From the March 7 edition of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor:
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BILL O'REILLY (HOST): So the folks -- how do you think they're processing the Republican brawl?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, I think people do tend to narrow cast and decide what they want to hear. That is true. But one of the virtues of a national debate on national television is that at least for two hours we are all hearing the same thing. We can filter it differently, but we are all hearing the same thing. And I think we may be at some kind of turning point here. Number one, that was the least elegant -- well that's a soft way to put it -- that was the lowest point of political discourse that we have experienced for several decades and that's sort of obvious to everyone. The throwing of the insults and the references and all that. But the other point is I think we're at a point in this campaign, six months, seven months in, where ordinance is being dropped on Trump in a way that hasn't. For about five months, he got a free ride. Not because anybody was acting venally but because candidates saw it in their interest not to attack the front-runner, to attack each other as a way to get into the so-called establishment lane and end up one on one. Well it was obvious if they had continued that way, Trump was going to win, so the last two debates have been all out assaults on Trump. And that's where the kind of negative information, the kind of opposition research that you would normally get in a campaign in the early months finally came out.
