In August, there was Fox News’ Megyn Kelly challenging Donald Trump for using “fat pig” to describe women.

In September, there was CNN’s Jake Tapper asking Jeb Bush if he was a “puppet for your donors.”


In October, there was CNBC’s Becky Quick asking Ben Carson how he would cover a “1.1 trillion dollar hole” in his tithing-inspired tax plan.

On Tuesday’s Fox Business debate, however, Neil Cavuto bantered pleasantly with Carson and politely thanked candidates for their answers. Maria Bartiromo tossed up softballs about tax-cut plans and Barack Obama’s dismissal of Russia as America’s greatest security threat, along with other meaty but safe fare. And Wall Street Journal editor-in-chief Gerard Baker rushed to defend Donald Trump’s suggestion that China could benefit from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, thereby dousing an attempt by Rand Paul to inject some fire into the evening.

The result was a debate that was less an encounter between challengers than a series of stump speeches, as candidates took advantage of the long 90-second answer times and often talked past the times-up bell tone, with the moderators seemed reluctant to rein them in.

Many of these mini-speeches ended with pre-scripted applause lines like Carly Fiorina proclaiming “We must take our government back,” while the lusty audience cheered every platitude.

This was, of course, what Cavuto and Bartiromo promised – a debate focused on the candidates’ policy plans and issues. There were no “gotcha” questions, and no occasion for the candidates to turn the tables on the moderators, as happened quite often during the ill-fated CNBC debate.

That encounter led to a group of candidates pressuring the Republican National Committee to rebuke NBC and change the ground rules for future debates. The Fox Business debate was exempted, but the furor nonetheless shadowed the entire affair.

The result of Fox Business’ caution was a debate that was notably more civil, occasionally enlightening, but also, at many points, dull. There were fewer memorable exchanges than in the earlier debates, all of which were ratings successes, even if the candidates and often the moderators, as well, were pelted with criticism.

This time, the moderators were so careful to show respect that they failed to spark any flames, either.

“Did you want to name any specific steps, sir,” Bartiromo would often ask candidates when they didn’t fully answer a question.

"Just to be clear, you said you’d repeal Obamacare, but what is the alternative and how does that help small businesses?” Bartiromo asked Fiorina at one point, in a carefully non-pushy tone.

“You can’t seriously guarantee there won’t be another financial crisis, can you?” Baker quipped in a friendly riposte to Jeb Bush.

“Just to be clear, you wouldn’t favor breaking up the big banks?” Baker asked Carson.

It didn’t get much more heated than that, at least in the questioning. The only big complaint from the stage came from Ohio Gov. John Kasich, unhappy with how much time he was getting. Kasich interrupted other candidates at least three times, and during one break, approached the moderators.

But after the debate, Kasich joined other candidates in praising the quality of the discussion. And many of the party regulars gathered in the Milwaukee audience expressed satisfaction with the muted tone -- including the RNC, which issued a glowing statement.

"Debates need to focus on the issues, and that goal was accomplished tonight," read the RNC statement. "Our candidates, not the moderators, were at the center of tonight's debate."

But some other observers were left longing for the “cage match” of CNBC.

"I sort of miss the CNBC guys,” tweeted Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol.

"Is anyone else starting to feel nostalgic for the CNBC train wreck?” tweeted Frank Rich, writer-at-large at New York magazine and executive producer of HBO's “Veep."

Nonetheless, Fox Business was pursuing a different strategy — trying to appeal to the core business audience that may have chafed at rival CNBC’s emphasis on conflict between the candidates.

Even the closing line from Cavuto was a shot at CNBC: “Business issues can be riveting because it wasn’t about us," he declared.

