Donald Trump mocks his opponents and Jeb Bush defends Bush clan at GOP debate

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'I wrote "The Art of the Deal." I say that not in a braggadocious way,' Trump said in his debate opening statement. 'I've made billions and billions'
Rand Paul hammered him for 'junior high'-level insults including cracks about his opponents' appearance
In a sharp exchange with Carly Fiorina, Trump tried to paper over his 'face' slam from last week but she earned the biggest applause of the night by putting him down
Jeb Bush went to bat for his brother, former President George W. Bush and insisted 'He kept us safe' – and shushed Trump's 'low-energy' claims
Chris Christie may have helped himself the most with blistering attacks on Hillary Clinton and stern lines on national security

By David Martosko, US Political Editor and Nikki Schwab, U.s. Political Reporter For Dailymail.com In Simi Valley, California

Published: 19:43 EST, 16 September 2015 | Updated: 09:33 EST, 17 September 2015

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The face of the Republican Party moved stepwise toward sharper focus on Wednesday night, with a handful of the top GOP White House hopefuls leaping into the public's consciousness during a hearly 3-hour debate.

Donald Trump, the billiionaire front-runner who dominated the first debate in Cleveland, Ohio, found himself consistently playing defense for the first time on a national stage as rivals who have felt the sting of his punches were prepared to fight back.

Tech CEO Carly Fiorina, the only candidate to advance to the main stage debate after a strong showing in the 'undercard' event last month, admonished Trump for a comment revealed in Rolling Stone magazine last week, in which he had suggested 'that face' – Fiorina's, on television – was unelectable.

Trump got his comeuppance at the end of the evening's first segment, when CNN moderator Jake Tapper asked her to weigh in.

'I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,' she said, in one of the night's biggest applause lines.

Scroll down for video

AWKWARD: Carly Fiorina was strong and confident Wednesday night and took Donald Trump down a peg with a swipe that suggested he was a chauvinist

ROLLING: Billionaire Donald Trump (left) was in rare form, swatting at opponents including Jeb Bush (right), but took as many punches as he threw

A suddenly syrupy Trump tried to soften the blow. 'I think she's got a beautiful face,' he said, 'and I think she's a beautiful woman.' The line fell flat.

Jeb Bush, too, landed an glancing uppercut by asking Trump to apologize for suggesting that his wife's Mexican ancestry influenced his immigration views.

'To subject my wife into the middle of a raucous political conversation was completely inappropriate, and I hope you apologize for that, Donald,' he said.

Again, Trump brought sugar to mask the acid in the air.

'I have to tell you, I hear phenomenal things. I hear your wife is a lovely woman,' he said. 'I don't know her.' But he refused to apologize, 'because I've said nothing wrong. But I do hear she's a lovely woman.'

PIT BULL: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie swatted down both Trump and Carly Fiorina with a jab about how jobless Americans don't care about their high-flying careers: 'You're both successful people. Congratulations'

THEY KNOW: 'Women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said,' Fiorina declared Wednesday about a slight he leveled at her while watching her on television

And Chris Christie, the pugnacious New Jersey governor whose low poll numbers put him on the far edge of the debate stage, threw a monkey-wrench into both Trump's and Fiorina's boasts of the the trajectories of their high-flying business careers.

He shut them both down with a goomba-like verbal swat.

'While I'm as entertained as anyone by this personal back and forth about the history of Donald and Carly's career,' he said, 'for the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight, who doesn't have a job, who can't fund his child's education.'

'I've got to tell you the truth: They could care less about your careers. They care about theirs.'

'A-TEAM': Mike Huckabee moved the dial little on Wednesday and was most memorable for saying Donald Trump should be called 'Mr. T' because he calls so many people 'fools'

As a testy Fiorina tried to reply, Christie showed a flash of his famous temper.

'I'm not done yet,' he barked. 'Carly, listen: You can interrupt everybody else on the stage, but you can't interrupt me.'

'The fact is that we don't want to hear about your careers. Back and forth and volleying back and forth about who did well and who did poorly. You're both successful people. Congratulations. You know who is not successful? The middle class in this country who's getting plowed over by Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.'

