I thought that Rick made the best points, and won the debate. His problem is that I think a successful national politician must be more clever and nuanced with his words. That’s what I love about Sarah Palin, and my own Senator Pat Toomey. He chooses his words with a mind toward the fact that most voters are dummies. Bob
I agree, considering I listened to most of the debate on the radio. But most here who watched it on TV are more interested in style points rather than substance. Which is why you see so many here supporting Noot.
For me, substance is more important. So I'll be voting for the guy who will get the government the hell out of the health care business instead of the professor who promises to incorporate one-tenth of the Obamacare bill into his own 'replace' bill.
I agree that Rick did make some good points at times. Unfortunately, he spent too much time trying unfocused. For what it is worth, in the “candidate match” questionnaires, Santorum comes out as “closest to my tendencies”, so I have been pulling for him since last year.
However ...
Tonight, I believe that what happened is that the news of the day had everyone off balance. I suspect that Rick and Mitt were going expecting to harvest a lot of hay from Newt due to the news. However, Mr.Newt just newtered them completely from the first few minutes, and may well have thrown their whole strategies into question. Rick did not recover in time (and he had to be the more expectant) but Mitt did recover with his “get to the issues”. RPaul was an afterthought.
Through the rest of the evening, many questions were off balance as a result. Santorum expected to be able to score by simple “I’m not Newt (and implication I am better than Romney)” and have a big swing in the polls. He realized after a while that was not the case - perhaps when Mitt made the “get to the issues” answer. That made him desperate at times trying to draw distinctions and pick a fight with Newt when he should instead have been just himself.
1) Newt could have had a terrible day, but fended off a huge threat to his candidacy and prevailed today as a result.
2) Mitt was “me too” today, for the most part - I actually only remember his “I don’t know how many years of taxes I will release” answer - not a good sign for him.
3) RPaul was pretty much a non-factor and will gain no help from today.
4) Rick’s good answers (abortion, etc.) may help him hold, but I suspect his bad answers (Like SOPA) along with his desperate tone will see him drop when votes are counted.
Thanks for the thread, kristinn.
“He chooses his words with a mind toward the fact that most voters are dummies.”
Well, judging by 2008, most of them ARE.
I think Newt is plenty clever and can be nuanced when needed, but many are finding his directness refreshing, even gratifying in contrast to all the PC pussyfooting we get nowadays from politicians.
Sorry, I didn’t read your post carefully enough - I thought you were talking about Newt :-)