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Live Thread: Iowa GOP Presidential Debate 9 P.M. EST, 6 P.M. PST 12/15/11 Fox News Channel
Thursday, December 15, 2011 | Kristinn

Posted on 12/15/2011 4:21:09 PM PST by kristinn

The last debate before the January 3rd Iowa caucuses is being held tonight in Sioux City.

We get seven candidates at this debate: Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman.

Fox's Bret Baier anchors the debate. Fox News panelists questioning the candidates: Chris Wallace, Megyn Kelly and Neil Cavuto.


TOPICS: Breaking News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Iowa
KEYWORDS: anotheryawner; biasedfox; debate; elections; fox4backstabber; fox4loser; fox4romney; gopdebate; gopiowadebate; himagusnret; iowa; kristinnrocks; livegopiowadebate; megynkelley; ronpaulisaloon; ronpauliscrazy; souixcitydebate
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To: matthew fuller

LOL your trying to tell me Gingrich will make all of the house and senate go part time and take large pay cuts and retire and do term limits? No more insider trading within and cut they’re staff down? No way will he. It would be like telling good friends of many years that they will be losing $$$$$$ and the gravy train is over.


1,681 posted on 12/15/2011 10:17:15 PM PST by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
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To: fightinJAG; Yaelle

I heard Megyn once explain how her name came to be spelled that way ... her mother wanted the name “Meagan” but was still doped up after the delivery and used the ‘gyn’ for her gynocologist. It made sense to her mom at the time.


1,682 posted on 12/15/2011 10:18:28 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

It’s a comment like yours which makes the task of spreading the message of conservatism beyond the base incredibly difficuly.

“bat wing eyelashed prom babe with the Barbie look?”

I’d expect to read something like this in the NYT or HuffPo, not FR. You show a lot of ignorance in directing this kind of personal attack on Bachmann.


1,683 posted on 12/15/2011 10:19:33 PM PST by parksstp (Articulate Conservatives look for Converts. RINO's look for Democrat Heretics.)
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To: caww

“But it’s clear he doesn’t care one bit about what the establishment of the party thinks.”

Given the history, I think there are a WHOLE BUNCH of Republican Establishment in DC that are TERRIFIED of Newt getting the nod, and becoming President.

Not because he can defeat Obama, but because they fear his REVENGE.


1,684 posted on 12/15/2011 10:21:38 PM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: TexasFreeper2009

Yeah he is good alright He is good utilizing his grey hair and political career status by thinking he can use a certain tone and say THOSE ARE NOT THE FACTS and all will believe him because he is old and grey haired.Bachmann called him to the carpet and he squirmed like a liar.He is smart but we need real change.


1,685 posted on 12/15/2011 10:21:45 PM PST by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
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To: JediJones

“I think his record shows he’ll do what’s best for the country.”

Like supporting and voting for the FED Dept of “Education?” Like joining Pelosi to produce a fraudulent commercial for global warming? Like making a couple million consulting for Fannie and Freddie?

I don’t trust him. Never will again. He was my district rep who I supported and voted for years. When I was last called years ago to donate again, I said sorry. I am supporting the closest to a Constitutional Conservative I can get. Newt ain’t it. Newt is a progressive socialist’s next best friend.

Ya’ll can vote for him. If he wins, I will hold my nose. At least you will have been forewarned. We deserve better. Give us a Constitutional Conservative!!!!! Do we not have one?


1,686 posted on 12/15/2011 10:23:53 PM PST by takenoprisoner (Constitutional Conservatism is Americanism.)
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To: Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!

Judging by the comments here, I’m afraid that tactic appears to be working.

It is extremely despressing.


1,687 posted on 12/15/2011 10:24:32 PM PST by parksstp (Articulate Conservatives look for Converts. RINO's look for Democrat Heretics.)
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To: PSYCHO-FREEP

What would happen if that’s how you described Palin?


1,688 posted on 12/15/2011 10:24:46 PM PST by Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!
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To: EDINVA

You say ‘doped up’, how about Complete Paralysis from The Ribs Down, imagine you in that situation and THAT’S when they force all the forms and documents to sign on you, after 12 hours of just-kill-me-now contractions.


