Debates are supposed to be Ted Cruz's strong suit. But the mincing slime ball had a disastrous debate last night. Ted's worst moment: when one of the moderators invited Ted to explain what he meant by "New York values." Clearly Ted felt there was something wrong with New Yorkers and their values. Could Ted pretty please explain exactly what was wrong with those people?

Here's Chalres Pierce at Esquire on what came next:

He was really styling in his oleaginous culture-warrior drag, talking about how there were no conservatives in Manhattan, and sneering:

CRUZ: You know, I think most people know exactly what New York values are … But I promise you, in the state of South Carolina, they do.

You hardly noticed that he was dropping his left. He, Trump, with his wolverine's instinct for the jugular, struck, and he struck hard.

TRUMP: So conservatives actually do come out of Manhattan, including William F. Buckley and others, just so you understand. And just so—if I could, because he insulted a lot of people. I've had more calls on that statement that Ted made—New York is a great place. It's got great people, it's got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. You had two one hundred... you had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. I saw them come down. Thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup, probably in the history of doing this, and in construction. I was down there, and I've never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death—nobody understood it. And it was with us for months, the smell, the air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers. And I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.

I've been waiting for someone to squash that demagogic bug in just that way and, just for a second, I began to see the sense behind He, Trump's poll numbers. Most of these candidates—with the possible exception of Chris Christie—are purely amateur tough guys. (Cruz and Rubio were particularly amped about killing people last night.) But He, Trump is a genuine professional bully. He has the instinctive feel for someone's weak spots, and he jumps on them with malicious enthusiasm. If you're going to vote your Id, you're going to vote for the person who most authentically represents it.

Go read Pierce's entire piece.