memeorandum: Carly Fiorina won the ‘Happy Hour’ debate. By a lot. (Chris Cillizza/Washington Post)

12:00 PM ET, August 7, 2015

Top Items:

Fox News Couldn't Kill Trump's Momentum and May Have Only Made It Stronger — Judging by Thursday's electric debate, he may have sensed his true opponent before anyone else had a clue: the network. — t joshuagreen — A few hours before Thursday's Fox News debate, a friend of Donald Trump's confided to me that Trump was nervous.

Discussion: NBC News, Politico, Bloomberg View, Business Insider, The Week, New York Magazine and Taylor Marsh

Frank Bruni / New York Times:

A Foxy, Rowdy Republican Debate — The first question to Chris Christie was about the nine credit downgrades that New Jersey had suffered since he became its governor. — Ben Carson was reminded of his domestic-policy blunders, of his foreign-policy blunders, of a whole raft of loopy statements …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Liberaland, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and No More Mister Nice Blog

Glenn Thrush / Politico:

The GOP debate: 7 takeaways — The first Republican debate of 2016 turned out to be an empty-calorie joy ride. — Takeaway 1: Jeb Bush was meh. Getty — That was fun. Now what? — The first Republican debate of 2016 was an empty-calorie joy ride, thanks to Donald Trump …

Discussion: Betsy's Page and Associated Press

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

GOP debate: Early numbers suggest record audience — Early overnight Nielsen ratings suggest that Thursday's Republican debate was not just the most-watched primary debate in history — it may have been twice as big as the previous record-holder. — The debate on Fox News …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, Mashable, National Review and The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Donald Trump: Megyn Kelly ‘behaved very nasty to me’ — CLEVELAND — Donald Trump says he didn't get a fair shake. — Speaking in the spin room behind the debate stage, Trump said the questions he received from the moderators Thursday night “were far tougher” than those asked of the other candidates.

Discussion: Yahoo Politics, The Moderate Voice, Hinterland Gazette and Taylor Marsh

Politico:

The Debate's Biggest Winners-And Losers — 22 political experts give their snap reactions. — Getty. — SHARES — ‘The best two performances came from John Kasich and Marco Rubio.’ — Get POLITICO Magazine in your feeds — By John Hudak, Brookings fellow in Governance Studies and author of the GovFix blog.

Discussion: Washington Post

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Trump: Fox News Questions “Not Nice,” “Inappropriate” — CLEVELAND — Donald Trump criticized the questions asked by Fox News in the opening presidential primary debate on Thursday, calling them “inappropriate” and saying that Megyn Kelly “behaved very badly.”

Discussion: The Hill, The Jawa Report, Talking Points Memo, Daily Kos, The Daily Beast, Hot Air, Raw Story, BizPac Review, Guardian, Liberaland, ABC News, Washington Post, Naked Politics, National Review, Politico and Washington Free Beacon

Jeremy Diamond / CNN:

Republican presidential debate: 8 takeaways — Story highlights — (CNN)The top 10 candidates for the Republican presidential nomination only had a few minutes each on Thursday to capture the attention of voters tuning in to the first big-league Republican presidential debate.

Discussion: ImmigrationProf Blog

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:
Carly Fiorina won the ‘Happy Hour’ debate. By a lot.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Free Beacon, Scared Monkeys, The Week, Outside the Beltway, FishbowlDC and Washington Monthly

Robert Costa / Washington Post: Trump makes it clear that he plays by his own rules

Ed Kilgore / Talking Points Memo:
Fox News Had Its Own GOP Debate Agenda: Narrow Down The Field

Discussion: Washington Monthly, Politico, Washington Post, New York Times and Democratic Strategist

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Donald Trump lunched with Fox's Roger Ailes

Discussion: BuzzFeed

Jessica Valenti / Guardian:
Republican debate: Donald Trump still focus of campaign after sprawling fight - live updates

Discussion: CBS New York, Hollywood Life, US News, Raw Story, Mashable, Business Insider, The Last Refuge and The Daily Caller

