Anybody want to talk about last night's Repub debate?

[End Of The Road]

It was great entertainment!

I was surprised by a number of things, most of them totally inconsequential.

First, Ron Paul got more cheers than anyone else. This must have embarrassed Fox enormously. I don't know whether the cheers and applause for Paul were really in support of him, or in support of his bluntspeek -- I tend to think the latter.

Giuliani didn't mention 9/11 once! (unless he did it while I was in the bathroom...)

I was reminded what a total asshat Brit Hume is.

The Fox citizen's panel thought that Thompson won the debate. That's a real puzzler, because I thought he was his usual self. If I thought like a Republican (I find it nearly impossible to do so, though), I think I would have found Huckabee the winner. He comes off as energetic, likeable...

What were your takes on it?

[MethuenProgressive]

1. Merica lost.

Lincoln is spinning in his grave over what's been done to his party.

[SpiralHawk]

2. I found the general dullness of wit to be noteworthy

This is a slow bunch. I mean, there were occasional twinkles of intelligence or charisma, to be sure, but overall an appallingly low wattage of spirit...

It was painfully obvious.

The republicons are intellectually and morally bankrupt...

Too bad they have also bankrupted all of America...sigh.

[Seabiscuit]

3. Thanks, but no thanks.

[Olney Blue]

4. Fred Thompson arose from the dead to attack Huckabee.

Talking heads are saying this morning that he and McCain cut a deal to take Huckabee out.


The debate made me even more proud to be a Democrat.

[ingac70]

7. Huckabee pissed everyone off...

with his comment "No bridges fell in Arkansas" when asked about his raising taxes while Governor...

http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/blog/g/ab5af1b6-cc16-4bff-ab6e-2acddbed3621

Video at the link.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. I laughed so hard (between tears)

when they all jumped on the bandwagon of attacking Iran, even while news is breaking that that Navy video was concocted. Except Paul. He held out for rational thinking - making the rest of them look really foolish.

[TheCowsCameHome]

6. Thompson being awake was quite a feat in itself.

[auburngrad82]

8. A RW coworker told me this morning that Paul was so bad it was embarrasing

She said he made absolutely no sense and even the emcee at one point had to tell him you're not answering the question. She says he just rambled and rambled.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

9. Right before I changed the channel I heard the citizen's panel asked who they thought were the

winner.

I found it interesting that they were all in lockstep agreement that it was Thompson. No one spoke up for any other candidate.

Then they were asked who did the worst. As if on cue, they all said "Paul".

After the rousing applause he got after many of his answer's, it was a dichotomy, fer shur.

BTW, Paul was my personal favorite, even though he's a wild eyed, bat guano nutty, racist (which was evident in his illegal immigration answer) government destroying libertarian. But, he nailed the ME situation and said, more than once, "if the US is such good friends with Israel, why are we sending weapons to other Arab states in the region", plus he talked about the debacle in Iraq in realistic, non jingoistic terms and even jabbed McCain for his "100 years" remark.

Huckster's BS answer to his signing the "women submit to their husbands" letter left me cold. He tried to avuncular chuckle his way through it and it was disgusting. It was fun to see him squirm, a bit, on that one. Oh, and he showed his statesman side with his statement that any boat with a US gunship in its sights would "see the gates of Hell" or something to that effect, which the audience cheered, :eyes:

Romney consistently and condescendingly smirked at the others, especially Paul, Rudy explained, in Simon Legree fashion how he "allowed" the children of illegal immigrants to attend school in NY (not because of any human right issues, just to "keep them off the streets"), Thompson dutifully read off his homework and McCain swore he would never let us "lose" in Iraq, and told the story about telling the mother of soldier who had died the same thing.

It was bad. Really bad. Although the panel actually asked a couple of decent questions, health care and gay marriage were MIA in the discussion.

Not only was it bad PLUS it was on FAUX, however I'm seeing a good friend for lunch today who is finally starting to pay attention to politics, and who is an independent who used to lean R, now possibly leaning Dem and she wants to talk about it. So, like Thompson, it was sort of a homework assignment.

:-)

MKJ

[End Of The Road]

11. Paul plays an interesting role in the debates

By bringing up some truths that the others do not want to address, though I certainly agree with you that he's not presidential material.

In the New Hampshire debate, after a Paul question, the other candidates would ignore him and roll their eyes. Last night, a couple of times, he got a rise out of them and they actually found a need to rebutt him.

He's good for dialogue. Or he could be...

[THUNDER HANDS]

10. it was like watching the group meeting in One Flew Over The Coocoo's Nest