There was a stage, and on it, there was Donald Trump. But Trump didn't dominate the stage. And that may have been a first.

He was once again debating a chorus line of Republican presidential candidates, but there was a big difference Wednesday night: Trump didn't have a Trump audience in his pocket and on his side.

He was at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, an upscale bedroom suburb of Los Angeles where the median household income is nearly $88,000 and where audiences are not given to yee-haws.

While Trump brought out his usual lines and his array of smirks, his performance was often met with near silence.

That was something new for him. And it made him lose what has bolstered him in the campaign thus far: his bluster.

Even his bullying fell flat. "Rand Paul shouldn't even be on this stage," Trump said at the debate's beginning, apropos of absolutely nothing. "He's No. 11; he's got 1 percent in the polls, and how he got up here — there's far too many people."

Which gave Paul the chance to verbalize what many in the party feel — regardless of what the polls show. "I think really there's a sophomoric quality that is entertaining about Mr. Trump, but I am worried," Paul said. "I'm very concerned about him."

Then Paul took his real shot: "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?"

The audience broke into applause. But Trump made the mistake of going for the snark anyway. "I never attacked him on his look — and believe me, there's plenty of subject matter right there," Trump said as if he were a Borscht Belt comic silencing a heckler.

The audience didn't go for it much, and it was not a good road for Trump to head down anyway. Trump had recently said to Rolling Stone magazine about Carly Fiorina: "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president?"

Seeking to repair the damage, perhaps, Trump had said early in the debate: "I will take care of women. I respect women."

Fiorina, however, did not feel the need to be cared for or respected by Trump. "I think women all over this country heard very clearly what Mr. Trump said," she said.

This was received with prolonged applause and shouts of approval. Trump sheepishly responded: "I think she's got a beautiful face. And I think she's a beautiful woman."

Which is to say he still doesn't get it.

Fiorina was on the stage with The Donald and nine other candidates in Simi Valley because of her surprisingly strong performance in the first Republican debate in Cleveland last month.

And she surprised again Wednesday with the most emotional response of the debate. It concerned Republican plans to defund Planned Parenthood after a controversial undercover recording was released of a Planned Parenthood official allegedly discussing the sale of fetal tissue.

"As regards Planned Parenthood, anyone who has watched this videotape — I dare Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama to watch these tapes," Fiorina said, her voice thickening with emotion. "Watch a fully formed fetus on the table, its heart beating, its legs kicking while someone says, 'We have to keep it alive to harvest its brain.' This is about the character of our nation."

The audience thundered its approval, and Fiorina demonstrated she could mix it up with the big boys onstage not just on matters of big business — her specialty — but also on social issues.

After the lengthy debate, when a CNN reporter mentioned to Trump that many people thought Fiorina had done well, Trump looked genuinely surprised.

"Oh, really?" he said and shrugged. "I think she's a very nice person."

But then he added, "They're saying very nice things about me. People just came over to me and said, 'Wow, you were great!'"

As if that were not the kind of thing that people always tell a candidate right after a performance.

But what, Trump was asked, had he actually learned from the debate?

Trump pondered the question. "I learned I had no trouble standing for three hours," he said.

Right now, Trump stands high atop the polls. But he's going to have to learn more than that from these debates if he's going to stay there.

Roger Simon is Politico's chief political columnist. His new e-book, "Reckoning: Campaign 2012 and the Fight for the Soul of America," can be found on Amazon.com, BN.com and iTunes. To find out more about Roger Simon and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Web page at www.creators.com.