Washington Post:
Trump roils first debate among GOP contenders

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Right Wing Watch

Hadas Gold / Politico:
Trump wins the Internet

Discussion: The Hill, Human Events, The Huffington Post, BizPac Review and The PJ Tatler

Chuck Schumer / Medium:

My Position on the Iran Deal — Every several years or so a legislator is called upon to cast a momentous vote in which the stakes are high and both sides of the issue are vociferous in their views. — Over the years, I have learned that the best way to treat such decisions is to study …

New York Times:

Chuck Schumer Opposes Iran Nuclear Deal, Shaking Democratic Firewall — WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Schumer, the most influential Jewish voice in Congress, said Thursday night that he would oppose President Obama's deal to limit Iran's nuclear program. — “Advocates on both sides …

Discussion: JustOneMinute, CNN, Althouse, Outside the Beltway, Reuters, Betsy's Page, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Balloon Juice, Power Line, Instapundit and USA Today

Kristina Wong / The Hill:
GOP candidates take turns bashing Obama's Iran deal

Discussion: Washington Post and Algemeiner.com

Ryan Grim / The Huffington Post:
Chuck Schumer Breaks With Obama, Will Oppose Iran Deal

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Business Insider, The Week and Washington Free Beacon

CNN:
Chuck Schumer to vote against Iran nuclear deal

Discussion: The Last Refuge and Washington Free Beacon

Kirsten Gillibrand / Medium:
Why I'm Supporting an Imperfect Iran Deal

Discussion: The Hill, Refinery29, Politico, Hot Air, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, The Atlantic, POLITICO New York, Washington Post, Mondoweiss and whitehouse.gov

Bloomberg Business:

Oops: Jeb's Website Publishes, Then Deletes, Attacks on Walker, Rubio — The former Florida governor's campaign describes the attacks as “draft pages.” — Jeb Bush's official campaign website on Thursday briefly featured two separate sections attacking two top Republican rivals …

Discussion: Political Wire

Nate Cohn / New York Times:
Winners at the G.O.P. Debate Did Not Include Bush and Trump

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, FiveThirtyEight and Political Wire

Jonathan V. Last / Weekly Standard: The Best, Classiest Debate Ever

TIME:

Transcript: Read the Full Text of the Primetime Republican Debate — Ten Republican presidential candidates met in Cleveland for a primetime debate on Fox News. — At the debate, real estate mogul Donald Trump, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio …

Discussion: The Atlantic, Hullabaloo and The Federalist

Washington Post:
Annotated transcript: The Aug. 6 GOP debate

Discussion: Hit & Run, Progress Pond, Slantpoint, Shakesville, Informed Comment, Althouse, Weekly Standard and New York Times, more at Mediagazer »

John Althouse Cohen / Jaltcoh:
Live-blogging the first major Republican debate of the 2016 presidential race

Discussion: Defense One, Mediaite and Althouse

Jesse Byrnes / The Hill:

Clinton dismisses debate, rips GOP on voting rights — Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton dismissed the first GOP-sanctioned debate Thursday before ripping into the Republican presidential field over voting rights. — During an interview on the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio program …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and Mediaite

Cristina Marcos / The Hill:
Fiorina stands out in Republican ‘happy hour’ debate

Discussion: Hit & Run, Slate, ABC News, Fusion, John Hawkins' Right Wing News and Yahoo Politics

Judy Kurtz / The Hill:
Mystery solved: Fiorina's closing statement found in printer

Discussion: Business Insider, Mediaite, Talking Points Memo and Weekly Standard

Chad Livengood / Detroit News:

Recordings: State rep asked aide to hide relationship — Lansing — State Rep. Todd Courser planned the distribution of a fictional email alleging he had sex with a male prostitute in a bid to conceal his relationship with Rep. Cindy Gamrat, according to audio recordings obtained by The Detroit News.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Right Wing Watch, Jezebel, Raw Story and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Ashe Schow / Washington Examiner:

Democrats tweet sexist attack on Carly Fiorina — Share Tweet Reddit Digg Mail Print SMS More — During Thursday's undercard debate, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina noted her business experience, which during her tenure saw the tech company's revenue double to $90 billion.

Discussion: Althouse, The Daily Caller and Hot Air