Trump initially brought his 'A' game, leveling criticisms and insults at his rivals while he brought guffaws from the audience in Simi Valley, California.

And he ended the night with the most-searched name on Google in 44 of the 50 U.S. states, according to Google Trends. Fiorina's was the most-searched in the other six.

Afterward, he complained that 'the night was very long,' and spent mere minutes in the debate 'spin room.'

Despite strong showings on stage, Fiorina and Christie never arrived.

SPARRING PARTNERS: Trump went to war against half of the field on stage at the Reagan Library

For many Americans, the Republican primary is still The Donald Trump Show writ large, with the brash contrarian sucking up enough oxygen to asphyxiate the rest of the field.

'I wrote "The Art of the Deal." I say that not in a braggadocious way,' Trump said in his opening statement. 'I've made billions of billions of dollars.'

WIthin minutes he was taking an unprovoked shot at Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who squeaked into what was originally a ten-person debate in 11th place, thanks to a late rule change.

'First of all, Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage,' Trump charged. 'He's no. 11. He's got 1 per cent in the polls.'

WHAT WOULD YOU WANT YOUR SECRET SERVICE CODE NAME TO BE?

The 11 Republicans on stage Wednesday night were asked what they would pick as the code name the U.S. Secret Service would call them for four years.

Here are their answers, along with actual code names of some famous presidents and White House candidates

THEY WANT:

Chris Christie: 'True Heart'

John Kasich: 'Unit One'

Carly Fiorina: 'Secretariat'

Scott Walker: 'Harley. I like riding Harleys'

Jeb Bush: 'Eveready. It's very high-energy, Donald!'

Donald Trump: 'Humble' (Bush exclaimed: 'That's a good one!')

Ben Carson: 'One nation'

Ted Cruz: 'Cohiba' (the Cuban cigar brand)

Marco Rubio: 'Gator'

Mike Huckabee: 'Duck Hunter'

Rand Paul: 'Justice Never Sleeps'

THEY GOT:

Newt Gingrich: 'T-Rex'

Bill Clinton: 'Eagle'

Sarah Palin: 'Denali'

Ted Kennedy: 'Sunburn'

Bob Dole: 'Ramrod'

Barack Obama: 'Renegade'

Ronald Reagan: 'Rawhide'

John F. Kennedy: Lancer

Richard Nixon: Searchlight

George H.W. Bush: 'Timberwolf'

Lyndon Johnson: 'Volunteer'

Dan Quayle: 'Scorecard'

NOT AMUSED: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul called Trump's rhetoric an example of schoolyard taunting

LIGHT MOMENTS: Trump and Jeb Bush hammed it up and complimented each other's jokes

That nonsequitur came in response to a question about how his politically unconventional temperament could hamper the U.S. in high-stress situations like a nuclear-war decision.

Ultimately he addressed the question: 'Believe me my temperament is very good, very calm. But we will be respected. We are not respected now.'

Paul shot back with a laugh. 'All of the sudden there’s a sideways attack at me,' he marveled.

'Do we want someone like that to be negotiating with Iran? I think really there is a sophomoric quality that is very entertaining about Mr. Trump.'

TRUMP WITH CHAINS? 'Mr. T' heard his name invoked Wednesday as a new nickname for Donald Trump – along with his 'I pity the fool' slogan

'I’m very concerned about having him in charge of the nuclear weapons,' Paul added, 'because I think his response, his visceral response to attack people on their appearance – short, tall, fat, ugly – my goodness!'

'That happened in junior high. Are we not way above that? Are we not at all worried to have someone like that in charge of the nuclear codes?'

Trump jumped back in.

'I never attacked him on his looks,' he insisted. 'And believe me, there’s plenty of subject matter.'

That's not quite true.

During an August 11 speech in Birch Run, Michigan, Trump poked fun at Paul's short stature in the midst of pointing out how poll numbers of his critics – including former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham – had seen their poll numbers tank quickly.

'Perry and Graham hit me harder than anybody else,' Trump said then. 'Now it's Rand Paul. Can you believe it? He's the new one.'

