GOP Youtube Debate Thread

[Flying Headbutt]

I only caught the end. But who knew that the Romeny family were long-suffering Red Sox fans until 2004 when they finally won the World Series?! What with those deeply entrenched Michigan roots and all.

McCain totally sidestepped the question about gays in the military, apparently having no good answer.

Romney tried to dodge the question about the appropriateness of the confederate flag, but in the end said it didn't belong anywhere. Fred Thompson tried to be as diplomatic as possible without upsetting any of his fellow stars and bars-ers.

 

[zeke12]

Mike Huckabee is a hell of a politician.

John McCain is the only one up there with a coherent ideology. Well, Ron Paul's is coherent to him, I suppose.

Giuliani answered every single question by talking about New York. I don't know if that will work for him.

Fred Thompson is a joke. Just a flat-out joke. He's Kuccinich with money.

 

[Flying Headbutt]

Romney totally sidestepped the question about gays in the military, too. They're all gutless.

FWIW, it's also the first bit of debate I've watched at all this year. If I watched much of any Dem debate I'd probably skewer them as well.

 

[zeke12]

That's only the second GOP debate I have watched, but Huckabee impressed me before, too.

 

[Chi City 81]

Why isn't there a GOP Debate Thread?

Wait ...

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I remember when Mitt Romney ran against Ted Kennedy in the early '90s and he had an ad where he talked about the day he moved into the state, driving on the Mass. Pike in a UHaul with his wife. He tried to make it sound like he started with almost nothing, like he had such humble beginnings.
And everytime I saw that ad, I thought of the beginning of Head Office when Eddie Albert was flying over Chicago in a helicopter saying "Look at this, when I got here, I had just $50 million in my pocket and now this is all mine."

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

Huckabee was the only president on that stage. That slap at Mitt about how Huck paid for college was agreat moment.
Rudy looked terrible and sounded worse.
That said, the pandering to the audience on immigration scared the hell out of me.

 

[beefncheddar]

Hillary plants question in Republican debate


UPDATE: In the final seconds of the post-debate coverage, Anderson Cooper acknowledges that CNN messed this up and states that CNN did not know that Kerr has a position within the Clinton campaign and that had they known, they would have disclosed the association.

 

[Smallpotatoes]

I could swear I heard Rudy change positions in mid-answer on a gun control question.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

The only thing he's ever done that I unabashedly support was his knucking the southern gun dealers for pumping weapons north along the I95 corridor, and he's running headlong away from it now.
As for General Kerr, well, is there something wrong with the question?

 

[beefncheddar]

I just thought it was funny.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about the election this soon.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I just thought it was funny.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about the election this soon.

A perfectly reasonable attitude.
For political junkies, though, a wideopen primary race on both sides is like Halley's Comet.

 

[Dangerous_K]

I just thought it was funny.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about the election this soon.

A perfectly reasonable attitude.
For political junkies, though, a wideopen primary race on both sides is like Halley's Comet.

I agree that it's wide open on both sides, but I'm amazed so many outlets are giving the Dem. nomination to HRC. Of registered Democrats I know, none consider her their favorite candidate by any stretch. I wonder where these insurmountable numbers are coming from.

 

[bostonbred]

I just thought it was funny.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about the election this soon.

A perfectly reasonable attitude.
For political junkies, though, a wideopen primary race on both sides is like Halley's Comet.

I agree that it's wide open on both sides, but I'm amazed so many outlets are giving the Dem. nomination to HRC. Of registered Democrats I know, none consider her their favorite candidate by any stretch. I wonder where these insurmountable numbers are coming from.

She's going to take the NH primary.

 

[pallister]

FWIW, it's also the first bit of debate I've watched at all this year. If I watched much of any Dem debate I'd probably skewer them as well.

Uh huh.

I agree with Zeke and Fenian (first time I ever typed that) that Huckabee looked and acted the part very well tonight. And is it just me, or does he have some of the same mannerisms and ease about him that Clinton did?

 

[steveu]

I just thought it was funny.

I'm finding it difficult to get worked up about the election this soon.

A perfectly reasonable attitude.
For political junkies, though, a wideopen primary race on both sides is like Halley's Comet.

I agree that it's wide open on both sides, but I'm amazed so many outlets are giving the Dem. nomination to HRC. Of registered Democrats I know, none consider her their favorite candidate by any stretch. I wonder where these insurmountable numbers are coming from.

Brian Williams was only joking when he said this on SNL, but he all but called HRC the candidate we want to win. Wonder if there IS some truth to that.

 

[Point of Order]

Actually, Zogby is now running online polls that are total hogwash and claiming they are scientifically valid and the newsies are lapping it up. I don't see how anyone could watch with any regularity the treatment that HRC has received and suggest that there's a media bias in her favor.

 

[DanOregon]

Huckabee had the best answers, the question on the Bible, space exploration.
Romney always seems to want to check with other people before stating a position on an issue.
McCain actually got the audience too turn from pro-torture to anti-torture with his response.
Fred Thompson doesn't seem to understand why he's there, but I did like his shot across the bow that Giuliani shouldn't be criticizing anyone for who they have working for them referring to Kerik.
Giuliani seemed pretty befuddled. But overall the debate was about the standbys, God, Guns and Gays, and G'immigration.

 

[Point of Order]

And as for the GOP debate:

1. The "Draft Fred" people, and you know who you are, should be ashamed. This is what we call cognitive dissonance in the marketing world. Fred wanted to be drafted into the presidential race about as much as George W. Bush wanted to be drafted and sent to Vietnam.

2. Rudy didn't look very comfortable. Maybe it was the news that just came out about New York City paying for his adulterous trysts in The Hamptons, or maybe it was the knowledge that there's plenty more scandal where that came from, but he didn't look great.

3. Romney had his nuts cut out (figuratively since McCain doesn't go torture) by John McCain on the torture question. The rest of the debate for him was standard Romney: tell 'em what you think they wanna hear.

4. McCain has fought back better than I ever expected him to, but you can tell he's too far out of the race to get the nomination and he knows it. He's playing for pride now and saying what he thinks. I can respect that.

5. Ron Paul is like a bad-tasting elixir being forced down the frontrunners' throats. Surely he is funded by Democrats just hoping to keep him in the race as long as possible.

6. Tom Tancredo, really? This guy is still in the race? Even after the generic-Muslim-crosses-the-Mexican-American-border-and-blows-up-a-shopping-mall-wth-a-nuke ad? This guy makes Kucinich look presidential.

7. Doesn't Duncan Hunter have a visitation appointment with Duke Cunningham to talk defense strategy?

8. I've watched Mike Huckaby on the campaign trail for a long time now and he is so consistent you could set your watch by him. His debate performance reminded my of a great line from Big Dan Teague (played by John Goodman) to Delmar in O' Brother Where Art Thou?: "You don't say much my friend, but when you do it's to the point, and I salute you for it."

Right now I think it's obviously a three-way horse race between Mitt, Mike and Rudy. Rudy is fading down the stretch while Mitt is holding a steady pace. Huckaby is charging from the rear but I think there might too much ground to make up. Romney is in the best position right now, followed by Rudy.

 

[zeke12]

The GOP candidates really assume they'll be running against Hillary, I can say that much.

I don't know if Democratic voters are going to give them their wish.