BRET BAIER (HOST): Thoughts on the night?
BRIT HUME: Well, three things, Bret. Marco Rubio indeed had a tough night, and I think it may have hurt him in a way that will last certainly until Tuesday, and perhaps beyond. He has been so fluid and so coherent in these debates so far that it has been one of the strong points of his campaign, if not the principal strong point, and he had anything but that tonight.
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BAIER: David, what was Rubio doing, coming back to that answer, four times, five times I think, in that exchange with Chris Christie?
DAVID GREGORY: Well, he was ignoring Christie, and I think there was a calculation in the beginning which is, 'I don't want to go toe-to-toe with Christie, I don't have to worry about him, let me take on Obama, let me be a general election candidate.' The problem with that is he has not knocked those guys out yet. There's a lot of people looking at New Hampshire saying, you know what, this is a time when Rubio can unite the party, can eliminate Bush and Christie and Kasich, but he didn't do that, because he is playing over their heads when he has not knocked them out yet. And I think that was a mistake, I think he was just trying into play the general election, middle of the fairway and it is too early for that.
BAIER: A.B.?
A. B. STODDARD: That worked last week at your debate, because he talked like a general election candidate, talked like the nominee, he was going after Hillary, it was great. Tonightit was a flop.Why? Because he knew the exact attack that was coming at him, 'you're young and untested and inexperienced.' He fell right into Christie's trap, he knew it was coming, and then he did boy in the bubble, 'I have to go to my robotic talking points, I can't take a surprise question,' and Christie's attacks have been so obnoxious all week, but tonight Christie had a great debate. And what he did to Rubio could have been completely anticipated by Rubio's team and the candidate himself, and they flopped. Those moments where he kept repeating himself were just absolutely bizarre.
