I was reading the transcript and was amazed that Chris hardly ever called on Hunter or Huckabee.
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Oh, he called on them near the start, but I suspect he was hoping they would mess up. But they answered so well that he did not want to give them a chance to show their stuff.
Did you notice how useless and insulting many of the questions were?
Yeah, you could almost read the sarcasm in the questions. .
Then there was this exchange which looked like Matthews was trying to cause trouble
MR. MATTHEWS: Thank you, Governor.
Governor Huckabee, you've criticized Governor Romney for saying his faith wouldn't get in the way of his public life, his governing. Do you want to back that up tonight?
MR. HUCKABEE: I've never criticized Governor Romney for that.
MR. ROMNEY: Thank you! (Laughs.)
MR. HUCKABEE: I've said in general, and I would say this tonight to any of us, when a person says my faith doesn't affect my decision- making, I would say that the person's saying their faith is not significant enough to impact their decision process. I tell people up front my faith does affect my decision process. It explains me. No apology for that. My faith says, "Do unto others as you'd have them do unto you."
MR. MATTHEWS: But you answered a question that George Stephanopoulos of ABC -- about this governor, one of your rivals -- and you answered it in this way. "I'm not as troubled by a person who has a different faith. I'm troubled by a person who tells me their faith doesn't influence their decisions." That's in direct response to George Stephanopoulos on February 11th of this year. Why are you changing that point of view now?
GOV. HUCKABEE: Well, I didn't know I was changing the point of view.
MR. MATTHEWS: No, you're changing your quote.
GOV. HUCKABEE: I'm saying that of anyone, whether it's Governor Romney or Governor Gilmore --
MR. MATTHEWS: But you answered in direct response to the -- Governor Romney and his Mormonism. Why are you pulling back now?
GOV. HUCKABEE: I don't mean to be puling back. I want to state very clearly: a person's faith shouldn't qualify or disqualify for public office. It shouldn't do that. But we ought to be honest and open about it. And I think it does help explain who we are, what our value systems are, what makes us tick and what our processors are.
MR. MATTHEWS: Okay.
I didn't see where he was changing his quote. Or did I miss something?
I agree with you. There were things I liked about last night, and unlike my fellow freepers, I tend to like Chris Matthews. I liked the energy of last night and how quickly it moved along. But I thought too many of the questions were just mean-spirited and Chris did not call on them equally. He was a disappointment. But my fellow Republicans weren’t! I was very proud to be a Republican last night. We have some impressive men running for president. The only person I thought did extremely poorly was Thompson. I’m not a Romney supporter, but he did shine. But it was Hunter who showed who would be the best President of the United States.