Lightning round.
Huck asked about SCHIP: Huck says he wants a minute and a half. So he can weasel. Says issue wasn't about children, which is true enough. But he doesnt' answer the question. They're giving him more than his 30 seconds. Says as president, he would never let it get to the point that it came to a veto. He refuses to say, when Matthews pushes him, to say he would veto it. Says the political loss is going to be enormous. So Huck would have signed SCHIP. They're giving him about a minute and a half, it seems. He gets applause for saying he doesnt' trust government or health care companies.
Romney asked about Arab-American population in Dearborn, Michigan. Romney talks about "Equality of all people," blah blah, but people who preach doctrines of hate or terror are "going to be followed into a church or Mosque." Hey, Religious Right, listen up: if you are preaching "hate," Romney will follow you into church with FBI spies.
Thompson: Asked about weak dollar. Says it helps our exports. Rambles.
Giuliani: Asked about federal debt owned by foreigners. Giuliani says we should sell more things overseas to balance out the debt owned by foreigners. "Sell energy independence, sell healthcare."
Brownie: Asked who his econ advisor would be. Says Greenspan(!). C'mon. He says he needs an "amalgam" of people. In other words, he can't name a single economist. He knows nothing about economics. Names Phil Gramm.
McCain asked about Bernanke's rate cuts. Says he (McCain) doesn't have the expertise to speak to it, that's why the Fed is independent. Says he wishes interest rates were zero, but leaves all that to the Fed.
Paul asked if he promises to support the GOP nominee. No, he says, not unless they promise to bring the troops home. He won't support them if they continue to take the party down the path that has taken the party down the tubes. We need a humble foreign policy.
Tancredo is asked the same. Says he's tired of being forced to choose lesser of evils, "I really don't intend to do that again." Good answer.
Brownie: Says he'll support the nominee. So the pro-life Brownie will vote for the pro-death Giuliani, though he says he thinks the nominee will be pro-life.
Hunter: Says he'll support the nominee. Talks about abortion, "respect for human beings." Gets applause.
Giuliani: Asked about London replacing NYC as financial capital of the world. Giuliani says no way, no how. Says it can't happen. Says this country is "last best hope" for humanity. Doesn't care about Bartiromo's objections, say it's inconceivable that America and NYC won't be the leading examples for the world. China, India, want to emulate U.S. Bartiromo asks about Sarbanes-Oxley and businesses leaving NYC. Giuliani says he'll lower corporate tax rates. Gets applause.
Romney: No, London won't replace NYC. Otherwise just parrots Giuliani. Says he'll support the GOP nominee. Cracks a joke about Fred Thompson and Law and Order, lots of laugh and Thompson is stony faced, but then cracks his own joke about how he's not the best actor on the stage.
Thompson asked about relationship with Canada. Thompson says it's fine. He successfully names Canadian PM Harper.
Huck asked about fixing the airlines. Says we need technology on the ground as sophisticated in the planes. Says "I don't want to re-regulate the industry, but..." He's a pinko! Says passengers shouldn't be "held hostage" on planes. Ok, fine. But he wants to re-regulate.
McCain asked how he would catch bin Laden. Says he would establish an organization not unlike the OSS in WWII. Well, guess what, John, the OSS wasn't too damn effective -- see "A Legacy of Ashes." Jokes that he would support the GOP nominee -- himself.
Romney asked about greatest long-term threat to U.S. economy. "Sense of optimism" he says. Utter b.s. "What we have as Americans is the envy of the world." Actually, Europe doesn't envy us very much.
Brownie: Says breakdown of the family is the greatest long-term economic threat. Ok, but it's too bad Brownie doesn't know anything about economics and can only talk about social issues.
Giuliani: Asked whether it would be good for hte country to have third-party option. Dumb question, and Giuliani says we do have third-parties. He goes back tot he question about education, says that's the biggest threat to the economy, and we should have school "choice." (I.e. get the government into private schools!)
Thompson asked how his first debate feels: Says it feels like home and he doesn't regret waiting to get into the race. "It was getting a little boring without me," he says, gets laughs.
It's over.
It seems to me that Paul was asked by far the fewest questions. Even Brownie got more. Duncan and Tancredo had more face time. It was shameless. Paul got no questions during that last lightning round, as far as I can recall.
