It Begins

The head of the Republican Party of Florida refers to it as "the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, and Reagan."

Ron Paul gets big applause when he's introduced, but, disappointingly, Huckabee and Giuliani are getting bigger pops. Romney and Thompson, even McCain, too. It's not much of a Paul crowd, it seems.

Brit Hume introduced Paul as the '88 Libertarian Party candidate.

First question: who is the real Republican, the real conservative? Giuliani is asked whether he's more conservative than Thompson. Giuliani cites George Will to vouch for his conservative credentials. Giuliani claims he brought down crime "Maybe more than anyone in the history of this country." Megalomaniacal much? Claims that someone might find one or two exceptions to his conservatism--no kidding.

Romney is asked about his flip-flops and having run to the left of Ted Kennedy in Mass. Romney is sporting a ridiculous new hairstyle, with a lick of bangs dropping down onto his forehead. He looks absurd. This must be his attempt to make himself look less stiff and polished, but it makes him look like a statue with a bit of pigeon poop dropping down its forehead.

Thompson is asked whether he buys what Romney and Giuliani are selling. He says they have an hour and a half, maybe they'll get somewhere. Cracks a joke about Ted Kennedy's girth (no room to the left of him--no room to the right of him, either). Thompson says "both of these gentlemen have done some good things," but he points out that Giuliani is for government-funded abortion, gun control, and sanctuary cities. Giuliani gets to rebut him: says that Thompson was biggest obstacle to tort reform. "He voted against almost anything that would make our legal system fairer," such as loser-pays laws. Giuliani seemsa bit shaky in his response--he's grasping at straws.

Thompson gets another minute. Blathers about tort reform a bit, says he supported it w/regard to interstate commerce and a few other things, but that local issues belong at the state level. Good comeback to Giuliani. Says he passed an anti-sanctuary-city bill. Giuliani went to court to overturn it, says Thompson. Giuliani replies with his stock answer about New York's problems and the practical need for sanctuary policies.

McCain is asked who's more conservative, himself or Romney. McCain cites his record going back 20 years or so. Says he wasn't a mayor or a governor for a short period of time, he was a soldier and a leader.

Romney calls McCain "an American hero." Romney says he was fighting for issues like keeping the death penalty and lowering taxes as governor. "Fighting against the liberal lion." Gets tangled in a metaphor about building houses -- he says something about houses building other houses!

McCain cracks a joke about Romney's "call in the lawyers" answer from the last debate. Gets applause. McCain says Romney has been fooling people about his own record, and doesn't want Romney fooling the people about McCain's record. Not a lot of substance here.

Romney gets to rebut. Says again he would meet with lawyers before going to Congress in questions of going to war. This is weaselly. None of these clowns believe in following the constitution and actually declaring war -- only Paul does that.

Paul gets a question about gay marriage, asked about his opposition to an anti-gay-marriage constitutional amendment. Paul says it should be a state-by-state matter, and ultimately a religious matter. Says an amendment is unnecessary; the states should be able to handle the issue and the federal government should get out. Authority can be put in the states by voting in Congress.

Romney is now asked about his support for the constitutional amendment. Romney says he comes from a state that has gay marriage. He cites the risk of gay marriage having such effects as, for example, discriminating against Catholic adoption services. This is a good point, and Romney gets pretty big applause for it.

Giuliani gets the question. He too says there is no need for a constitutional amendment, especially while only one state has actually had gay marriage imposed by judicial fiat. Giuliani cracks a joke about performing 210 marriages as mayor, says they were all men and women -- he hopes. Gets some laughs. Says that he has to get some slack, since it was New York City.

Huckabee is now asked about Giuliani's abortion position. Says he's not interested in fighting the other candidates, but wants to fight "for the American people." He throws out some banalities about human life, gets some applause. Huckabee has a very unctuous, "aw, shucks" kind of faux-sincerity that I find utterly repellent. I think Brownback was less repulsive.

Thompson now asked about his lobbying for Planned Parenthood. Thompson gives a rather incoherent answer, but ends by saying that Planned Parenthood opposes him now, which gets him some applause.

McCain gets a question about his criticisms of the Religious Right -- and the audio goes down! He's giving a long answer, too. Audio's back, he's talking about a "united party."

Tancredo gets his first question, about the hyphenation of the party -- neoconservatives, paleoconservatives, compassionate conservatives, etc. Tanc rambles a bit, says every candidate brings something good, but they also bring differences, and it shouldn't be a sin to discuss them. Cites his own American Taxpayers Union rating and his ratings from various other organizations. He sounds pretty shaky--I don't think he'll be in the race much longer.

Hunter gets his first question. He says Carl Cameron has been "dividing the party for the last ten minutes," and he'll try to unite them. He starts talking about Cuban freedom fighters. Direct pandering to the Cubans. Gets huge applause for it.

Wendell Goler is now asking about health care and education -- two issues that the federal government should not be involved in at all, as Ron Paul will hopefully have a chance to explain.

McCain gives a very generic answer, talks about Hillarycare, the Canadian and British National Health Services, etc. Wants to give out tax credits, which is good, but kind of weak.

Paul is asked about insurance and government programs creating the massive costs of health care. Goler asks whether other doctors, like Dr. Paul, should treat patients without taking medicare--basically, on charity. Paul says that the only way to save money and bail out Medicare in the short term is to fix our foreign policy, redirect some of that military money, and in the long term move away from managed care back to a free market system. Points to the AMA and pharmaceutical companies' roles. Gets pretty good applause.

Romney asked about his own health-care plan in Massachusetts--Romneycare. Romney says he's proud of what he did in Mass. Romney seems to have fixed his drooping forelock -- was that deliberate, or was it a genuinely unscripted hair moment? That, I think, is about as much interest as Romney can generate.

Hunter says Romney's plan, which mandates people buying health insurance, actually drives up the price of healthcare, which it does. Jokes about Romney's plan mandating fertility coverage for 90-year-olds, which he says is "optimistic." Gets some laughs, gets good applause.

Romney says he took as many mandates out as possible. "It was a compromise." Sheesh. Hunter is right: mandated insurance only adds to costs. It's also just plain statist. Awful, awful stuff. Romney is visually oozing; he's like a used-car salesman.

Now Huck. He's talking about how much money is spent on chronic disease. Wants emphasis put on prevention. Remember, folks, Huck wants to control what you eat and what you smoke. He wrecked his own health with a bad diet, and now he wants to "save" the rest of us.

Tancredo gets the question. I can't bring myself to write much more about Tanc. He's on his way out. Says federal government shouldn't be involved, gets applause.

Thompson is asked about his vote for No Child Left Behind. He refuses to say plainly that his vote was wrong, though he now criticizes NCLB and the teaching the test. His answer is rambling. Says he wants to "help the states." What does that mean? He throws out random cliches: vouchers, charter schools. And then he cites societal breakdown, gets applause from this evidently zombie-like, mindlessly cheery audience.