How Carly Fiorina broke Donald Trump's stranglehold on the GOP — and helped Jeb Bush

The only woman on the debate stage showed the candidates how to disarm The Donald

The Republican presidential debate.
(Image credit: Getty Images)

First Donald Trump suggested Carly Fiorina was ugly. Tonight, reeling, he called her "beautiful."

The merits of her face aside, Fiorina showed force in Wednesday night's Republican debate, disarming the brash New York mogul with a short quip, while driving the conversation with detailed policy answers on Russia and Iran. She also made a powerful appeal to evangelical voters by graphically describing videos produced to criticize Planned Parenthood, laying a marker for congressional Republicans who want to shut down the government before funding the family planning service.

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Marc Ambinder

Marc Ambinder is TheWeek.com's editor-at-large. He is the author, with D.B. Grady, of The Command and Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry. Marc is also a contributing editor for The Atlantic and GQ. Formerly, he served as White House correspondent for National Journal, chief political consultant for CBS News, and politics editor at The Atlantic. Marc is a 2001 graduate of Harvard. He is married to Michael Park, a corporate strategy consultant, and lives in Los Angeles.