The Republican debate on CNN was just a couple of days ago

Great Debates
1

Did anyone watch it? I caught part of it, and it was like watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica. It’s utter, completely unbelievable horseshit, terribly acted and insultingly simple, but I just. cant. stop. watching!

It was co-sponsored by youtube, which surprisingly allowed some pretty intense questions like “do you believe Jesus would approve of the death penalty?” and “do you believe in the literal truth of the Bible?” and “McCain says waterboarding is torture, but you don’t. How can you disagree with him, when he’s the only one on the panel with first hand experience of torture?”

It was awful watching them squirm, but the only people who seemed to hold even a little bit of composure were Giuliani and Thompson. Thompson is one hell of a charismatic hawk, and it just seems impossible to catch him off guard. How can the guy be ready for all of these questions when his stances are so ridiculous? Giuliani was a little less impressive, but he scored points for not tiptoeing around most of the difficult questions, and coming out and saying “no, I do not own any guns,” and “no, I don’t believe in the literal truth of the Bible, although it has been a powerful influence in my life.” Kudos for not playing the “I believe it’s the revealed word of God!” card, and when asked “do you believe in the literal truth of it?” repeating “I believe it’s the revealed word of God!” Fucker, answer the question already!

Anyway, what did you guys think? I really hope Thompson and Giuliani remain the Republican front runners, even though either would be a complete disaster of a president. Neither seems willing to give any ground on the most important issue of the election, Iraq. Thompson seems to be even more aggressive in his proposed Iraq policy than even Giuliani, who has insisted that we remain “on the offensive against Islamic terrorism.” Apparently starting civil wars and killing a bunch of civilians is the G-Man’s idea of remaining on the offensive.

So our choices are “weak, lying conservative christian idiot warmongers” or just “lying conservative idiot warmongers”. We’ve got a couple of guys who are combinations of weak, christian, and idiot, but all of them are warmongers. The one guy who said “yeah, they’re pissed at us because we’re OCCUPYING THEIR FRIGGIN’ COUNTRY!” was nearly booed off the stage. No big deal, anyway. He doesn’t really have a chance of winning, because he looks really goofy.

2

Battlestar Galactica where the Cylons are hot babes, or the (real) one where they look like the spawn of an unholy union between K.I.T.T. from Knight Rider and a toaster?

3

Damn it, you’ve just spoiled the fake series for me. Hot chicks? Seriously? I want my toasters, damn it!

4

I tend to agree with those who think Huckabee made great strides. I think, as a Democrat, he is the most dangerous man on that stage. He’s smooth and seems genuine, he stayed above the petty stuff, and he’s very likeable.

Giuliani and Thompson both seem to be running out of steam to me, but in that debate, I think Thompson pulled out second place, just by being steady and unflappable.

Romney’s mask is quickly falling off and it turns out he really, really wants you to like him, he’s not really sure what he is talking about, and he has no sense of restraint.

5

He’s pretty amazing. I don’t agree with many of his views, and wouldn’t want him in the WH, but he’s such a freakin’ likable guy. But more than that, he seems to have well thought-out positions, and doesn’t parse words.

I only watched a few clips on YouTube, but from the ones I saw, I thought Giuliani did quite well. He sure looks like the kind of guy you want to match up against Hillary. Nothing hesitant or tentative about that guy.

I have no idea what his appeal is. The guy seems like a used car salesman to me, trying to be everything to everybody. Bleah!!!

6

A transcript from the debate starts here. Here were the topics covered:

[ul]
[li]Illegal Aliens and immigration in general; I didn’t count, but this topic seemed to come up a lot, and probaly accounted for the lion’s share of discussion.[/li][li]Taxes/Government spending/National debt too high[/li][li]Abortion[/li][li]Gun Control [/li][li]Crime and Death Penalty[/li][li]The now-famous “Do you believe every word in the Bible?” question[/li][li]Foreign policy was handled in three questions which danced around the Iraq war. “What would you do as president to repair the image of America in the eyes of the Muslim world?” “Is Torture legal?” and “Which presidential candidate will make a permanent or long-term military commitment to the people of Iraq?” McCain used these questions to voice support for the surge and against torture. Thompson insisted we must “complete the mission” Ron Paul opposed the current war: “(L)et (the Iraqis) have their country back again.” Tancredo opined that “(Terrorists) want Iraq to be a base for Al Qaeda”.[/li][li] Is Giuliani using 9/11 as a campaign prop?[/li][li] Appropriate power of the VP[/li][li] Gays: Military service and Log Cabin Republicans[/li][li] The debate closed with five questions that seemed to deal with either low-interest topics or personal candidate trivialities: Funding for NASA, theories on why blacks don’t vote Republican, the status of the Confederate flag, general US physical infrastructure, could Paul run as an independent, and why did Giuliani root for the Red Sox?[/li][/ul]
The single most important issues facing the US–the economy and Iraq–were dealt with in different ways, both of which expose the vulnerability of the party on these issues. Economic discussion was limited to the usual taxes too high/cut spending/fix debt red meat (e.g. no mention of the sub-prime mortgage crisis), while the major candidates said nothing at all about Iraq (the minor candidates kicked this around only when Ron Paul would pipe up about ending the war). Immigration scored a lot higher than I expected, and I was frankly surprised at the posturing over gun credentials (one of the questions was “Any of you all want to tell us about your gun collection, roughly how many you own, what your favorite make, model and caliber is, if any of them require a tax stamp?”).

