Rubio faced video clips of their past conflicting statements on immigration reform - and surely Fox had one ready to roll for Trump, as well. Instead, the New Yorker got to hold court at his own rally, carried live by other news networks, and was even joined on stage by fellow candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum. 
 
 Treading water 
 
 Marco Rubio 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 The Florida senator is never going to have a bad debate - he's just too polished for that. This was Rubio's weakest performance, however. He got bogged down with the immigration question, and his back-and-forth with Cruz on national defence was awkwardly sidetracked when he mentioned he had once accidentally mispronounced Dabiq (the propaganda magazine of the so-called Islamic State group) in Syria as Dubuque, a town in Iowa. 
 
 Best moment: Rubio scored his best line when, after a Cruz joke about leaving the debate if he kept being attacked fell flat, he quipped: "I'm not leaving this stage, no matter what you ask me." 
 
 Biggest stumble: Rubio was damaged the most by, of all people, Bush - the man who so feebly attacked him in an earlier debate. After Rubio tried to explain his past support for immigration reform, Bush went for the kill: "He cut and run because it wasn't popular amongst conservatives, I guess." Bush then contrasted Rubio's dissembling with his own willingness to stick with his principles. If Bush is going down based on his immigration position, he seems eager to pull Rubio into the abyss with him. 
 
 John Kasich 
 
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 Kasich didn't have a bad debate, but he was once again largely absent from the evening's biggest moments. As a current governor and former leader in Congress, he has a firm grasp of policy details, and it shows. If he's going to make a move in the next few weeks, however, there are a lot of bodies he'll have to climb over. He seems to have made the decision over the course of the past few debates that, win or lose, he's just not going to do that. 
 
 Best moment: Kasich was once again asked about his support for expanding federal Medicaid coverage for the poor in his state, an issue that is anathema to much of the conservative base. He turned it into a defence of his state's treatment of drug addicts and the mentally ill. "When I study scripture," he said, "I know that people who live in the shadows need to have a chance." 
 
 Biggest stumble: The one time Kasich was really forceful was when he got into a spat with moderators Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly. After several unsuccessful attempts to keep talking through their efforts to change the topic, he finally relented. "I've always listened to you, Megyn. Go ahead." 
 
 Rand Paul 
 
 Image copyright Getty Images 
 
 The Kentucky senator nearly merits being put in the winning column just because, after missing out on the prime-time debate earlier this month, his poll numbers got him back on the main stage. But, like Kasich, he simply lacked a breakthrough moment for a campaign that desperately needs one. He mixed it up with both Cruz and Rubio at times, but he failed to make any of his attacks stick - and it's unclear who he most needs to take down in order to succeed at this point. 
 
 Best moment: Paul finally had the opportunity to talk about criminal justice reform, an issue near to his heart. "The war on drugs has disproportionately affected our African-American community, and what we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African-American males," he said. It was a glimpse of the Rand Paul that many thought would flourish this campaign but has largely been absent. 
 
 Biggest stumble: Paul was asked about President Bill Clinton's past infidelities. He said that if a head of corporation had behaved similarly, he would have been fired, never again hired and "shunned in their community". A fact check would likely render that view false. 
 
 Losers 
 
 Ted Cruz 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 The Texas senator is touted as a championship-calibre debater, but he seemed off-balance almost the entire evening. He spent too much time complaining to the moderators about the tenor of their questioning and many of his planned one-liners were clunkers. Expectations were high for Cruz to dominate the proceedings without Trump on the stage, but it almost seemed as though he were lost without the man he's sparred with for the past few weeks. 
 
 Best moment: Cruz is against corn ethanol subsidies, which is a very unpopular position to have when you're vying for a win in the Iowa caucuses. Not surprisingly, he was asked about his stance, and he turned it into a defence of his tax plan. "I don't believe that Washington should be picking winners and losers," he said. "And, I think there should be no mandates, and no subsidies whatsoever." It may lose him votes in Iowa, but after being criticised by Paul earlier in the debate for his preference for political expediency, it was a principled stand. 
 
