Horse Race LiveWire*** Mitt Romney Pledges To Hit Trump Harder Than He Ever Did Obama by John Nolte3 Mar 20160 3 Mar 2016 3 Mar 2016

Other operatives and voters said it is time, for better or worse, to rally around the man leading the pack.

With the bitter rivals gathered at a pivotal moment in the campaign, the debate attacks turned deeply personal, even vulgar. He said that Rubio was effective with his offensive against Trump in last week's debate but that Trump quickly changed the subject by unveiling Chris Christie's endorsement the next day.

"Nobody has ever hit my hands", Trump said as the raucous crowd laughed and booed.

The delegate math is complicated, but the basic gist goes something like this: Donald Trump has a commanding lead at the moment, but it is not a given that he will reach the 1,237 threshold he needs to clinch a majority. "If they are small, something else must be small". Mitt, I don't know if this has occurred to you, but you fit that description!

Rubio excused his own attacks by insisting it was Trump who opened the flood gates.

"Donald Trump, who among other things had been under fire from his opponents for the size of his hands - a decades-old insecurity for The Donald -went there on what everyone (okay, most everyone) in America thinks when they hear someone has small hands", said another piece in The Fix.

The US presidential debates are finally getting to the core of important issues. "He's trying to do to the American people what he did to the people who signed up for this course", Rubio said at that point in the debate.

"The other candidates are likely to stay in the race for the next few weeks".

"Don't worry about it, little Marco, I will", Trump said dismissively. Regarding foreign policy, Trump interrupted Rubio, saying "wrong" over and over as the Florida senator accurately pointed out that Trump had "expressed admiration" for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin. But tonight's strong performance can only help Cruz-both with voters and with the party regulars who would play a big role in deciding the nominee should there be a brokered convention.

Cruz, tag-teaming on the issue, added, "If we nominate Donald, we're going to spend the fall and the summer with the Republican nominee facing a fraud trial".

The presidential race hit a new level of freakish on Thursday night during the Detroit GOP debate.

Trump - who has repeatedly threatened the possibility of launching a third party bid should he feel that the party is treating him unfairly - also said he would back whoever the party crowns.

"He's playing the American public for suckers: he gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat", said Mr Romney.

Romney still holds sway with certain elements of the party, but even Kasich downplayed the influence that the 2012 nominee would have on 2016.

"Mitt Romney is a great guy, but he doesn't determine my strategy", Kasich said at the debate.

It was also the first time he faced questioning from Kelly since the two clashed in the first primary debate. Cruz handled Trump's interruptions by telling him to control himself and to "count to ten" or "breathe, breathe".

I have not started on Hillary yet, believe me, I will start soon!

- The Republican party: The first hour of the debate was an absolute disaster for Republicans hoping to re-brand their party heading into the 2016 general election.

If indeed Fox lured Trump into an ambush, it would be perhaps the canniest move the conservative establishment has made this entire election cycle, and the first documented example of anti-Trump coordination actually working (to whatever degree it will turn out tonight "worked"). Bill Kristol (lol, I know), practically reported that Trump had made a decision to use his Super Tuesday victories as an excuse to skip all future debates.

Trump defends his flip-flops.

"Let's just say for a minute this plan to stop Trump works", Colbert posited. Kasich said Thursday: "I will win OH". Typical was this tweet from human rights maven (and former Forward staffer) Philip Gourevitch: "How much press attention has been given Trump promising more U.S. torture & war crimes vs. him guaranteeing the size of his junk?"