And then, motioning actross his chest with one hand, he jabbed: 'I said, "Rand – I've had you up to here!'

Wednesday evening's second speaker, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, framed Trump's center-stage participation as a subplot from a 1980s TV adventure show.

GROUP PHOTO: Eleven Republicans squared off Wednesday night in Simi Valley, California

THINKER:Trump was cornered on foreign policy questions, the bankruptcies of some of his real estate development projects, and even on the thorny question of whether childhood vaccines lead to autism

'There are some in the Wall-Street-to-Washington axis of power who speak of all of us contemptuously,' he said of But I'm here to say that I think we are, in fact, the A team. We even have our own "Mr. T" who doesn’t mind saying about others, "You’re a fool."'

JEB BUSH'S MARIJUANA MOMENT

Jeb Bush conceded on stage Wednesday night that he had smoked pot in high school. It's not a new admission, but it was the first time Americans have seen him talk about it.

Rand Paul had said 'someone onstage' had admitted indulging in marijuana as an adolescent, and would yet prosecute others from lower socioeconomic classes who are guilty of the same indiscretion.

Paul didn't say who he was referring to, but joked that 'if we left it open,' and let the offender identify him or herself, 'we could see how many people smoked pot in high school.'

Bush fessed up as millions watched.

'My mom’s not happy that I just did,' Bush said.

Carly Fiorina later threw cold water on the joke, pointing out that she had lost her stepdaughter to drug addiction.

'The marijuana kids smoke today is not the same as the marijuana Jeb smoked in high school,' she said.

That's a reference to 'Mr. T,' the gruff African-American actor and boxer whose catch-phrase as soldier of fortune B.A. Baracus on the show was 'I pity the fool!'

In a later exchange with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Trump disagreed with the charge that he had tried to buy his way to an approval for casino gambling with political donations.

Grimacing, he insisted: 'If I'd wanted it, I would have gotten it.'

As Bush parried with him, Trump blared: 'WRONG!'

Trump was quoted in a 2013 gaming industry

But he admitted that Jeb had 'more energy tonight. I like it.'

Trump has mocked the former Florida governor as a 'low energy' candidate in an Internet video that cast him as a cure for sleeplessness.

Trump also caricatured former New York Gov. George Pataki as a hopeless candidate who 'couldn’t be elected dogcatcher.'

Ben Carson, the challenger who had made the most headway against Trump and was running no. 2 in most polls going into Wednesday night, had few standout moments. But that was also true of the Cleveland debate a month ago.

The calm and steady former neurosurgeon pledged earlier Wednesday that he wouldn't get in the gutter with The Donald, and stayed the course while managing to deliver one polite

VICTORY MOMENT: Trump clasped hands with Dr. Ben Carson during the debate when the retired surgeon said he had tried to persuade former Presdient Geroge W. Bush to abandon his Iraq invasion plan

THE 2016 FIELD: WHO'S IN, WHO'S QUIT AND WHO'S STILL THINKING IT OVER

A whopping 21 people from America's two major political parties are candidates in the 2016 presidential election.

The field includes two women, an African-American and two Latinos. All but one in that group – Hillary Clinton – are Republicans.

At 16 candidates, the GOP field is deeper than ever, even though one southern governor has already quit the race.

A few Democrats are still assessing their chances at succeeding in a much smaller group of five that includes a former secretary of state and a current senator.

REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE

Jeb Bush Former Florida governor

Age on Election Day: 63

Religion: Catholic

Base: Moderates

Résumé: Former Florida governor and secretary of state. Former co-chair of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Education: B.A. University of Texas at Austin.

Family: Married to Columba Bush (1974), with three adult children. Noelle Bush has made news with her struggle with drug addiction, and related arrests. George P. Bush was elected Texas land commissioner in 2014. Jeb's father George H.W. Bush was the 41st President of the United States, and his brother George W. Bush was number 43.

Claim to fame: Jeb was an immensely popular governor with strong economic and jobs credentials. He is also one of just two GOP candidates who is fluent in Spanish.

Achilles heel: Bush has angered conservatives with his permissive positions on illegal immigration (saying some border-crossing is 'an act of love) and common-core education standards. His last name could also be a liability with voters who fear establishing a family dynasty in the White House.

