There was another live Republican debate from South Carolina last night on the Fox News Channel. Some 3,000 people gathered in Myrtle Beach to hear what the five remaining 2012 GOP presidential candidates had to say. With another GOP presidential debate on Thursday, followed by the South Carolina primary on Saturday, all eyes are on the Palmetto State. Front runner Mitt Romney got hammered by his opponents, putting him well off his game of cool last night. Newt Gingrich, a close second in most SC polls, received a standing ovation at one point and showed once again that he is the best debater. The two Ricks, Santorum and Perry, gave much improved performances. The two big losers were candidate Ron Paul, booed by the crowd for his stand on the War on Terror, and moderator Juan Williams, booed by the audience for his attempts to frame Gingrich as being a racist.
Some of the highlights from last night′s Republican debate were as follows. Rick Santorum went after Mitt Romney and his Super-PAC attack ads. Mitt′s standard response about not being able to tell them what they can or cannot do is wearing out. Gingrich posed the question that I, myself, have been pointing out for months, how can the guy who lost to the guy who lost to Obama suddenly become the only one who can beat Obama? During his exchange with Juan Williams, who questioned Newt about statements like ″Obama being the food stamp president″ and having poor school children work as janitors, Gingrich mentioned how his own daughter worked as a janitor for their church at the age of 13. Newt then blasted the Obama administration over failing to help an area in South Carolina plagued by 20-plus percent unemployment that is mostly African-American. The Obama job-creation formula simply is not working, pardon the pun.
Romney was generally awkward in many of his answers as the other contenders were unleashed on him. A couple of times he sounded remarkably like George H. W. Bush in his lack of a first-person. Rick Perry scored some points clarifying his position concerning the four U.S. Marines being charged in an incident in Afghanistan where they allegedly urinated on the body of a dead Taliban rebel. The crowd cheered when Perry said the Taliban beheading Americans was far more worse. Last night simply was not a good one for Ron Paul. He scored some points when talking economics and shrinking government, especially in having a 0% income tax rate. But most of the questions aimed at him were on foreign policy and military issues, where voters are less supportive.
The Fox News Channel 2012 live Republican presidential debate last night certainly had winners and losers. Newt Gingrich shined before the 3,000 person audience at the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina debate. Both Rick Santorum and Rick Perry turned in good performances, getting more talk-time and being more feisty. Mitt Romney stumbled a couple of times and was generally off his game. Ron Paul is still having trouble with many people on issues beyond his popular rants against the Federal Reserve. With the South Carolina primary this Saturday, we will see who can stay alive in what is now a five-man foot race to become the 2012 GOP presidential nominee?
January 17th, 2012 at 2:48 pm
Who Won? us a toss-up between Santorum and Newt.
Who Lost? Juan Williams
He Got T-Boned.
The ‘Race Card’ is going down, but it is fighting it, every step of the way.
It’s like ‘A Night To Remember’. The Titanic is going down, but there is time for plenty of last minute drama.
Newt’s direct challenge of Juan’s premise and the crowd’s reaction to Juan’s pathetic attempt to scrape a little more ‘Free Ride’ from the Racialism of the Left will be remembered as an iconic example of the tail end slipping beneath the waves.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:32 pm
I would love to agree that Liberalism in all of its Progressive, Socialist forms is becoming extinct. But then we saw today the unions deliver a truck load of recall petitions in Wisconsin to oust Gov. Scott Walker.
Nay, the bad guys are still with us and will be until the Second Coming. We must remain ever vigilant of them and their activities. We must fight them on the beaches. In the air, land and seas. We will fight them in the streets, in the hills and forests. We shall never surrender!
January 17th, 2012 at 3:34 pm
You’d think that Juan Williams would have learned his lesson after the plantation masters at NPR fired him. But I guess he wants back in The Club and last night was his attempt to renew his credentials as a good…, well, you know what I mean.
January 17th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Liberals lost.
Hair club for men won.
January 17th, 2012 at 4:14 pm
Love the sheizen andy, “Mitt Romney wasn’t this, Mitt Romney was awkward, Mitt Romney’s statements are played out, etc., etc., etc. But oohh, what a player the ol’ fat guy who sided with liberals is, what a pro!! He even got a standing ovation at one point! I fckin’ hate gingrich, I lost all respect for that fcker, I will never support him or defend him or buy another book by him ever again. Not because of his debate against Romney, not because he’s fighting back either. I just heard a bllsht ugly radio ad by “winningourfuture” which was completely misleading and just outright propaganda. I have no respect for that fat old piece of garbage. I used to like him and didn’t care that he fought back, but when you start spewing bllsht because your ego makes you think you can do something that you cannot do and the country ends up suffering while you take another $1.6 million dollars of money after you lose this election and common Americans suffer under obama’s reign another 4 years it’ll be your fault fatso!
January 17th, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Andy has his bias. We all do, which is what makes blogs cool. But get off his back, man. Agreed Newt is a dickhead.
January 17th, 2012 at 5:58 pm
But, it does no good to mention that the USA was founded on the principles of the philosopher who founded liberalism.