 Biggest stumble: Cruz complained when he wasn't given a chance to respond after being mentioned in one of Wallace's questions. "You don't get 30 seconds to respond to me," Wallace snapped. "Sir, I know you like to argue about the rules, but we're going to conduct a debate." And so it was that the sharpest burn of the night didn't come from a candidate. 
 
 Ben Carson 
 
 Image copyright AFP 
 
 It's hard to label Ben Carson a loser. At this point, he's a category unto himself. He referred to Russian President Vladimir Putin as a "one-horse country" and seemed surprised when he was asked about immigration. "Oh, great," he said to audience laughter. He ended the debate by reciting the preamble to the US Constitution, but messed up a word. He disappeared for vast stretches, and while in the past he's seemed to rise in the polls despite performances like this, he's now settled toward the bottom of the pack. 
 
 Best moment: "You're not going to hear a lot of polished political speech from me," he said in his opening remarks. Truer words have never been spoken. 
 
 Biggest stumble: Everything after that. ||||| DES MOINES, Iowa — There was no last minute change of heart from Donald Trump Donald John TrumpDems make history, and other takeaways from Tuesday's primaries Pawlenty loses comeback bid in Minnesota Establishment-backed Vukmir wins Wisconsin GOP Senate primary MORE, who held firm to his boycott of the Republican debate here on Thursday evening. 
 
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 Despite suggestions that Trump might appear in the end, he went ahead with a separate event about three miles away, where he was joined by fellow presidential candidates Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum fresh from their appearance at the earlier “undercard” debate. 
 
 That left the seven candidates on the main stage trying to outdo each other while also seeking to land some punches on a phantom: the absent Trump. 
 
 With just four days left before the Iowa caucuses, how did it all shake out? 
 
 WINNERS 
 
 Businessman Donald Trump 
 
 The GOP front-runner was taking a big gamble by declining to participate in the debate. If one of his rivals — especially Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzMellman: Two worlds — Online and off GOP pollster: Trump dominates political rivals vying for media attention Cruz challenger O'Rourke launching .27M TV ad buy focusing on 'positive' message MORE — had hit a few pitches out of the park, Trump’s absence could have seemed like an act of gross political negligence. 
 
 That didn’t happen. Cruz offered an indifferent performance. Marco Rubio Marco Antonio RubioDems make history, and other takeaways from Tuesday's primaries Establishment-backed Vukmir wins Wisconsin GOP Senate primary Florida questions Senate chairman over claim that Russians have ‘penetrated’ election systems MORE did better overall but struggled in one of the debate’s most memorable moments — a prolonged exchange over immigration reform. 
 
 In a more general sense, too, the debate was simply less compelling without Trump — love him or loathe him. 
 
 Co-moderator Megyn Kelly described the mogul in the debate’s opening moments as “the elephant not in the room,” and his absence loomed over the entirety of proceedings. 
 
 That will be just fine with him. 
 
 Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) 
 
 Rubio didn’t have any clear-cut breakout moment, but he had a better night than Cruz, which is strategically important for him. 
 
 Rubio’s appeal is rooted in his perceived strength as a general election candidate, and he made sure to target Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonDems make history, and other takeaways from Tuesday's primaries Establishment-backed Vukmir wins Wisconsin GOP Senate primary Ironworker and star of viral video wins Dem primary for Speaker Ryan's seat MORE and President Obama frequently. 
 
 He got in some jabs at Cruz that scored points, even if none of them were knockouts. On national security, for example, he said, "the only budget that Ted has ever voted for is a budget that Rand Paul Randal (Rand) Howard PaulRepublicans have spent .5 million at Trump properties since he took office: report Ex-Virginia GOP Senate candidate shares offensive voicemail allegedly left by Charlottesville rally organizer GOP leaders: No talk of inviting Russia delegation to Capitol MORE sponsored that brags about cutting defense spending." 
 
 On another occasion, after Cruz quibbled with moderators and then awkwardly joked that he would leave the stage if they continued with “mean” questions, Rubio said, “Don’t worry, I’m not leaving the stage no matter what you ask me.” 
 
 Rubio’s strong night came with a big asterisk, however. His efforts to defend himself on his key vulnerability — his past support for a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants — were far from sure-footed. He came off badly against Jeb Bush in particular. 
 
 Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 
 
 Bush supporters must rue the fact that it’s taken him so long to deliver on the debate stage. The former Florida governor has been on an upswing since his stumbling early showings, and he was more vigorous and relaxed than ever before on Thursday evening. 
 
 Bush still has his wonky moments — his argument that fiscally ailing Puerto Rico needs to undergo structural reform was not exactly red meat. 
 
 But his central allegation against Rubio’s approach to immigration reform — “you shouldn’t cut and run” — hit the mark. When Rubio sought to counter by saying that his fellow Floridian had changed his own position on the issue, a smiling Bush responded, "So did you." It was his single best moment. 
 
 Bush is so far behind in polls that his fate may be sealed. But it was a good night for him nonetheless. 
 
 MIXED 
 
 Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) 
 
 Cruz suffered no catastrophe, but the debate was a missed opportunity for him. 
 
 He seemed to struggle with the dynamic of being center-stage for the first time, and his tendency to quibble with the moderators is so pronounced that it plays to his disadvantage. 
 
 The crowd in general seemed resistant to Cruz’s charms, as some attack lines — and occasional attempts at levity — fell flat. 
 
 There is no reason to believe Cruz did anything to cause his chances to truly crater. But he is now almost 7 points behind Trump in the RealClearPolitics (RCP) polling average in Iowa. 
 
 He will need to depend on his ground game to overcome that deficit, because his performance on Thursday evening didn’t do the job. 
 
 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 
 
 Christie is a strong debater, and he showed that once again. 
 
 His basic strategy is now familiar — he highlights his experience as a governor and contrasts that with rivals who are members of Congress, whom he disparages as mere talkers. He also asserts his strength as a general election candidate. 
 
 There is nothing wrong with that strategy, and Christie executes it proficiently every time. The problem, however, is that its familiarity robs it of some of its power. There is also very little evidence that the New Jersey governor has catapulted himself into contention, even in New Hampshire, the state on which all his hopes seem to depend. 
 
 Still, his tendency to talk directly to voters rather than getting involved in what he disdainfully termed “parliamentary tricks” is a real strength. 
 
 Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.) 
 
 Paul’s campaign overall has been underwhelming, but this was one of his most effective debate performances. 
 
 Back on the main stage after sitting out the last clash rather than appear in the undercard debate, he underscored his differences with most of the rest of the field on policy issues. In one memorable example, he talked about the need for the GOP to be more responsive to issues of racial inequities in the criminal justice system. 
 
 He also got off some cutting personal jabs. His distaste for Cruz was clearly evident when he said of the Texan senator, “Everybody he knows is not as perfect as him.” 
 
 Paul is too far down in the polls to be resurrected. But this was a strong showing nevertheless. 
 
 LOSERS 
 
 Ohio Gov. John Kasich 
 
 Kasich’s ambitions are pinned on the idea that he can perform strongly in New Hampshire, which votes on Feb. 9. Kasich has recently been rising in the polls there and is now in third place. 
 
 He struggled to really make his presence felt at the debate, however, and some of his assertions — such as that there is “a Kasich lane” in this year’s GOP primary — came across as forced. He also appeared to suggest that the subject of encryption of communications is so inherently sensitive that it can barely be discussed in public. 
 
 Kasich’s supporters insist he is one of the most substantive contenders, but he also tends to offer up too many head-scratching moments on the debate stage. 
 
 Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson 
 
 Carson has been sinking in the polls and was almost invisible on Thursday evening. Huge stretches of the debate passed without him saying anything at all. His most memorable moment was a lengthy recitation of the preamble to the U.S. Constitution at the debate’s close. 
 
 It seems a very long time ago since Carson led the polling averages in Iowa. After Thursday night, the end could be near. ||||| Republican presidential candidates weighed in on immigration, the Islamic State, criminal justice reform and - of course - Donald Trump at the Fox News debate in Des Moines, Iowa on Jan. 28. (Sarah Parnass/The Washington Post) 
 
 Seven of the eight leading Republican presidential candidates gathered in Iowa on Thursday night for the seventh debate of the race. Donald Trump, the race's clear front-runner, was less than 10 miles away from the debate site — holding his own counter-rally after deciding not to participate for decidedly vague reasons. 
 