Chris Christie New Jersey governor

Age on Election Day: 54

Religion: Catholic

Base: Establishment-minded conservatives

Résumé: Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder and lobbyist.

Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder. Former statehouse lobbyist.

Education: B.A. University of Delaware, Newark, J.D. Seton Hall University.

Family: Married to Mary Pat Foster (1986) with four children.

Claim to fame: Pugnacious and unapologetic, Christie once told a heckler to 'sit down and shut up' and brings a brash style to everything he does. That includes the post-9/11 criminal prosecutions of terror suspects that made his reputation as a hard-charger.

Achilles heel: Christie is often accused of embracing an ego-driven and needlessly abrasive style. His administration continues to operate under a 'Bridgegate' cloud: At least two aides have been indicted in an alleged scheme to shut down lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution for a mayor who refused to endorse the governor's re-election.

Carly Fiorina Former tech CEO

Age on Election Day: 62

Religion: Episcopalian

Base: Conservatives

Résumé: Former CEO of Hewett-Packard. Former group president of Lucent Technologies. Former U.S. Senate candidate in California.

Education: B.A. Stanford University. UCLA School of Law (did not finish). M.B.A. University of Maryland. M.Sci. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Family: Married to Frank Fiorina (1985), with one adult step-daughter and another who is deceased. She has two step-grandchildren. Divorced from Todd Bartlem (1977-1984).

Claim to fame: Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, something that could provide ammunition against the Democratic Party's drive to make Hillary Clinton the first female president. She is also the only woman in the 2016 GOP field, making her the one Republican who can't be accused of sexism.

Achilles heel: Fiorina's unceremonious firing by HP's board has led to questions about her management and leadership styles. And her only political experience has been a failed Senate bid in 2010 against Barbara Boxer.

Lindsey Graham South Carolina senator

Age on Election Day: 61

Religion: Southern Baptist

Base: Otherwise moderate war hawks

Résumé: U.S. senator. Retired Air Force Reserves colonel. Former congressman. Former South Carolina state representative.

Education: B.A. University of South Carolina. J.D. University of South Carolina Law School.

Family: Never married. Raised his sister Darline after their parents died while he was a college student and she was 13.

Claim to fame: Graham is a hawk's hawk, arguing consistently for greater intervention in the Middle East, once arguing in favor of pre-emptive military strikes against Iran. His influence was credited for pushing President George W. Bush to institute the 2007 military 'surge' in Iraq.

Achilles heel: Some of his critics have taken to call him 'Grahamnesty,' citing his participating in a 2013 'gang of eight' strategy to approve an Obama-favored immigration bill. He has also aroused the ire of conservative Republicans by supporting global warming legislation and voting for some of the president's judicial nominees.

Bobby Jindal Louisiana governor

Age on Election Day: 45

Religion: Catholic

Base: Social conservatives

Résumé: Governor of Louisiana. Former congressman. Former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation. Former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Education: B. Sci. Brown University. M.Litt. New College at Oxford University

Family: Married to Supriya Jolly (1997), with three children, each of whom has an Indian first name and an American middle name. Bobby Jindal's given name is Piyush.

Claim to fame: Jindal's main source of national attention has been his strident opposition to federal-level 'Common Core' education standards, which included a federal lawsuit that a judge dismissed in late March. He is also outspoken on the religious-freedom issues involved in mainstreaming gay marriage into the lives of American Christians.

Achilles heel: During his first term as governor, Jindal signed a science education law that requires schools to present alternatives to the theory of evolution, including religious creationism. His staunch defense of businesses that want to steer clear of providing services to same-sex couples at their weddings will win points among evangelicals but alienate others.

George Pataki Former New York governor

Age on Election Day: 71

Religion: Catholic

Base: Centrists

Résumé: Former governor of New York. Former New York state senator and state assemblyman. Former mayor of Peekskill, NY.

Education: B.A. Yale University. J.D. Columbia Law School.

Family: Married to Libby Rowland (1973), with four adult children.

