Anderson Cooper was a bit flummoxed in asking questions of the three candidates, as were the audience members who asked questions. Basically Cruz, Trump and Kasich paid little attention to the specifics of the questions and continued to stake out their by now well-established personae: Cruz is the right-wing ideologue who isn't too interested in the facts, Trump is the bully who wants to beat up on everyone and doesn't care about policy details because he "can always make a deal" and Kasich is the practical guy who can get things done and has the best chance of winning.
My favorite point in the "town hall" was when Trump was asked by an audience member what the three most important areas would be to him if he were elected. He said "national security" and then had trouble coming up with anything else, finally mentioning healthcare and education. Anderson Cooper was rendered almost speechless by this, finally saying that he thought Trump's position was that the federal government has no role in healthcare or education. Trump then admitted that that was correct, that "common core" should be abolished and education should be up to the states and healthcare should be left to private insurance companies, since we all know how well that has been working! Apparently Trump is only interested in two things: preventing women from getting abortions and putting other countries in their place.
Trump and Cruz continued bashing Muslims and immigrants while Kasich says we cannot just demonize whole groups of people. Kasich continued to be the most statesmanlike of the group (which is admittedly not saying much) and took the admirable Burkean position that one cannot make decisions with a finger in the wind of popularity, while Cruz and Trump praised themselves for not being "politically correct." All three candidates now have rescinded their pledge to support the Republican candidate, whoever he may be.
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