 I watched the whole thing. (We also annotated it!) Below is my take on the best and the worst from the night that was. 
 
 Winners 
 
 • Rand Paul: Maybe the senator just needed to take a debate off. After not making the main stage in the sixth debate (and refusing to appear in the undercard debate), Paul was a major player in this one. He showed off his trademark willingness to needle the other candidates — he went after Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz at various points — but also offered nuanced thoughts on racial profiling and abortion. This was the Paul whom many political observers — myself included — thought we might see in this campaign: A candidate willing and able to speak to issues his party has struggled to address in recent years. Too little, too late. But, at least he had a moment. 
 
 • Megyn Kelly: There has rarely been a debate moderator who has come under as much scrutiny as Kelly has during the course of this campaign. Despite all of that negative attention, Kelly showed on Thursday night why she is the face of Fox News. She was pointed, tough and well-versed on the issues. And, more important to me? She showed her sense of humor and a willingness to not take herself too seriously. That she performed so well with so many eyes on her speaks incredibly highly of her abilities. 
 
 • Jeb Bush: If you had any doubt about how much Donald Trump is in Bush's head, this debate should have cleared it up. The former Florida governor was, from the get-go, more relaxed and more forceful in this Trump-less debate than he has been in the previous six debates where Trump was included. He owned his family's political legacy unapologetically. He fought Rubio to a draw in an immigration back and forth. He regularly was the only candidate — aside from Paul — who answered the questions asked of him. Bush is still a somewhat (okay, very) awkward candidate — his halting closing statement was painful — who doesn't really like going on the attack. But, without Trump looming over him, Bush looked positively presidential. 
 
 • Video reels of past candidate statements: Fox ran video clips of both Rubio and Cruz saying things in the past that they have run away from in this campaign. And it was great! This is what debates should be about. Holding candidates accountable. Asking them to explain why what they said four years ago isn't what they are saying now. I only wish Fox did this for all of the candidates. 
 
 • Commercials: Thank you, Fox News! A commercial every 30 minutes or so worked nicely both with my bathroom needs and my desire to consume somewhere between 100 and 120 Oreos. #blessed 
 
 Losers 
 
 • Ted Cruz: He did the thing I hate the most in debates — complain about the rules — when he tried to game a bit more talking time and got shut down by moderator Chris Wallace. The senator's joking threat that if he kept taking incoming from the other candidates he might leave the stage (Trump reference!) fell flat. He was on the wrong end of a scolding by Paul over his conservative righteousness. And, time and time again, Cruz found himself insisting that on a panoply of issues — military spending, immigration etc. — everyone was either wrong about his position or didn't understand it well enough. That's too much defense for Cruz to play — especially in a debate without Trump. 
 
 • Ben Carson: Whoa boy. Carson swung from barely being asked any questions to providing answers that often bordered on incoherence. His response to a question about how to deal with Russia simply made no sense — further adding to the narrative that he is far, far out of his depth on foreign policy. At one point, he seemed stunned to even get a question, which isn't the best look for a guy running to be the leader of a 300-million-person country. Carson looked out of his league tonight. 
 
 • Chris Christie: The New Jersey governor felt a little like a Johnny One-Note tonight. For every question he was asked, the answer was how terrible Hillary Clinton is, was and will be. Okay, I get that bashing Clinton is never a bad idea in a Republican primary, but the strategy made Christie look very two-dimensional and brought to my mind memories of Rudy Giuliani's campaign in 2008. And not in a good way. 
 
 * Fox News Channel: The simple fact is that from an entertainment perspective, this debate was less interesting than virtually all of the previous six. The reason? Trump wasn't there. That, of course, is not entirely (or even mainly) Fox's fault. But, my guess is that the ratings for this debate will be significantly lower than the other Republican debates on major cable channels. And, if you don't think ratings are the way networks judge success, I have a whole mess of compact discs — they're the future of music! — to sell you. ||||| poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201601/731/1155968404_4727253501001_4727222250001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Off Message Five takeaways from the GOP debate Cruz mocks Trump, Rubio speeds through, and Bush lightens up a little. 
 