Of course not. Or maybe, you feel liberalism has changed since his day?
Tell me I really want to know. What the heck is wrong with the government helping someone out. I thought that was what governments were for (among other things). Why is any hint of such an idea “socialism” in your eyes?
January 17th, 2012 at 6:37 pm
I believe if one is going to write an analysis then it should not be biased, it should be based on facts and rational thinking, not emotion. There are people who will read what he writes and believe all of it because they don’t know otherwise or they don’t pay attention to the issues.
If you don’t like a candidate you’re entitled to it, if newt the fat bstard wants to fight back against other candidates that’s cool too, but leading the lambs to slaughter is something else man!
January 18th, 2012 at 6:17 am
Ron, I kind of figured you would not be happy with my ‘analysis’, but you want facts, lets look at some:
FACT: Mitt Romney has won one term as governor of MA. He didn’t bother running for a 2nd because his numbers were so low due to the lousy job he did. Newt won 10 terms in Congress, was the driving force behind the 1994 Contract with America victory. Who is the better politician with more experience in a tough battle? Answer: Newt
FACT: Romney’s StupidPAC put out ads claiming Newt was “fined” $300,000 on 84 ethics charges. Of which, 83 had no legs and the one that did stick was merely him teaching a college course which he should have suspended once becoming Speaker of the House. Newt voluntarily paid $300,000 covering the cost of the investigation against him, not exactly a real “fine” in my opinion.
FACT: Another Romney ad charge is that Newt got $1.6 Million from Freddie Mac. His company did. The one with offices in 3 cities and 100-200 employees. Gingrich earned about $35,000 that year from his consulting firm. Romney claims to be a businessman and should know the difference.
FACT: Many of Romney’s alleged business successes were aided significantly by government money. Mitt is an expert at LBO, leveraged buyouts, borrowing other people’s money to buy companies. Steel Dynamics, one of Mitt’s alleged ’successes’, got $37 Million from the State of Indiana and the local county, DeKalb, which had to institute a special tax to pay the bill.
I could go on but you get the drift, Ron. The ‘facts’ are that there is really no evidence aside from some polls, and I mean ’some’, that Romney is the best bet to defeat Obama. There are plenty of polls that show Obama beating Mitt. We all know that Obama’s campaign is going to be as dirty and as vicious as any we have ever seen. Do you want a guy ‘leading the lambs’ who couldn’t even beat John McCain or do you want somebody who has done the fire-walk before and knows how to fight back?
January 18th, 2012 at 7:07 am
But, it does no good to mention that the USA was founded on the principles of the philosopher who founded liberalism.”
Bullsht you fckin idiot.
This country was founded on individualism and the ability/right to own private (non communal)property.
Once the government was taken out of the trade picture was when things took off like a rocket.
Socialism is what damn near wiped us all out by starvation due to govt subsidies and distribution of land with strings attached.
But of course you wouldnt understand the concept of pride, motivatioon and incentive that comes with the responsability of individualism should anything go wrong, right ?
You fail, no big deal. Wasnt your land to start with,right ? So you,ll just let the feds and 1 % take the heat.
“founded onm liberalism ??
Good grief you’re stupid, stupid, stipid
January 18th, 2012 at 7:49 am
No, Klo, I do not “feel” that “liberalism” has changed, I KNOW its definition has!
America was founded on the inspiration of 18th Century Liberal philosophy. VERY SMALL, VERY LIMITED government. I know plenty of people whom you would describe as Conservatives, or worse, who define themselves as “Jeffersonian Liberals”, as they advocate for small, constitutionally limited government.
The ‘modern’ term of ‘liberal’ and liberalism was hijacked by the Progressive movement after the Crash of 1920. The economic policies of Woodrow Wilson and his gang of thieves ruined the nation. In terms of actual percentages of jobs lost and GDP loss, the Crash of 1920 was far worse than the Crash of 1929.
The difference, of course, is that the immediate solution which was carried out to its fullest by our hero, Calvin Coolidge, was to LOWER TAXES and SLASH SPENDING by about 50%. This resulted in the depression lasting just a short while and set the stage for the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties.
The Progressive movement was so hammered politically, due to the Crash of 1920, as well as Prohibition and other ridiculous nonsense they caused, that they stopped calling themselves Progressives and started calling themselves Liberals. Of course, what they really are are Socialists!
January 18th, 2012 at 7:59 pm
Andy I can go back and forth with you until the election about this. I doubt newt is going to work for $35k, and borrowing other people’s money to invest is usually what you want to do, not lose your own if something goes wrong. So being that Romney is the most successful, i’d like to see him work the economy. Just because gingrich worked in the Congress and compromised with the Clinton Administration doesn’t give him the same direct credit Romney gets for his work in the private sector. Two different animals.
klo is referring to Classic Liberalism, has nothing to do with the liberalism of today klo. Liberalism of today is Democracy. The country was founded and meant to be a Republic, not a democracy, with checks and balances in federal government and states’ rights being observed, creating a “compound republic” as observed by Madison.