1,689 posted on 12/15/2011 10:24:46 PM PST by txhurl (Perry/Pence 2012 OR Perry/Ryan 2012 or even better Perry/Abbott 2012!)
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To: Dubya-M-DeesWent2SyriaStupid!

“Bachmann called Gingrich out.She has done the same to Romney contrary to the wacko comments on here”

Bachmann is trailing badly in Iowa. If she doesn’t finish first or second in Iowa, she’s finished.


1,690 posted on 12/15/2011 10:25:03 PM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: onyx
"I know Sarah Palin. I FReeped for Sarah Palin at 2:00 in the morning after McCain chose her. Michele Bachmann, you're no Sarah Palin."

As the legendary Mrs. Whiskers is fond of pointing out, if you have to say it ("I'm a serious candidate")...

Cheers!

1,691 posted on 12/15/2011 10:30:52 PM PST by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: CounterCounterCulture; All
freerepublic.com is the standard for this country. It represents the best political commentary from the public that there is in America.

Though not JimRob's fault, sadly, a forum with multiple members calling a Republican candidate a "bitch" and talking about superficial things like hair, makeup, and clothing will give the RNC elites (as well as the totalitarian left) a poor reflection of the character of FR. We deserve better.


IMHO...

I took a look here hoping to find more dispassionate analysis. For example, I was looking for comments regarding Kelly's question on the courts. IMHO, it produced the first real clear separation between the canidates, and I thought that question yielded answers that were very useful to contrast their principles and could have been a discussion in and of itself.

Sadly, perhaps some who supported Sarah resent Michele being in the race. This thread, unfortunately, was reduced largely to a fairly mindless cheering section for whichever candidate the poster supports. One can only presume that all this effort is expended in the hope that it may influence people reading it. Of course, praise and vitriol thrown around too much is seen right through by most people.

Though Sarah would not have been my number one pick in this race if she had declared, I certainly would not resort to saying distasteful things about her appearance like has happened about Michele Bachmann on this thread in in so many other places. Those types of comments reveal both desperation and a willingness to abandon propriety that reflects poorly on the writer. When I resort to calling my opponent ugly, I'm no longer debating but using the age-old propaganda tactic of demonizing and ostracizing.

Michele and Newt did have a real go at it but, if you notice, neither one insulted the other's appearance. They did both push vigorously to support their statements, which was healthy - it's ok to disagree on facts during a debate. In her summary in the post-debate converstation, she noted that Newt did walk back his statement - but he did it so deftly that few would notice. Fox chose to have her post-debate conversation last, when viewership would have tailed off the most. Also, Sean was very cool towards her compared to Newt, though he tried to mask it as best he could. One could really detect through his demeanor that he would have rather that she had not said anything confrontional with Newt.

Mittens actually came across in the debate as very magnanimous, IMHO. My speculation is that though he once thought he was the "chosen" candidate of the party, he's obviously seen the remarkable backlash against him burning up the internet on his not being conservative enough for a large number of Republicans and conservatives who are not Republican party leadership but simply either registered Republican or even just self-described as conservative. Personally, no matter how well he does in debates I don't think he will ultimately win this primary, as any equivocation on conservative principles sends a large number of today's conservatives into a tizzy.

This biggest takeaway I found in this debate is that up until now Newt has gotten a perfect score on every test. He has soared in the polls because so many would love to see Obama taken to school in a debate on national TV. And I must confess that even if Newt does not win the primary, I'd like to see that debate anyway. But back to the perfect score, it was a watershed moment, IMHO, when Newt appeared taken aback early on in the debate. I'll have to look for the video to get the exact replay of what I'm talking about, but it was the first time we could see that Newt was not scoring 100% on every question. As debating is the foundation of much of his success, while it is by no means a big loss, we certainly did see a small chink in the armor of our previously undefeated champion.

Obviously the mainstream Republican establishment now has it's heart set on reviving the known-quantity Newt, who would bring a rebranded version of his political skills back to DC using the standard playbook. With this rebranding being at once smart and brash, and Newt appearing to have had enough time in the bottle to smooth the edges a bit, the establishment must envision Newt capturing a sufficient number of voters in the voting groups which are typically up for grabs to beat the incumbant.