With the possible exception of Huckabee and McCain, none of them came off as particularly likeable. Thompson clearly knew how thandle himself in front of the camera, but I would have expected him to dominate more. I’d say personality-wise, we saw little that we haven’t already seen, and none of them really emerged as a party leader, someone like Reagan who could galvanize the party.

IMO it’s silly to look for “winners” and “losers” in these kind of things, but they are good barometers of the state of the party itself. The Republicans are clearly interested in making immigration–both legal and illegal–a major issue in the national election, and will sidestep Iraq at every opportunity (unless Paul gets the nomination).

7

Was this the debate where the Democrats planted party operatives as questioners and CNN later apologized for allowing this to happen?

8

“Party operatives” isn’t the right term. There was one controversial questioner who prompted an apology from CNN since the guy was a Democratic activist (or something like that). Seems as though CNN didn’t vet the guy well enough (no pun intended, as the guy is ex-military), but I don’t know that there was any evidence that “Democrats” were behind it or if the guy was a lone ranger.

9

It’s a shame that the Republican slate is so vulnerable to the Secret Democratic Operative Army of housewives, co-eds, effete anchorpersons, sun-deprived wallflowers, and retired gay generals that they can’t even get through a kid-glove debate on national goddamn television. Karl Rove must be turning in his sensory deprivation chamber.

Since when are Republicans such pussies? They used to be crotchety assholes and proud of it, at least I could respect that.

10

I disagree. Thompson’s performance was tired and, at times, downright lethargic. He didn’t seem to be want to be at the debate at all. Now, on the other hand, Romney shined in the debate for me. I was most impressed by his answer to the Confederate flag question - lt genuinely surprised me that a Republican would say what he did. Guiliani seem to quiver in this debate - I can’t quite pinpoint why I feel that way though.

Huckabee was good too.

  • Honesty

P.S. If my political leanings mean anything: I’m ultra liberal and wouldn’t for a Republican candidate unless the Devil himself ran as a democrat. But I could live with Romney presidency in 2008.

11

Huckabee definitely won some fans, but he was asked the right questions to give a pastoral response. I think he’d be a good guy as VP or lower, but I wouldn’t want him in charge of the entire executive branch.

Guiliani and Thompson were presentable, but like Chris Rock said about Rudy, “He’s like a pitbull: he’s great to have when someone is breaking into your house, but if no one is breaking in, he just might eat your kids.” And I don’t think Thompson will get the nomination.

As stolichnaya put it, “Romney’s mask is quickly falling off…” He’s a politician in every sense of the word. He’s more of a flipflopper than Kerry has ever been, and I don’t agree with just about any of his views. That being said, he’s not crazy and can manage and lead pretty well. There could be worse.

Ron Paul didn’t come off as exasperated and logical as usual, almost like he was tired of it all. Plus, he barely got any talking time, along with the other nonfrontrunners. If I had to vote for a Republican, it’d still be Paul. He’d most certainly undo all the damage the Bush administration has done, but I fear after 4 years in office, he’d have changed course too much.

McCain seemed reasonable for the one of the first times in a long time, at least for me. For all the history he’s got behind him, it’s good he’s realized he really don’t need to be such a lying politician and can be more straightforward on some topics.

12

Really? I was watching it on and off while I did house work, but I got a few streaches where Romney just seemed to go into full vomiting buzzword mode. Granted most candidates do this occasionally, but what I caught of Romney he didn’t even try vaguely to tie it into the question that was asked.

I imagine the other candidates will have to go after Huckabee now that he’s started surpassing them in the polls (I think Thompson did once already). It will be interesting to see if his nice-guy image survives.

Odd that I seem to see much more reporting on the Dem race then the GOP one this year. The GOP one is far more interesting and multifaceted.

13

And on a side note, the “The now-famous ‘Do you believe every word in the Bible?’ question” was completely unconstitutional. Section 6 or 9 (or some multiple of 3), I believe? “There shall be no religious test for the office of president.” paraphrased from memory.

14

So what’s your answer, is it, yes that’s what happened, so what? No, it didn’t happen at all?

15

I don’t think asking the candidate about a religious question during a debate doesn’t count as a “test for office”.

16

That question is not in any way unconstitutional. The constitution restricts the powers of the U.S. government, not CNN, and it’s not a religious test. Nobody would have been disqualified from office for any ‘wrong’ answer, although voters might not support someone who gave an answer they didn’t like.

It may be a STUPID question, but in no way does it violate the constitution.

17

I haven’t looked up the exact words, but didn’t the guy say, “…as so many of us need to know…”? The word “need” implying, to me at least, that it is a necessary qualification for “so many” voters?

But you’re right, “unconstitutional” is too strong of a word.

18

<offtopic>
The new Battlestar Galactica is among the best television ever filmed.
</offtopic>

So the republicans don’t know to answer questions that aren’t softballs lobbed by party loyalists?

19

He said “this question will tell us all everything we ned to know about you” I think. He’s not constitutionally or legally prevented from asking that question.

20

That guy was scary. He kind of reminded me of the gun guy in the first Democratic CNN/YouTube debate.