Carly Fiorina was always going to win last night's debate, griped rival Scott Walker, whose own performance at last night's Republican debate was panned by political pundits.
'I think going in, we knew the narrative, no matter what was going to happen, was that they were going to say Carly had a big night, no matter what, and obviously they said that,' Walker said Thursday on Glenn Beck's radio show, blaming the political media for making the call and crowning Fiorina the winner.
While the Wisconsin governor had once been considered a top-tier GOP pick, Fiorina was among the pack's longshots, though has been surging in the polls in recent weeks.
So much, in fact, that the original debate rules would have kept Fiorina off stage, as CNN was averaging polls taken before the first debate, when she was relatively unknown, and up until the second to establish eligibility.
However, as the network explained, not enough polls were taken between the two debates and so Fiorina's bounce – inspired by her 'win' at the first kids' table debate – wouldn't be enough to propel her onto the big kids' stage.
Fiorina's campaign complained and even had supporters sign a petition, and so CNN changed the rules, allowing the inclusion of the former Hewlett-Packard as debate participant No. 11.
The only female Republican candidate provided some of the biggest moments of the night.
She ripped Planned Parenthood, gave her plan for Iran, talked about her step-daughter's death from drug addiction, in one of the debate's more somber moments, and gave a blank-faced stare to Donald Trump when he complimented her looks.
