Trump's beef with Kelly obviously predates the debate. I

I don't think so.  There has been a lot written about what happened in the debate and why.

Roger Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman has some interesting deets on what happened:

It was a breakup days in the making. Over the past week, Ailes and his executives had been strategizing about how to deal with Trump. The prospect that the Donald could hijack the debate presented programming and political perils for both Ailes and his star anchors. What if Trump started insulting his GOP rivals onstage? Or broke the debate rules? During a meeting at Fox late last week, according to a source, senior Fox executives discussed a more worrisome scenario: What would happen if Trump won over the audience and moved the crowd to boo moderators Bret Baier, Megyn Kelly, and Chris Wallace on live television? What if Trump was able to direct his base of supporters to stop watching Fox? To prevent that from happening, Ailes needed a way to keep the audience firmly on the side of his moderators.

--

Media Matters' Hannah Groch-Begley has another theory, that Fox wanted to use its moment in the spotlight to look like a legitimate journalism outfit, willing to hold its own side's feet to the fire at a time they knew a lot of people unfamiliar with its illegitimate tactics would be watching. While Kelly's question for Trump garners exactly the attention she undoubtedly aimed for, how many (other than Media Matters and I) are asking why Kelly waited until then? Fox gave Trump nearly five hours of airtime in the last three months, including time on on The Kelly File. Yet nobody thought it important to ask about his misogyny until last night?

Top among observations were the unanimous war on women---a chorus, some baritone, some tenor, one bombastic.  One heard louder than all the rest, but all singing the same tune.  As Bill Maher said, it is as if the Republicans did not know that women can vote.  

And, MoDo was amused about FOX news, which is "a Daily Miss Universe pageant, chockablock with glossy beauties as anchors, reporters and even "experts," giving Trump a hard time about focusing on women's looks.   Sure, the same thing, just with a little extra.  

Ms. Kelly "has a lot of Tim Russert in her.  She knows how to set up mesmerizing Gunfights at the O.K. Corral, loaded for a follow-up after every salvo."  Really, mesmerizing Tim Russert?  She sounded to me more like Luke Russert asking if Nancy Pelosi though she was too old to govern and did she think she should move over for someone younger. And, follow ups" neither Tim nor fils think further than getting that rehearsed zinger out.

But, to Maureen Dowd, "Trump is, as always, the gleefully offensive and immensely entertaining high chair king in the Great American Food Fights."   And, she "enjoys Trump's hyperbolic, un-PC, fights because there are too few operatic characters in the world."  And, please, she says, overlook that Frank Sinatra lingo about women of yesteryear.  After all, " he always treated me courteously and professionally."  Yes, operatic characters treat wannabe Divas nicely--to their face.

Policies?  Trump's policies are "ripped from the gut instead of the head. Still, he can be a catalyst, challenging rivals such as Jeb's defense of his brother's smashing the family station wagon into the globe."   Fifty percent correct here: got the brother part right, but wrong on the part of the anatomy from which Trump's policies are ripped.

Now, it would not be a MoDo column if it did not somehow, anyhow, find an opportunity to diss a Clinton.  She does not disappoint.   Her example chosen for that "challenging of rivals," on the "warped" political system of financing, was not the groveling non-Trumpers on stage who either received money from Trump, or didn't, but right on stage raised their hands begging him for cash.   No, the MoDo example was the Clinton's at his wedding party and the Clinton Foundation's use of his money to travel by means other than, apparently, steerage air.

Note to Mrs. Clinton.  To get better coverage by Ms. Dowd, call her a "fat pig."   It is just a term of endearment.  

Red State Gathering Attendees Voice Shock Over Trump Speech Cancellation

ATLANTA -- Red State Gathering attendees were shocked to find out this morning that businessman Donald Trump, a Republican presidential candidate, was disinvited from speaking at the event Saturday night at the College Football Hall of Fame.

"There were death threats against [Erickson]. I think this is ridiculous. I can tell you those are not conservatives doing those death threats and those nasty comments. So I would say I wanted to hear Trump. I had three friends cancel on me tonight to go to this thing, and I told them this was never about Trump. This is about Red State Gathering."

Erickson told TheDC that, while he did receive death threats and threats of violence over the Trump speech cancellation, they "aren't serious" and "they're just pissed off people."

"Well, I mean, Ann Coulter has got a whole book out right now that makes this point. Now granted, she's not running for president. But she she cites data that does support the fact that some, obvious, immigrants who come across the borders do turn out to be criminals[.]"
-- Megyn Kelly, "The Kelly File," Fox News (June 29, 2015)

The Orders to Take Out Trump Must Have Gone to Fox, Not the Other Candidates

RUSH: It was just 24 hours ago, ladies and gentlemen -- a mere 24 hours ago -- that I was behind this very Golden EIB Microphone informing you that I had come across a bit of news.  The bit of news was that big-time Republican donors had ordered to take out Donald Trump in the debate last night.

We all made a mistake.  We assumed that the orders went out to the candidates.  But the candidates did not make one move toward taking Donald Trump out.  The broadcast network did; the candidates didn't.  I mean, let's review.

Meanwhile...
Lex Luthor: SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE ABOUT KRYPTONIANS COMING OVER HERE FROM THEIR DOOMED HOMEWORLDS AND TAKING JOBS AWAY FROM HARD WORKING HUMANS

Captain Cold: I WILL PROTECT OUR RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR FREEZE RAYS!

Scarecrow: WE MUST PUT MORE FUNDING INTO THE WAR OF TERROR!

Moderator: Don't you mean the War on Terror?

Scarecrow: I KNOW WHAT I SAID!

Brainiac: I will provide pants to everyone. A decent pair of pants.

SOLOMON GRUNDY GIVE PANTS TOO!

John Kasich, who squeezed out Rick Perry to be behind door number 10, said today,  that there is no need to do anything about climate change, its all unproven.  An apparent flip from a previous position.  

But, then he is self-described as  "old-fashioned."  Kasich was one of those nonTrumpers who won because he was moderate.

He would not throw his daughters onto the street if they were gay. And, that is Ohio nice and  Republican moderate.  And, Kasich even went to a gay wedding.  He did not indicate if the cake was force-baked, but apparently, it was not force-fed.

 Although, the Supreme Court's landmark case on same sex marriage, Obergefell v Hodges, was initially,  Obergefell v Kasich,  for Ohio to recognize the Maryland marriage of James Obergefell and John Arthur--the couple flew to Maryland and were married there on the airport tarmac (Arthur was dying of AHS (Lou Gehrig's disease).  

NBC

I posted the link mainly because it mostly agrees with my take on the debate.

Trump made marginal gains but retained his lead over the field.  He was the most polarizing candidate with the highest positives and highest negatives.  Kinda reminds me of Hillary in that respect.  Carly was viewed as the biggest winner according to the poll with Cruz in second place.  No one else moved the bar much.  Bush and Walker were the biggest losers.

It is way too early to pick the final two, but that is not going to stop me.  Carly seems like a shoe in for the VP and Trump or Cruz are my guess to head the ticket.

Why the Fox Debate is taking hits from Donald Trump's fans
 by Howard Kurtz