NEW YORK: The brash, and sometimes provocative, stance of Republican front-runner Donald Trump came under attack as 11 other aspirants debated on Wednesday night to be the party’s nominee for presidency of the United States.

Although poll results were not available, it was clear in the end that Carly Fiorina, a businesswoman, stole the show by attacking Trump and promising to build the US military so that it could challenge again challenge Russia. But overall Trump felt the heat.

In her bid to appeal to the extreme right wing of her party Fiorina garnered the biggest applause of the night as she skewered Planned Parenthood.

“This is about the character of our nation and if we will not stand up and force President Obama to veto this bill, shame on us,” Fiorina said to raucous applause in what was her biggest moment of the night, one that will appeal to the socially conservative base of the party. A CNN contributor Errol Louis said after the debate that Fiorina was “the clearest winner.”

“(She) successfully challenged Trump — criticising his wisecracks about her personal appearance and challenging his credentials as a global businessman by deftly ticking off hotspots around the world and suggesting ways she would tackle them,” he wrote in a CNN op-ed.

Fiorina dodged an early opportunity to hit Trump but didn't make that mistake again when she was asked to address the businessman’s recent comments about her appearance to Rolling Stone, in which he suggested her face would make her unelectable.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2015

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