So all in all, the candidates, for the most part, tonight, were forced by all the ruckus that's been floating around the internet to swing towards conservative positions. Even Ron Paul tonight felt the need to qualify his foreign policy stance at times as not just being anti-war but trying to inject some of the details of his ideas into the record, for what that's worth; this was Ron Paul in the most conservative posture he could muster.

If I could add one other thought (why do I feel like Carnac ?) it would be that even some establishment pundits - and certainly all of the candidates - are fairly certain that your local dog catcher could run against Obama and win next November, so IMHO every primary voter should vote for the candidate they feel will do the best job to lead America to success on every front, on every issue - the voter's ideal out of this field, not the "most electable". IMHO, they're all electable next to Obama. If your favorite candiate is very far back in the pack - the primary results will nonetheless set the tone for the winner and how they develop their message for the general election. If it looks like conservatives don't care about conservative issues, the nominee will shift more to the center in the general election, thus setting a tone for their Presidency.
1,692 posted on 12/15/2011 10:32:23 PM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves.)
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To: parksstp

Like it or not bachmann has done herslf in...and you are wrong to go after Freepers about this...very wrong...many were supporting her.

It doesn’t matter how conservative an indivdual is if they can’t deliver the message to others and persuade them to their thinking. She’s been far too busy slamming other candidates than she has presenting her positions..and that falsely.

Further she’s been coming across desperate..and it shows time and again...addtionally tonight you could see she was “happy” to finally be given opportunity to speak and yet she used too much of that to slam others.

Of course she destroyed Paul tonight...she always picks one or two and goes at it. No surprise she came out swinging this time either.

And for the record...Palin isn’t running...she has nothing to do with Bachmanns own self-destructive comments and behavior. They rest in her own lap.

Additionally....why would anyone bother calling a station on Bachmann...waste of time...and most don’t base their vote on what Lavin or Rush, HAnnity or any of them might think...we do think with our own heads.


1,693 posted on 12/15/2011 10:35:20 PM PST by caww
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To: SatinDoll

You answered a post that said: ““...Newt taught war strategy to generals.”

with”

NO! Really? When did this happen; I’ve never heard or read of it.”

Newt grew up as an ‘Army Brat’, his father (step father who adopted him) in the European Theater. Military personnel move, on average, every 3 years - he lived, fro ex: in France and in Germany.

Gingrich has taught at the United States Air Force’s Air University, for over two decades. He is the longest-serving teacher of the Joint Flag Officer Warfighting Course. He is an honorary Distinguished Visiting Scholar and Professor at the National Defense University and teaches officers from all of the defense services. Gingrich informally advised Defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld on strategic issues, on issues including the Israeli–Palestinian conflict - so when he talks about “Palestinians” he knows what he’s talking about - Gingrich is also a guiding coalition member of the Project on National Security Reform.

He loves our military and is the only one that has mentioned the murderous, Taliban favoring ROE that our Usurper in chief put in that has resulted, the first year - 2009 - in DOUBLE our KIA’s from the previous worst year of the war. IN 2010, it tripled and this year, may top that.

That’s one of the first things he would do - kill those ROE. (As CIC, there’s probably not many officers that would not know him - a big plus.)

NO other candidate or any moderator picks up on it - I’ve an idea they don’t have a cle what ROE are, let alone what the current ones are.


1,694 posted on 12/15/2011 10:38:20 PM PST by maine-iac7 (A prudent man foreseeth the evil,... but the simple pass on, and are punished. Prov 23:3 KJV)
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To: matthew fuller

Mark Levin has been digging into this establishment Republican business more and more. I didn’t get to hear much of his show tonight but he pointed out that Rich Lowry wrote an article for National Review in 2006 praising Newt and basically asking him to run for president...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/218263/run-newt-run/rich-lowry

Then we get this article from Lowry this month, bashing the “old Newt,” one that Lowry had no real problems with in 2006!

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/285596/myth-new-newt-rich-lowry?page=3

I don’t really understand what’s changed and I didn’t get to hear if Levin drew any conclusions about it.

One other thing I don’t understand is this idea that next year’s election should be “about” Obama, and for that reason we should nominate a candidate who doesn’t have an attention-grabbing personality. It’s like that actress character in the Tim Burton Ed Wood movie who agreed to play in Ed Wood’s movie but told him she didn’t want to be filmed in a way that got her noticed. That’s not a recipe for success.