 A Republican debate without Donald Trump is like a fern bar without a bouncer. 
 
 Without enforcer Trump around to make everybody stutter and flinch, all those nice guys in carefully pressed dress shirts were free to mouth off and pick fights with one another. While the punches drew less blood, the debate had an air of freedom, with the oft-bullied likes of Rand Paul and Jeb Bush liberated from the oppressive presence of the party’s front-runner. 
 
 Story Continued Below 
 
 The ratings for these GOP Trump-fests have been steadily slipping, so it will interesting to see whether Trump’s absence decreased or enhanced viewership — and whether or not the unobstructed view of the other candidates solidified or undermined his position. With that in mind, here are five takeaways. 
 
 Cruz: Why is everybody always picking on me? Trump claimed that Fox was rude and biased against him (absolutely nobody apart from the Donald faithful bought that), so, yeah, chuck the debate. But he had plenty of tactical reasons to ditch the madding crowd. First, if the debate ratings dip (as they would likely have done even if he was onstage), he gets to chalk it up to his absence. But the real reason he skipped out was to create a circular GOP firing squad — with Ted Cruz at the center. And it worked. 
 
 The other candidates, no dummies, knew what Trump was up to — but they had plenty of incentive to cut the Texas Tea Party hero down to size, and they whacked Cruz early and often, especially on immigration and his annoying habit (to them) of demeaning the conservative credentials of any Republican who opposed him. Paul was particularly cutting, pointing out Cruz’s support for a comprehensive immigration reform “compromise” — before hardening his position to oppose anything that smacked of amnesty. “What is particularly insulting, though, is that he is the king of saying, ‘You're for amnesty,’” Paul said. “Everybody's for amnesty except for Ted Cruz. But it's a falseness, and that's an authenticity problem.” 
 
 Cruz responded to the attacks, at times, by whining. And unlike Trump, he let the Fox moderating team — including Chris Wallace — best him in several testy exchanges. “Chris, I would note that the last four questions have been: Rand, please attack Ted. Marco, please attack Ted. Chris, please attack Ted. Jeb, please attack Ted,” he complained to Wallace — who shot back with, “It is a debate, sir.” 
 
 Then, Cruz, unconvincingly, threatened to pull a Trump. “Gosh, if you guys ask one more mean question I may have to leave the stage,” he said. He may have meant it tongue-in-cheek, but it came off as petulant. 
 
 It was the worst possible time — on the eve of the deadlocked Iowa caucuses — for Cruz to stumble, and Trump dug the pothole. 
 
 Rand Paul, reanimated. The Kentucky libertarian, in days of yore regarded as the most interesting Republican in the race, has disappeared almost entirely from the presidential political consciousness — and his low polling earned him ejection from the main debate stage. Granted readmission in Iowa, he made the most of it. He spoke slowly — and seemed to benefit most from Trump’s absence — to launch a series of razor-sharp attacks on the character of Cruz and Rubio. And freed from the constraints of actually running to win, he reverted back to his heartfelt and idiosyncratic brand of Republicanism, speaking passionately about issues that almost never reach the GOP debate stage: poverty, discrimination against blacks, urban economic development, the evils of civil forfeiture and mandatory federal drug sentences. 
 
 “I … think the war on drugs has disproportionately affected our African-American community, and what we need to do is make sure that the war on drugs is equal protection under the law and that we don't unfairly incarcerate another generation of young African-American males,” he said. 
 
 Chris Christie just won’t answer a question. It’s uncanny. The bellicose New Jersey governor, who is staking all on a decent showing in New Hampshire, simply wouldn’t address anything the moderators threw at him — turning every answer into a rousing am-I-right-guys attack on the easiest of targets, Hillary Clinton. 
 
 When Megyn Kelly asked Christie about entitlement reform — the single most important element of federal deficit reduction (“Can you name even one thing that the federal government does now that it should not do at all?” she asked) — he hit a bumper-sticker talking point that had zilch to do with entitlement reform. “How about one that I've done in New Jersey for the last six years — that's get rid of Planned Parenthood funding from the United States of America,” he intoned to applause. 
 