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8 comments:
I totally agree Ron Paul was asked the least amount of questions, but he also more than any other candidate wasted his answers.He needs to be more forceful and not spend 10 seconds on a question that he has one mintue to answer. I love Ron Paul but today was the worst day for the movement since I have been following it because Ron Paul did not want it enough. He lost this debate not becuase of his ideas or the time allowed, but because he didnt play the debate game. I feel so down after watching them do that to him and watching him do that to himself and all of us who are fighting for him and this movement. He has got to get tough. Worst day of the whole campaign. I wish it wasnt so because I was so eager for a victory. I feel let down by his weak performance. Its now or never Ron. Like it or not you are the leader of this thing and if you dont fight on stage against that garbage then how can you expect us to fight for you. sad day
Huck is a perfect example of the unprincipled conservative, he would sign the expansion of the socialist SCHIP law for a perceived short term political gain.
That's why conservatives have never made government smaller.
It was nice to see Paul break in on Guliani this time and correct him on
9/11.
Brownie had a point with his comment on the breakdown of the family being the number one long-term economic threat. It's not just a social issue. It's both a social issue and an economic issue.
The fact that Ron Paul was asked fewer questions is really nothing new. I remember in one of the past debates counting Mitt Romney's five first half hour questions to Ron Paul's one. There's also the matter of positioning. It is not by accident that Paul is always on the end, with the media's chosen so-called "first tier" candidates in the middle. This, of course, accomplishes two things: First, it allows plenty of camera shots that capture all three (four now with Fred Thompson) phoneys and thereby minimizes the shots of Paul. Second, it has the psychological effect of making Paul appear to be a fringe candidate and hence not representative of the needs of the hoi polloi. The middle candidates, though, they represent the majority.
And by the way, Anonymous, cheer up; it's not the end of the world. Yes, we all love RP, but it is his ideas that sell, not a faux charisma or "look of a president." No, he didn't "play the debate game." There was no "optimism" coming from Paul. Thankfully, however, more people are seeing through this "optimism" emitting from the charlatans since there really is nothing to be optimistic about, at least short term. Optimism is swell...if tethered to reality. To be optimistic under the present conditions is akin to playing a lyre as Rome burns. But again, most Americans are seeing through the baloney. That is why Paul's straight talk is so appreciated.
I'll have to disagree with "anonymous" above: Ron Paul was playing contrarian. He didn't bloviate endlessly in responding, making it clear that verbal quantity does not create verbal quality.
He also kept the debate circling back to the endless, expanding war, which is both accurate - as to how central this is, from cost and peril, to the health of the economy - and good strategy. The opposition to the war is his main distinction, and he's playing to such a strength.
I cannot fathom how anyone could see Paul "not wanting it enough." He's not going to endlessly pander or puff up his answers beyond their core elements. That determination shows through, as (to cite an earlier remark on this blog) not being "full of sh*t."
And as to fighting, more generally, get real, amigo: Paul doesn't set the debate agenda, except for some scrappy fighting outside the box of the "rules," such as he did with Giuliani. He can't control their fawning over the media darling Thompson deigning to show up at long last.
Paul took the ashy soot being thrown up and mined some hard diamonds from it. Including in the debate aftermath, where Matthews said that he "didn't dare" agree with Paul on the war ... every rock gets worn down eventually, to mix geological metaphors!
I didn't see the debate, but I can tell you what happened on MSNBC shortly after. David Schuster ran a clip in which Ron went after Mitt with vigor: "Attorneys! We don't need attorneys! It's in the Constitution." Cut back to Schuster, who says, "Wow."
If that exchange gets any play in the Iowa media, Romney's lead just got chipped away big time.
Anyhow, to this observer it seems strange to read that an actual viewer of the debates had the perception that Paul was passive. It seemed to me that Paul delivered a punch and maybe Romney's campaign didn't end today, but he's reeling.
Christopher: Yes, you're right that family problems are an economic as well as a social issue. But taken in the context of Brownback's other answers, particularly his inability to name any economic adviser besides the superannuated Alan Greenspan and Phil Gramm, it suggests that he really hasn't thought much about economics.
I worked the GOP spinroom during the Bush/Gore debates in 2000. And honestly, the winning strategy is not the debate itself - but the perception the American people have the day after the debates. Gore won the debates handsdown from a purely intellectual perspective, but Bush won the post debate PR battle - and that's the one that counts.
As long as RP's star rises (raising money helps), the media is going to give him better and better coverage post-debate.
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