Claim to fame: Pataki was just the third Republican governor in New York's history, winning an improbable victory over three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo in 1994. He was known for being a rare tax-cutter in Albany and was also the sitting governor when the 9/11 terror attacks rocked New York CIty in 2001.

Achilles heel: While Pataki's liberal-leaning social agenda plays well in the Empire State, it won't win him any fans among the GOP's conservative base. He supports abortion rights and gay rights, and has advocated strongly in favor of government intervention to stop global warming, which right-wingers believe is overblown as a global threat.

Marco Rubio Florida senator

Age on Election Day: 45

Religion: Catholic

Base: Conservatives

Résumé: US senator, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, former city commissioner of West Miami

Education: B.A. University of Florida. J.D. University of Miami School of Law.

Family: Married to Jeanette Dousdebes (1998), with two sons and two daughters. Jeanette is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who posed for the squad’s first swimsuit calendar.

Claim to fame: Rubio's personal story as the son of Cuban emigres is a powerful narrative, and helped him win his Senate seat in 2010 against a well-funded governor whom he initially trailed by 20 points.

Achilles heel: Rubio was part of a bipartisan 'gang of eight' senators who crafted an Obama-approved immigration reform bill in 2013 which never became law – a move that angered conservative Republicans. And he was criticized in 2011 for publicly telling a version of his parents' flight from Cuba that turned out to appear embellished.

Donald Trump Real estate developer

Age on Election Day: 70

Religion: Presbyterian

Base: Conservatives

Résumé: Chairman of The Trump Organization. Fixture on the Forbes 400 list of the world's richest people. Star of 'Celebrity Apprentice.'

Education: B.Sci. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Family: Married to Melania Trump (2005). Divorced from Ivana Zelníčková (1977-92) and Marla Maples(1993–99). Five grown children. Trump's father Fred Trump amassed a $400 million fortune developing real estate.

Claim to fame: Trump's niche in the 2016 campaign stems from his celebrity as a reality-show host and his enormous wealth – more than $10 billion, according to Trump. Because he can self-fund an entire presidential campaign, he is seen as less beholden to donors than other candidates. He has grabbed the attention of reporters and commentators by unapologetically staking out controversial positions and refusing to budge in the face of criticism.

Achilles heel: Trump is a political neophyte who has toyed with running for president and for governor of New York, but shied away from taking the plunge until now. His billions also have the potential to alienate large swaths of the electorate. And his Republican rivals have labeled him an ego-driven celeb and an electoral sideshow because of his all-over-the-map policy history – much of which agreed with today's today's democrats – and his past enthusiasm for anti-Obama 'birtherism.'

REPUBLICAN DROPOUTS

Rick Perry, former Texas governor

(withdrew Sept. 11, 2015)

Ben Carson Retired Physician

Age on Election Day: 65

Religion: Seventh-day Adventist

Base: Evangelicals

Résumé: Famous pediatric neurosurgeon, youngest person to head a major Johns Hopkins Hospital division. Founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which awards scholarships to children of good character.

Education: B.A. Yale University. M.D. University of Michigan Medical School.

Family: Married to Candy Carson (1975), with three adult sons. The Carsons live in Maryland with Ben's elderly mother Sonya, who was a seminal influence on his life and development.

Claim to fame: Carson spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, railing against political correctness and condemned Obamacare – with President Obama sitting just a few feet away.

Achilles heel: Carson is inflexibly conservative, opposing gay marriage and once saying gay attachments formed in prison provided evidence that sexual orientation is a choice.

Ted Cruz Texas senator

Age on Election Day: 45

Religion: Southern Baptist

Base: Tea partiers

Résumé:U.S. senator. Former Texas solicitor general. Former U.S. Supreme Court clerk. Former associate deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush.

Education: B.A. Princeton University. J.D. Harvard Law School.

Family: Married to Heidi Nelson Cruz (2001), with two young daughters. His father is a preacher and he has two half-sisters.

Claim to fame: Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours in September 2013 to protest the inclusion of funding for Obamacare in a federal budget bill. (The bill moved forward as written.) He has called for the complete repeal of the medical insurance overhaul law, and also for a dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service. Cruz is also outspoken about border security.