 When asked how he would stop terrorists without racial profiling, he dodged the policy question and punted: “Let law enforcement make those decisions,” he said. What guidelines they would use to make those decisions, he didn’t say. 
 
 Marco Rubio needed to be great — not grating. For months and months, Rubio’s team opted for a low-key strategy of avoiding big debate-night fights to focus on his competence, eloquence and mastery of semi-hawkish foreign policy. All that has bought the Florida senator are middling poll numbers and a predicted fourth-place finish in his home state. In recent days, however, Iowa Republicans say he’s hit a stride — and have been talking up a late-January surge that could upend the Trump-or-Cruz conventional wisdom. 
 
 But Rubio seemed overly tense, hyper-emphatic and prone to his unflattering habit of delivering his answers in an annoying Gatling Gun crescendo of ever-increasing volume. Style points like these matter — Rubio is well-liked by voters (even those who plan to vote for other candidates), and his less-than-calm performance undermines the boyish senator's contention that he's seasoned enough for the big job. 
 
 Jeb, unleashed. The knock on Bush in earlier debates was that he lacked the rhetorical zip and testosterone to go one-on-one with Trump. In the front-runner's absence, he seemed more confident and more competently combative, training many of his blows at Rubio. 
 
 In one memorable exchange, Bush accused Rubio of choosing to "cut and run" from his commitment to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate — in order to avoid the conservative backlash against supporting a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. 
 
 "He led the charge to finally fix this immigration problem that has existed now for, as Marco says, for 30 years. And then he cut and run because it wasn't popular amongst conservatives, I guess," Bush said. 
 
 
 
 But he saved the most lacerating line for himself — acknowledging that his own support for a citizenship pathway is a no-sale in a GOP increasingly tilting toward the hard-line Trump position — which includes building a massive border wall to keep out foreigners. "I wrote a book about this called 'Immigration Wars,'" he said. "You can get it at $2.99 on Amazon. It's not a bestseller. I can promise you." 
 

– Seven Republican candidates got a chance to debate without Donald Trump present on Thursday night—though the man Megyn Kelly referred to as "the elephant not in the room" still dominated media coverage, causing some to declare him the winner. Here's what the pundits are saying about people who were actually present: Jeb Bush. Bush had a great night, most analysts agree, highlighting how different the GOP race might be with no Donald. He was "more relaxed and more forceful" and "looked positively presidential" without Trump bullying him, writes Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post. He bested Marco Rubio in an exchange on immigration and got in a few jabs at Hillary Clinton—and Trump. Marco Rubio. This wasn't Rubio's greatest debate, "but he had a better night than Cruz, which is strategically important for him," writes Niall Stanage at the Hill. He did, however, struggle when the debate turned to immigration reform. Rand Paul. After missing the last debate, Paul was another candidate to thrive in a Trump-less environment, and he proved to be "willing and able to speak to issues his party has struggled to address in recent years," writes Cillizza at the Post, who notes that while it's far too late for his campaign, "at least he had a moment." Chris Christie. The New Jersey governor had a good debate, offering his usual forceful arguments about his executive experience and his strength as a general election candidate, though "familiarity robs it of some of its power," writes Stanage at the Hill. Ted Cruz. Trump's strategy all along was to "create a circular GOP fire squad—with Ted Cruz at the center. And it worked," according to Glenn Thrush at Politico. Rival candidates hit Cruz early and often, and he also managed to lose several exchanges with the moderators, Thrush notes. John Kasich. Not an awful night for the Ohio governor, but one in which he failed to have any big moments, meaning that for his campaign to go anywhere now, "there are a lot of bodies he'll have to climb over," writes Anthony Zurcher at the BBC. Ben Carson. Carson went from "barely being asked any questions to providing answers that often bordered on incoherence," writes Cillizza. Like many others, he was puzzled by Carson's comments about Russia, which included the line "Putin is a one-horse country: oil and energy." Click for the best attack lines from the debate.