In what had to rank as the worst presidential debate in modern history, CNBC anchors berated, cut off, and skewed the words of all the Republican candidates over the course of two absolutely stultifying hours on Wednesday night.

In spite of, and in the case of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Chris Christie, because of that terrible moderation, Republicans actually emerged looking better for where.

They needed to show they had elbows, and many of them did.

So without further ado, here are the third Republican debate grades.

Donald Trump gets a B.

In the run-up to the debate, I said that Trump actually needed to stay away from attacking the other candidates,

and actually he basically did. The only time that he went after anybody else is when an aggressively nasty

John Kasich ended up attacking Trump. And Trump basically face-planted him by pointing out his

connection with the failed Lehman brothers. And Trump did a great job of going after the media.

I've been saying for months, for years, actually, that going after the media is the best path to victory for Republicans. Trump did a great job of going after the media. I've been saying for months, for years,

actually, that going after the media is the best path to victory for Republicans. Trump did it.

His final repost against the CNBC powers that be, in which he bragged about forcing them to

reduce the length of the debate to two hours, was classic. The only reason Trump gets a B, rather

than an A, was because he was caught red-handed in a lie about his position on H-1B visas.

It became clear Trump hadn't even read his own immigration plan, or if he did, he didn't know it well enough for debate.

It doesn't matter.

All of his fans still love him and all of his detractors still hate him.

It's a B.

Ben Carson, this was the guy coming in with all the momentum. He exits without it. He has a C. He didn't have much to say throughout the debate. He flubs his answers on his tax plan. He looked uncertain. He looked erratic. He looked weak. Occasionally, he gets off a strong note. Whenever he talks about social issues, Carson is great. But every time he's not talking about social issues, he looks weak. He even acknowledged

that his weakness, his personal weakness, could be his own inability to consider himself a presidential

candidate, which seems a pretty fair summation. Marco Rubio. Rubio pulls an A. Rubio had a really,

really good night. As I said yesterday, Marco Rubio is a terrific defensive fighter. He was going to

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