[Hoot Gibson]

The Republican Presidential debate in Boulder, Colorado, hosted by CNBC is without a doubt the worst moderated debate that I have ever seen. It has been almost 100 percent gotcha questions, with the moderators debating the candidates much of the time. Despite the poor moderation, I think that several of the candidates turned in great performances.

Ted Cruz was the first to pounce on the tone and content of the moderators' questions and instead of answering a question about the debt ceiling, he spent his entire time for the question lambasting the moderators and contrasting them with the treatment of the Democrat candidates.

Marco Rubio and Chris Christie also landed body blows against the moderators. I was very impressed how the candidates pushed back and resisted the moderators' efforts to get the candidates to engage in a food fight.

IMO, the big losers tonight were Trump and Bush. Trump was doing well but he denied criticizing Mark Zuckerberg's comments on H1B visas. Later, a moderator cited Trumps own web site as the source of her information. Ouch.

Bush was his usual dull self. IMO, he did not make up any ground on the front runners. I did not think that Kasich or Rand Paul were very impressive either. I dislike Kasich more every time I watch him.

The moderators were horrible. Overall, the candidates were very good tonight.

Addendum: There were some great closing remarks. Trump, Cruz, Carson, Fiorina, and Christie really stood out. The stage was full of people who could form the nucleus of a very strong administration.