At the beginning of Tuesday night's Fox Business GOP Debate, each candidate was introduced in turn, as one might expect, and of course the crowd applauded for their guys. Tommy Christopher of liberal website The Daily Banter called it the "Applause Primary." What is interesting is how well it predicted the outcome of the evening.

You can listen for yourself above. Although it is going to be somewhat subjective, it certainly seems the loudest applause went to Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who are widely being given credit as the debates two top winners. At the other end, Gov. Kasich and Senator Rand Paul received a very tepid reception, which is about how they are faring in post-debate analysis. 

Make your own call, but as you listen to each in turn, including a fairly surprising, not-too-bad round of applause for Jeb Bush and a very subdued and low-energy burst for Trump, the crowd's reaction at the very opening of the debate certainly seems to have accurately predicted the eventual outcome. At least to our ears.