Achilles heel: Cruz's father Rafael, a Texas preacher, is a tea party firebrand who has said gay marriage is a government conspiracy and called President Barack Obama a Marxist who should 'go back to Kenya.' Cruz himself also has a reputation as a take-no-prisoners Christian evangelical, which might play well in South Carolina but won't win him points in the other early primary states and could cost him momentum if he should be the GOP's presidential nominee.

Jim Gilmore Former Virginia governor

Age on Election Day: 67

Religion: United Methodist

Base: Conservatives

Résumé: Former governor and attorney general of Virginia. Former chairman of the Republican National Committee. Former U.S. Army intelligence agent. President and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation. Board member of the National Rifle Association

Education: B.A. University of Virginia.

Family: Married to Roxane Gatling Gilmore (1977), with two adult children. Mrs. GIlmore is a survivor of Hodgkin's lymphoma

Claim to fame: Gilmore presided over Virginia when the 9/11 terrorists struck in 1991, guiding the state through a difficult economic downturn after one of the hijacked airliners crashed into the Pentagon. He is nest known in Virginia for eliminating most of a much-maligned personal property tax on automobiles, working with a Democratic-controlled state legislature to get it passed and enacted.

Achilles heel: Gilmore is the only GOP or Democratic candidate for president who has been the chairman of his political party, giving him a rap as an 'establishment' candidate. A social-conservative crusader, he is loathed by the left for championing the state law that established 24-hour waiting periods for abortions. Gilmore also has a reputation as an indecisive campaigner, having dropped out of the 2008 presidential race in July 2007.

Mike Huckabee Former Arkansas governor

Age on Election Day: 61

Religion: Southern Baptist

Base: Evangelicals

Résumé: Former governor and lieutenant governor of Arkansas. Former Fox News Channel host. Ordained minister and author.

Education: B.A. Ouachita Baptist University. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (did not finish).

Family: Married to Janet Huckabee (1974), with three adult children. Mrs. Huckabee is a survivor of spinal cancer.

Claim to fame: 'Huck' is a political veteran and has run for president before, winning the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and finishing second for the GOP nomination behind John McCain. He's known as an affable Christian and succeeded in building a huge following on his weekend television program, in which he frequently sat in on the electric bass with country & western groups and other 'wholesome' musical entertainers.

Achilles heel: Huckabee may have a problem with female voters. He complained in 2014 about Obamacare's mandatory contraception coverage, saying Democrats want women to 'believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar.' He earned more scorn for hawking herbal supplements in early-2015 infomercials as a diabetes cure, something he has yet to disavow despite disagreement from medical experts.

John Kasich Ohio governor

Age on Election Day: 64

Religion: Anglican

Base: Centrists

Résumé: Governor of New York. Former chairman of the U.S. House Budget Committee. Former Ohio congressman. Former Ohio state senator.

Education: B.A. The Ohio State University.

Family: Married to Karen Waldbillig (1997). Divorced from Mary Lee Griffith (1975-1980).

Claim to fame: Kasich was Ohio youngest-ever member of the state legislature at age 25. He's known for a compassionate and working-class sensibility that appeals to both ends of the political spectrum. In the 1990s when Newt Gingrich led a Republican revolution that took over Congress, Kasich became the chairman of the House Budget Committee – a position for a wonk's wonk who understands the nuanced intricacies of how government runs.

Achilles heel: Some of Kasich's political positions rankle conservatives, including his choice to expand Ohio's Medicare system under the Obamacare law, and his support for the much-derided 'Common Core' education standards program.

Rand Paul Kentucky senator

Age on Election Day: 53

Religion: Presbyterian

Base: Libertarians

Résumé: US senator. Board-certified ophthalmologist. Former congressional campaign manager for his father Ron Paul.

Education: Baylor University (did not finish). M.D. Duke University School of Medicine.

Family: Married to Kelley Ashby (1990), with three sons. His father is a former Texas congressman who ran for president three times but never got close to grabbing the brass ring.

Claim to fame: Paul embraces positions that are at odds with most in the GOP, including an anti-interventionist foreign policy, reduced military spending, criminal drug sentencing reform for African-Americans and strict limits on government electronic surveillance – including a clampdown on the National Security Agency.

