Sure it was boring, which is why I’m posting this as bedtime reading. Whomever decided to have debates in May before an election year did not ask me. Nevertheless, these are the Republican men who would lead our country. At some point we need to start listening.
At least this time the pathetically biased Chris Matthews was not pretending to impartially moderate the debate. Brit Hume did a reasonable job I thought.
The incomparable David Wissing says that Mitt Romney won the debate. Clearly Romney sounds better than the rest of them, but is he really saying anything important? In the television age, form is perhaps more important than substance. Romney is clearly on an upward trajectory after two debates and we can expect him to shine even more when some of the low hanging fruit (hello Tom Tancredo) drop off.
Katie Wycklendt has the right take on Ron Paul’s foolish terrorism statement. I actually like Ron Paul because he has a unique perspective as the nearest thing we have to a Libertarian in Congress. But he looked ridiculous and caused real libertarians discomfort, so I will quickly run away and heap deserved scorn upon his presence.
Joe Gandelman has the good, the bad, and the ugly of Rudi Giuliani. Rudi’s strength continues to be leadership, however, the reality is that he cannot extract himself from the deepening self-inflicted quicksand on moral issues.
Bull Dog Pundit over at Ankle Biting Pundits gives John McCain credit for consistency, except that he castigates McCain for un-conservative positions. Well at least that is something. I continue to support McCain in what will certainly be a losing cause at this point. I do think there is an unfortunate tendency to confuse conservative positions with partisan GOP positions. Recent GOP history, as exemplified by our liberal president and the last congress, is anything but conservative. The GOP has NOT been conservative lately. John McCain is a traditional conservative in the mold of Goldwater. Hard to say if conservatives really want a conservative anymore, or if the word has simply become lip-service to misunderstood principles.
John Hawkins says that Mike Huckabee did the best in the debate. Huckabee said “Congress spends money like John Edwards at a beauty shop.�? Now that’s a conservative statement we can all get behind, but the problem is Huckabee just isn’t going anywhere so a consideration of Huckabee is like liberals discussing world events in a faculty lounge.
Susan has the video of Fred Thompson’s response to Michael Moore’s debate challenge.
Jawa says that Fred Thompson won the debate. The problem of course is that Fred Thompson wasn’t there, which means you are probably getting very sleepy by now.
As for Duncan Hunter, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback, and Jim Gilmore, there is a rumor that they were present during the debate. If you noticed them there, I am confident you are now asleep.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
I defy you to explain how Ron Paul’s statement was inacurate.
“I believe that the CIA is correct when they talk about blowback. When we went into Iran in ‘53, there was blowback. If we ignore that, we ignore that at our own risk. They don’t come here to attack us because we’re rich, they attack us because we’re over there.”
May 15th, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I think you’d find that the majority of “real” libertarians would, in fact, not be discomforted by his statement at all. I for one was happy to hear him say it.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
Excellent post McCain. I can’t get serious about the debates and their sound bite formulas even when real journalists are moderating them.
I do have one minor point of disagreement with you concerning Paul. His positons on national defense and homeland security are very close to those of the Libertarian Party. That is: retreat to fortress USA, sit back, watch the rest of the world go to hell and act surprised when mushroom clouds rize from the ashes of vaporized American cities.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:24 pm
Redbeard and Matthew…..because terrorists attacked us for who we are, not where we are. All you have to do is read Osama’s letter to the American people to understand from the horse’s asses mouth that our threat to Islamo-fascism is a cultural one more than a geographical one. That’s what Ron Paul screwed up on, and it was naked for everyone to see. “Convert or die” was the mantra of Muhammad 1500 years ago and is the mantra of Islamo-fascists today. That’s why we were attacked and why Ron Paul’s blame America mentality is a reckless and literally dangerous misunderstanding of history.
OSAPian, welcome back! Ron Paul is wrong on terrorism. He fundamentally misunderstands the nature of it just as our first two commenters do. But Paul is right on everything else. And let me add for clarification that the distinction between large L Libertarian and small L libertarian was reasonably important to me as I wrote that paragraph.
May 15th, 2007 at 9:31 pm
“read Osama’s letter to the American people to understand from the horse’s asses”
horse’s ass?
tim wasn’t there was he?
May 15th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Lisa, have I subconsciously picked up a line from your epic ode to Tim? Remind me which line that was again, and maybe you could rewrite the thing to Ron Paul.
May 15th, 2007 at 10:07 pm
“(chorus)
Tim’s a dreary hack,
Just a vapid little toady
His blind defense of dem positions
Really is quite grody
When you talk about principles
He just gives you a laugh
He’s a vacuous little, pompous little
Sanctimonious horse’s ass
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay
Um diddle diddle diddle um diddle ay”
i’d give just the line but then you’d miss the part about tim being a vapid little toady …
May 15th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
I actually googled vapid little toady. i’m expecting your poem to pop up on page 1 very soon.
update: Eureka, you have the top 3 google listings for vapid little toady, and “tim is a vapid little toady” has the top 2. you are positively evil.
