Republican party front-runner Donald Trump said during Thursday's presidential debate in Cleveland that he doesn't "have time for total political correctness." Apparently he hasn't had time to totally develop his policy ideas yet, either.
Trump took center stage Thursday night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland at the top of recent GOP polls, riding a wave of momentum he has generated by his outspoken, no-new-friends rhetoric regarding issues ranging from immigration to women in the workforce to global trade. 
Trump is at the center, in the red tie with that one-of-a-kind combover.
Donald has risen to the top of polls by touching a nerve with a small, albeit very angry, population of the Republican party that is tired of seeing America send jobs overseas while illegal immigrants flood the country and live off of government benefits. Trump's brash demeanor and divisive policy stances have earned him few friends in the party, a fact that seems to bother him very little. Leading the next closest candidate, Jeb Bush, by more than 10 percent in recent polls, Trump was in a prime position to elaborate on his positions and outline plans to materialize his campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again"; however, he failed to do so.
Having caught the attention of the party and the nation at large with the sheer force of his personality, Trump could have broadened his appeal to the party by presenting policy ideas and outlines and a vision of what a Trump presidency would be like. Instead, he browbeat the current state of the nation and failed to go into detail about how exactly he would win back jobs from China or which sources at the border he spoke with that told him the Mexican government was sending criminals into the United States (unless you count him saying that "their leaders are smart and ours are stupid" as an answer).
By comparison, another Republican candidate whose personality and outspoken nature have garnered him attention is Ted Cruz. Cruz has built his platform on his refusal to go along with what he calls the "Washington Cartel" over and over throughout his campaign. The difference between Cruz and Trump, though, is that Cruz has the ideas and vision to partner with his personality. While he may not be as divisive or extreme with his stances, he is certainly more politically correct; Cruz fielded questions on the same issues as Trump with a much more balanced attack of detailed policy plans coupled with his own trademark personality. Whereas Trump tapped into Republicans' anger over Obama's foreign policy during the debate, Cruz not only harnessed it, he also forwarded his own vision at the same time, controlling the time of debate while maintaining concision in his answers.
I find the Trump campaign fascinating. I think a Trump presidency could be a transformative time for the country, whether that transformation is a restoration to our position as a world power or whether his personality turns the rest of the globe against us. It's still too soon to tell. But I will say that I was looking forward to Trump refining his rhetoric and his vision for this debate, widening the gap between himself and the rest of the field by pairing his forceful personality with intelligent, well-planned policy initiatives that he hadn't yet revealed up to this point. That didn't happen. He failed to take that next step in my eyes, and while I don't think he will necessarily take a substantial hit in the polls, I don't believe his lead on the rest of the field will increase. But, at the end of the day, the first primaries are not for six more months, so there is plenty of time for Trump to refine the ins and outs of his policies while maintaining the polarizing demeanor that has swept him to the top of the polls. His performance in the debate was definitive proof that while his views may change, the personality that is "The Donald" is here to stay.