Achilles heel: Paul's politics are aligned with those of his father, whom mainstream GOPers saw as kooky. Both Pauls have advocated for a brand of libertarianism that forces government to stop domestic surveillance programs and limits foreign military interventions.

Rick Santorum Former Penn. senator

Age on Election Day: 58

Religion: Catholic

Base: Evangelicals

Résumé: Former US senator and former member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Former lobbyist who represented World Wrestling Entertainment.

Education: B.A. Penn State University. M.B.A. University of Pittsburgh. J.D. Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.

Family: Married to Karen Santorum (1990), with seven living children. One baby was stillborn in 1996. Another, named Isabella, is a special needs child with a genetic disorder.

Claim to fame: Santorum won the 2012 Republican Iowa Caucuses by a nose. He won by visiting all of Iowa's 99 states in a pickup truck belonging to his state campaign director, a consultant who now worls for Donald Trump.

Achilles heel: As a young lobbyist, Santorum persuaded the federal government to exempt pro wrestling from regulations governing the use of anabolic steroids. And the stridently conservative politician has attracted strong opposition from gay rights groups. One gay columnist held a contest to redefine his name, buying the 'santorum.com' domain to advertise the winning entry – which is too vulgar to print.

Scott Walker Wisconsin governor

Age on Election Day: 49

Religion: Christian (nondenominational)

Base: Conservative activists

Résumé: Governor of Wisconsin. Former Milwaukee County Executive. Former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Education: Marquette University (did not finish)

Family: Married to Tonette Tarantino (1993), with two children. One of Mrs. Walker's cousins is openly lesbian and was married in 2014, with the Walkers attending the reception.

Claim to fame: Walker built his national fame on the twin planks of turning his state's past budget shortfalls into surpluses and beating back a labor-union-led drive to force him out of office through a recall election. Both results have broad appeal in the GOP.

Achilles heel: Wisconsin has suffered from a shaky economy during Walker's tenure, which makes him look weak compared with other governors who presided over more robust job-creation numbers. He promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs but delivered less than 60 per cent of them. Also, he led an effort in the state legislature to enact $800 million in tax cuts – putting the Badger State back on the road to government deficits.

DEMOCRATS IN THE RACE

Lincoln Chafee Former Rhode Island governor

Age on Election Day: 63

Religion: Episcopalian Base: Centrists

Résumé: Former Rhode Island governor. Former U.S. senator. Former city councilman and mayor of Warwick, RI.

Education: B.A. Brown University. Graduate, Montana State University horseshoeing school.

Family: Married to Stephanie Chafee (1990) with three children. Like him, his father John Chafee was a Rhode Island governor and US senator, but also served as Secretary of the Navy. Lincoln was appointed to his Senate seat when his father died in office.

Claim to fame: While Chafee was a Republican senator during the George W. Bush administration, he cast his party's only vote in 2002 against a resolution that authorized military action in Iraq. Hillary Clinton, also a senator then, voted in favor – giving him a point of comparison that he hopes to ride to victory.

Achilles heel: Chafee's lack of any significant party loyalty has turned allies into foes throughout his political career, and Democrats aren't sure he's entirely with them now. He was elected to the Senate as a Republican in 2000 but left the party and declared himself a political independent after losing a re-election bid in 2006. As an independent, he was elected governor in 2010. Now he's running for president as a Democrat.

Martin O'Malley Former Maryland governor

Age on Election Day: 53

Religion: Catholic

Base: Centrists

Résumé:Former Maryland governor. Former city councilor and mayor of Baltimore, MD. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Education: B.A. Catholic University of America. J.D. University of Maryland.

Family: Married to Katie Curran (1990) and they have four children. Curran is a district court judge in Baltimore. Her father is Maryland's attorney general. O'Malley's mother is a receptionists in the Capitol Hill office of Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

Claim to fame: O'Malley pushed for laws in Maryland legalizing same-sex marriage and giving illegal immigrants the right to pay reduced tuition rates at public universities. But he's best known for playing guitar and sung in a celtic band cammed 'O’Malley’s March.'

