Marco Rubio got owned. Chris Christie tore his head off and shit down his throat. And he (Rubio) kept trying to default back to his stump attack on Obama, to the point where the all-Republican audience began to boo him. Then he tried a childish counterattack which made him look even worse. He really came off looking bad. I would be surprised if his campaign was not fatally damaged.
The best part is that the polls will never really get a chance to reflect any impact from this debate performance and the negative feedback media cycle that will no doubt continue right up until the election itself. There will be some final polls Monday that might include Sunday, but the full effect won;t be known until Tuesday night. Who benefits if Rubio falls? Probably Kasich, for one. I didn't think he did that great, but the commentators are saying he did well, and that's all most people will hear. Rubio is going to lose a lot of "electability" voters, and Kasich seems like a safe bet.
Maybe Jeb Bush as well. He didn't really stand out tonight (when does he ever?), but he also didn't make fool of himself, and that's progress. His plan seems to be to let the others destroy each other and wait out the mainstream vote. So far, so good.
Cruz came off looking like an asshole. His numbers have been trending down in NH anyway, I think tonight will accelerate that.
If Rubio falls to 4th, Jeb Bush could place 3rd in New Hampshire. Imagine that.