What is the harm of a candidate like Newt that draws media attention? Won’t the biggest problem next year be getting our message out? If we elect a boring candidate that doesn’t get enthusiasm or big ratings, the media is going to keep the focus on Obama. And it will be a relentlessly positive focus. The ONLY chance we have is to put up a candidate who is such a lightning rod that the media will be unable to resist covering him. That way he will get air time and he will be able to get his message out.

I also think any general election swing voter wants to know why our candidate is better than Obama. They don’t just want to hear about how bad Obama is. We cannot simply run a negative campaign that puts the focus solely on Obama without explaining what our alternative is. Romney is going to be so tongue-tied trying to explain how his positions have evolved and why they’ve changed that he’s going to have a heck of a time explaining his “current” positions in any depth. Obama will keep bringing the focus back to what Romney did in Massachusetts and how it’s very similar to some of the things Obama did. That right there makes the argument ABOUT ROMNEY, not about his platform and not about Obama. Romney can try to talk around it, but suddenly we have a much harder time defining to the voters what our alternative to Obama is.

It seems to me Newt is much better positioned in this respect. The attacks on him, if you believe the RINOs, will be about his personality much more than any confusion on his positions. Therefore it becomes easy for Newt to dismiss the personal attacks and say he wants to move onto the real substance of the campaign.

It’s better right now to have a candidate who has PERSONAL problems in his past than one who has problems WITH HIS POSITIONS. It’s a more serious time now and we’re not looking to elect a Miss America. People will have less patience for the personal attacks and more interest in the policies, so it’s much more important we have a candidate who doesn’t have confusing issues with his POLICIES like Romney does. Obama flat out WINS on personality against ANY of our candidates. Polls consistently show the public likes Obama as a person, but they don’t like his policies. Therefore how can we win by putting up a guy whose advantage is that he’s a squeaky-clean, clean-cut guy that’s wishy-washy on policy? Our strategy HAS to be to beat Obama on the ISSUES because we simply will not beat him if we try to do it on charisma and likability.

Incidentally, while the down-scale commentators on FOX have been leaning RINO, O’Reilly, Hannity and Greta have been much fairer. All of them seem willing to defend Newt and often have a quizzical expression on their face trying to understand just why he’s being attacked from so-called Republicans so much. Hannity was very animated last night about being upset and frustrated that the establishment was trying to pick the winner, and said that his audience was overwhelmingly e-mailing him that sentiment.


1,695 posted on 12/15/2011 10:38:42 PM PST by JediJones (Professor of Palintology)
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To: opentalk

“Would like to know who they would fill their administration with.”

Newt said he’d appoint John Bolton as Secretary of State Of course he took a lot of flak for that. Beyond that I haven’t heard any talk of who would be in the various candidate’s Administrations if elected.


1,696 posted on 12/15/2011 10:39:32 PM PST by EDINVA
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To: takenoprisoner
Like supporting and voting for the FED Dept of “Education?”

A vote cast in the 1970s and yet you supported and voted for him for years. Now it makes him no good?

Like making a couple million consulting for Fannie and Freddie?

Yet your attack points clear. The money, an average of $160K per year over a ten year period, went to his company, not to him directly, and was from Freddie only.

1,697 posted on 12/15/2011 10:40:06 PM PST by newzjunkey (Republicans will find a way to reelect Obama and Speaker Pelosi.)
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To: takenoprisoner

Like supporting and voting for the FED Dept of “Education?

Gingrich explained the how and why, and what has happened since, very well at the last debate.

You weren’t listening, were you.


1,698 posted on 12/15/2011 10:40:44 PM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: parksstp

I used to like her, but she seems to be in way over her head. What do you want to bet that she comes out in support of Mitt?

Seems to me that she adds nothing to the field. She’s got to know that...


1,699 posted on 12/15/2011 10:41:58 PM PST by babygene (Figures don't lie, but liars can figure...)
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To: sdpatriot

Thanks for the reply. My ham-handed explanation needed the help. ;o)


1,700 posted on 12/15/2011 10:42:12 PM PST by Liberty Valance (Keep a simple manner for a happy life :o)
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