Carly Fiorina, who almost didn’t make the stage tonight but for a last-minute uproar and change in CNN’s formula, certainly proved she deserved to be there. Much of the post-debate buzz has been about her performance, which improbably met the very high expectations set by her last performance. She also became the first candidate to make the leader, Donald Trump, blink or waver for even a second. But in the face (see what I did there?) of her short and sweet retort to his comments about her appearance, Trump responded by sheepishly backing off his comments and praising her looks, which left Fiorina understandably steely and unmoved.

Trump fans and critics alike will agree that, at this point, a key to making any headway in this race for anyone but Trump is to steal a little of his buzz from him, and Fiorina did that tonight, by the numbers. She landed the two most viral clips of the debate— one was about the “faces” comment, but the other was her substantive and passionate answer on Planned Parenthood.

When she started saying she was going to bring together Iran and Planned Parenthood in one answer, I got worried, but she really made that work.

Read the article “Carly Fiorina Cleans Up at the Big Kids’ Table” on hotair.com.