May 16th, 2007 at 2:33 am
Yep, Fred Thompson is the big winner in my book. Did you see his video response to Michael Moore challenging him to a debate over healthcare? Priceless. It’s on my blog today if you’ve missed it.
May 16th, 2007 at 2:53 am
It looks like a line up of all white males! The GOP (and the Dems) need to do a better job of mixing it up here. Where are the women?
May 16th, 2007 at 3:55 am
I had computer issues last night, and I could not post anything on the debate. My winners are:
Romney – won – not by a large margin.
Guiliani – He had a better performance this time – almost taking first place over Romney. He really hammered Ron Paul, a nut.
Huckabee – He got the best line off in the debate about the Silky Pony and his hair. A pleasant surprise.
Hunter – 4th place – ok- but when will he shine? (For disclosure – I’m supporting him).
The rest are all losers – Senator McCain had an off night – actually it was disastrous.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Susan – thanks for the heads up. I linked ya in.
MBT – you want Hillary to switch parties?
Tina – good analysis as usual.
May 16th, 2007 at 9:44 am
McCain – um… no. We have our own qualified women….
May 16th, 2007 at 10:09 am
I actually was able to see some real live United States politics last night! Like the old song says, “you don’t know what you got until it’s gone!” 4 Straight weeks on the road and out of the country has put me behind the 8 ball to say the least. Tomorrow I head to Vegas on a personal quest to donate some hard earned US dollars to those casinos in desperate need of my cash.
Enough with that. Here is my synopsis of the debate:
Rudy – A much better performance than the highlights (lowlights?) that I saw from the first debate. Of course, things are a little easier when your mortal enemies are not the moderators. I thought he handled the abortion question well and he really did blow Paul out of the water. I actually like Paul. He makes a lot of good points but he is so far from the mainstream that his message will never resonate.
Romney – He had a very good night. At least to me, he appears to be the winner of the debate. He is easily the most articulate of the bunch and does not resport to the same stupid jokes over and over again like McCain. The question is, will it even matter? On the surface Romney is the whole package of brains, looks, experience and a huge bank account. So far that has translated into very little success in the polls. I think the Mormon issue is wrongly holding him back.
McCain – I am really, really tired of this guy. I can not understand how Rightpundit’s publisher, McCain can support John McCain. He comes off as a complete phony. His stance on taxes and Gitmo has the potential to be much more damaging to this country than Rudy’s stance on abortion. Please, come up with some new jokes. I am out of the country for an entire month and still I am hearing the same old stupid jokes.
The rest – who cares?
Fred Thompson – I have changed my mind, or as a politican would state, my position has “evolved” concerning Fred Thompson. I now think he enters the race and quickly becomes the prohibitive favorite to win the nomination. Staying out of these early useless debates in a strategically smart move. Should Thompson win the nomination, then say hello to President Hillary Rodham Clinton with an increased democratic control of congress. I post a blog on this later.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:09 am
MBT — Well okay, there is Condi Rice, and come to think of it she would run circles around these boys in a debate setting. But who else is there? In fact I think the field has shrunk the last couple of years. Kay Hutchinson and Lizzy Dole are aging and as high as they will ever get.
MDefl — Don’t I get credit for consistency in the face of adversity? Heh.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Hi folks,
MDefl, I remember when you and I used to go back and forth over Romney. I am glad that he is starting to impress you and many others.
As for the polls, all that really matter are the early states, and there still a lot of time to go of course. There was a poll last week showing Romney with a 9 point lead in New Hampshire. There is a new poll out of Iowa today showing him ahead with 19 percent to McCain and Rudy both having 18 percent (so a statistical tie to be sure, but Romney is the only one to keeep increasing support in that survey). He also has led recent polls out of Nevada and Michigan.
Our party has some good candidates and some that are a waste of space. But that’s what makes politics fun!
May 16th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Maybe somebody can do a follow up on this one and I don’t mean to be off-topic but having computer issues suck.
Anyway,
The Drats want the AG Gonzales fired because of a hospital meeting back in 2004 with then AG Ashcroft. Gonzales was not the AG. Its sad that some of the Republicrats in the Senate want to throw him overboard due to this latest “bombshell” disclosure.
Its all about the terrorist surveillance program and the Patriot Act. Wake up Republicrats in the Senate.
May 16th, 2007 at 10:39 am
The Drats want to end these programs. But they don’t want to come out and say they are against them because they will get killed. Therefore, its still there war through proxy.
May 16th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Corey,
I am not opposed to Romney on the issues. I probably agree with about 90% of what he (at least currently) stands for. I am about 80% with Rudy.
I chose Rudy because of his ability to handle a crisis is a known and I think the country is going to desperately need that skill in the future and I think he is the only Republican who can prevent President Hillary Rodham (I am having a panic attack as I type this) Clinton.
I really think Romney is a good human being with positions that are well thought out and articulated in an intelligent fashion. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will be enough given the prejudice that exists against Mormons and the the cycle we are in as a country.