Achilles heel: O’Malley may struggle in the Democratic primary since he endorsed Hillary Clinton eight years ago. If he prevails, he will have to run far enough to her left to be an easy target for the GOP. He showed political weakness when his hand-picked successor lost the 2014 governor's race to a Republican. But most troubling is his link with Baltimore, whose 2016 race riots have made it a nuclear subject for politicians of all stripes.

Jim Webb Former Virginia senator

Age on Election Day: 70

Religion: Christian (nondenominational) Base: War hawks and economic centrists

Résumé:Former U.S. senator from Virginia. Former U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Ronamd Reagan. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.

Education: B.A. US Naval Academy (transferred from the University of Southern California). J.D. Georgetown University.

Family: Married to Hong Le Webb (2005). Divorced from Jo Ann Krukar (1981-2004). Divorced from Barbara Samorajczyk (1968–1979).

Claim to fame: Webb is the rare Democrat who can bring both robust defense credentials and a history of genuine bipartisanship to the race. He served in Republican president Ronald Reagan's defense directorate as Navy secretary, and earned both the Navy Star and the Purple Heart in combat. Webb is also seen as a quiet scholar who has written more than a half-dozen historical novels and a critically acclaimed history of Scots-Irish U.S. immigrants.

Achilles heel: Webb has a reputation as a bit of a quitter. He resigned his Navy secretary post over a budget-cut dispute just 10 months after taking the job, and he declined to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. He also attracted bad press for defending the use of the Confederate flag as a heritage symbol for American southerners. Amid a nationwide clamor to remove the flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds, he wrote that Americans should 'respect the complicated history of the Civil War. ... Honorable Americans fought on both sides.'

Hillary Clinton Former sec. of state

Age on Election Day: 69

Religion: United Methodist

Base: Liberals

Résumé:Former secretary of state. Former U.S. senator from New York. Former U.S. first lady. Former Arkansas first lady. Former law school faculty, University of Arkansas Fayetteville.

Education: B.A. Wellesley College. J.D. Yale Law School.

Family: Married to Bill Clinton (1975), the 42nd President of the United States. Their daughter Chelsea is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, whose mother was a 1990s one-term Pennsylvania congresswoman.

Claim to fame: Clinton was the first US first lady with a postgraduate degree and presaged Obamacare with a failed attempt at health care reform in the 1990s.

Achilles heel: A long series of financial and ethical scandals has dogged Clinton, including recent allegations that her husband and their family foundation benefited financially from decisions she made as secretary of state. Her performance surrounding the 2012 terror attack on a State Department facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been catnip for conservative Republicans. And her presidential campaign has been marked by an unwillingness to engage journalists, instead meeting with hand-picked groups of voters.

Bernie Sanders* Vermont senator

Age on Election Day: 75

Religion: Jewish

Base: Far-left progressives

Résumé:U.S. senator. Former U.S. congressman. Former mayor of Burlington, VT.

Education: B.A. University of Chicago.

Family: Married to Jane O’Meara Sanders (1988), a former president of Burlington College. He has one child from a previous relationship and is stepfather to three from Mrs. Sanders' previous marriage. His brother Larry is a Green Party politician in the UK and formerly served on the Oxfordshire County Council.

Claim to fame: Sanders is an unusually blunt, and unapologetic pol, happily promoting progressivism without hedging. He is also the longest-serving 'independent' member of Congress – neither Democrat nor Republican.

Achilles heel: Sanders describes himself as a 'democratic socialist.' At a time of huge GOP electoral gains, his far-left ideas don't poll well. He favors open borders, single-payer universal health insurance, and greater government control over media ownership.

* Sanders is running as a Democrat but has no party affiliation in the Senate.

DEMOCRATS IN THE HUNT

Joe Biden, U.S. vice president

Biden would be a natural candidate as the White House's sitting second-banana, but his reputation as a one-man gaffe factory could keep Democrats from taking him seriously.

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator

Warren is a populist liberal who could give Hillary Clinton headaches by challenging her from the left, but she has said she has no plans to run and is happy in the U.S. Senate.