On Tonight’s Debate…
…it generally stunk.
Three debates in two weeks means they’re talking about the exact same stuff in the third that they talked about in the first, and some of the back-and-forth is just old.
Perry was worse than he’s been thus far, though he did, I think, put the Gardasil thing to bed. He hasn’t put the immigration thing to bed, though, and he’s got a lot of work to do there – particularly in not telling people who don’t agree on the in-state tuition thing they don’t have heart.
Don’t do that. Don’t ever do that. Not in a GOP primary. Conservatives are tired of hearing lefties throw that charge around; when a Republican who’s generally in the mix says it, all it’ll do is turn people off.
But the one thing which is really amazing about all this – and maybe Perry can fix it if he could get more articulate on it and stopped trying to shill for sympathy – is that he’s governed a state for a decade which contains 60 percent of our border with Mexico and he knows more about what will work and what won’t than the rest of the gang combined. So if Perry says building a 2,000-mile wall along that border won’t work – he’s said that you can build the wall around populated areas and it might help but to do it out in the sticks is a waste and instead you need boots on the ground and eyes in the air to effectively police that border, why is it people like Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann are all of a sudden experts and Perry doesn’t know what he’s talking about? Bachmann saw a Mexican at a Taco Bell once; I’m sure she knows exactly what to do with border policy. And Romney runs around talking about border fences as though he knows anything about the issue – any fence they might build in Massachusetts would be intended to keep taxpayers leaving.
He also was the first candidate to mention the importance of India in foreign policy, which is frankly amazing considering the size and location of that crucial American ally (who incidentally the current president has totally ignored).
If Perry hurt himself on immigration, Romney hurt himself on Social Security. He bombed it again. They say Romney won the debate, but I don’t know how he was any different than he’s always been. Trying to make hay out of Perry’s interest in expanding the Galveston Plan’s availability might not sound like a loser of an idea now, but as the discussion evolves Romney is going to look like a fool. As it is now, he just looks like he’ll say anything to get elected.
Gingrich was good, but he barely said anything. He seems to be rising in the polls a little, so maybe they should have given him more opportunities. Giving Megyn Kelly lip is a lot more problematic than giving Brian Williams lip, though. You don’t smart off to Megyn Kelly if you know what’s good for you.
Paul barely said anything either, which helps him – he never had a chance to run for the fringe like he normally does.
Cain was best. Relaxed, funny, wants to dump the EPA. And he answered every question he was given directly.
Santorum had good points on foreign policy, but he’s just too whiny to be president.
Bachmann gets more irritating every time she does one of these. She needs to drop out and go back to Congress. The latest Gardasil attack got her a well-deserved slapdown from Perry when he mentioned that he got lobbied by a victim of cervical cancer.
Gary Johnson finally got on the stage, and he had the best line of the whole campaign when he said his next-door neighbors’ two dogs have created more shovel-ready jobs than Obama has. He needs to be on the stage at every debate from now on. But what he ought to be doing, rather than paying homage to Ron Paul
Who else? Oh, yeah, Huntsman. Whatever. How much longer is HE gonna be around?
Johnson must listen to Rush Limbaugh. That is where I heard the dog joke first.
I don’t know Scott. I was all for Rick Perry and I wanted him to do well in the debates, but he was really weak last night. I was expecting to see a lot of improvement from him over the last debate, but I think, if anything, he regressed. I’m starting to get the sense that he’s a perennial not-ready-for-prime-time player. I mean if he can’t, after two debates, nail down a few of his own pet positions (gardisil, in-state tuition, and social security) without fumbling over his words, when is he ever going to be ready to take on an a smooth talking incumbent president to debate the multitude of issues facing the country?
It’s a shame, because I love his humor and the way he sticks to his guns. He’s taken some brave positions that he’s right about: the border (a two thousand mile wall is stupid and repugnant); social security (it is a ponzi scheme and a failure until it’s transformed into funded system); in-state tuition (people don’t jump the border to get their kids cheap college tuition, but college educated Texans, including the kids of illegals, do help Texas); and in the case of Gardisil, he’s admitted his mistake.
He’d make a great president, but right now all he’s doing is making Romney look presidential by comparison.
It was a lousy performance, but lousy performances in early debates aren’t all that destructive when the fundamentals of your campaign are sound.
He needs to do a speech on immigration which lays out his position with clarity, because he hasn’t done it in the debates and talking about “heart” was a terrible mistake. It made him sound like Lindsey Graham. The better answer would be “the federal government won’t do anything to stop illegals from coming in and you saw what happened when Arizona tried to take this on themselves, so our tuition policy in Texas is based on the reality of what we could control. And we had a broad consensus in our state that the kids who were brought here by their parents and didn’t choose to break the law, those kids who show enough intelligence and work ethic to indicate that they might have some talent that can be developed to make them into big assets in our state, ought to be given the opportunity to develop that talent even if it meant we were going to spend some money on them.”
After all, we can’t deport them. The feds would have to do that, and they won’t do it. So what else are we going to do? If we charge out-of-state tuition to these kids, who have lived in Texas for three years or in most cases a lot longer, most of them probably won’t be able to afford it. And then we’ll probably have to deal with poor, disgruntled folks who think of themselves as outcasts in society. We decided it’s better to give them opportunities instead.”
Folks might well disagree with that stance, but at least it would be articulated for people to evaluate. Perry hasn’t done that. He also hasn’t defended himself well on the broader immigration issue with some of the weapons he has – namely, they’ve passed a lot of good legislation on immigration in Texas in the past year (now that they’ve got a hard-core conservative legislature where Democrats can’t block it) that has actually had good support from Hispanics.
Perry’s problem is that he was running as the conservative in the race and Romney was the moderate. The immigration stuff is changing those perceptions and making Perry look out of touch with the base. It’s allowing Romney to position himself to Perry’s right on the issue and pretend that he’s just as conservative as Perry.
Although Perry is courageous and is good at retail politics, he’s lousy in the forum setting. Last night, he was too weak and he may flame out. Disappointing…
I don’t trust Newt and I don’t believe he is electable, but, I’d love to see him wipe the floor with Obama in a debate. In my estimation, he’s the only one really up to that task.
In any event, if Perry truly falters, look for Palin to jump in. Bachmann is losing her cred and is running out of cash, so she isn’t much of a factor, anymore.
I read somewhere a comment that went something like: “If Rick Santorum fell in a forest, would anybody care?” It seemed funnier (and more appropriate) when I first saw it but you get the point….
Santorum and Bachmann probably should get out at this point. So should Huntsman, but because he has a little bit of traction in New Hampshire he won’t.
With both Romney and Perry having significant weaknesses, I don’t think anyone else is going to get out. Santorum is on an upward trend and should definitely not get out.
Perry’s new theme song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co0tTeuUVhU&ob=av3e
“How could you be so heartless?”
What I want to know is what does Drinking with Bob think of the debates. BTW, where is Drinking with Bob?
Paul run for the fringe? Please explain. I recall one debate I watched the main stream drive by’s asked several questions about health care and never bothered to ask the one candidate that was a medical doctor. Even FOX is going out of their way to leave Ron Paul out of the news not to mention using his name on air. The drive by media and FOX are obviously being controlled by higher powers (bankers) because Ron Paul in the White House would have a devastating effect on Washington as we know it now.