Everybody Was Good; Fred, Rudy, and Huck Were Best

The Campaign Spot ^ | October 21, 2007 | Jim Geraghty

[jellybean]

Everybody Was Good; Fred, Rudy, and Huck Were Best

Wow. By far, the best debate of the cycle in either party. Just about everybody came out swinging, took some lumps, countered, made the crowd laugh, spurred applause, and jabbed at the moderators. The crowd was fired up, and the moderators took an aggressive tack that shook any lingering lethargy out of the candidates. Feel confident, Republicans. One way or another, the GOP is going to have a good debater representing it next year.

Winner or winners? Tough to call, because I think we saw just about every candidate at their best tonight, even the no-hopers like Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo. So I’ll classify the participants a bit differently this evening:

Helped Themselves a Lot Tonight:

Fred Thompson: Frankly, he needed it. He really should have gotten a bigger chunk of the vote at the Family Research Council summit straw poll, and let’s face it, we had been waiting for any speech, any debate appearance, any event with Thompson to be a “wow, that was fantastic.” Well, tonight was that moment we’ve been waiting for, maybe none better than his answer to Wendell Goler’s question/accusation of laziness. His answer on the lobbying for the abortion group was strong, too – ‘look at my votes, and the pro-choice folks I worked for are pulling this out now because they fear me.’ Finally – finally! – we’re seeing what we wanted to see in Thompson – homespun, able to make his case simply, directly, and clearly, and with a bit of humor here and there.

Rudy Giuliani: The first time I thought Rudy Giuliani could be president was at his 2004 convention speech, where he hit all kinds of emotional notes just right. Similar performance tonight – maybe heavy on laughs - but it worked. Pugnacious, quick thinker on his feet, engaging. And, as usual, if you lead the polls, and nobody walks out of a debate talking about your gaffes or bad answers (and other than a slightly weird joke about not being sure that he didn’t accidentally perform a gay marriage, Rudy didn’t have many bad moments) you won. Rudy won’t lose ground; this is a candidate and a campaign hitting all cylanders at just the right time. He took some shots, but the attacks were probably old news to those following the race day in, day out.

Mike Huckabee: After the FRC summit, he’s the social conservative choice, and if he gets the nomination, Hillary won’t know what hit her. This guy can sell ice to Eskimos. Kept his momentum, and played against his "the funny one" typecasting with his argument, "there's nothing funny about Hillary Clinton as Commander in Chief."

Probably Helped Themselves a Little Tonight:

John McCain: Some great lines, and once again, a candidate felt the need to salute McCain’s service in the miltiary as well as in the Senate. We’ll see if this performance does him good in the polls – he did a great speech at the FRC, and it got him nowhere. I think the aspect I liked most was that he could jab at his rivals, but it never seemed too nasty or cranky. He’s got stature. He’s a well-established brand name, and I wonder if he’s turning into everyone’s second or third choice.

Mitt Romney: One of his strongest performances, but it seemed like somebody put a “kick me” sign on his back right before he went on. On the other hand, it’s a sign of where he is in the race that Thompson, Giuliani, and McCain see value in attacking him at this moment. Kathryn said he could have used the PowerPoint slides on one answer. But great jabs at Hillary, and seemed to feed off the crowd's energy.

Oh, and I vote for the mussed-up hair.

Thanks For Playing: Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Ron Paul. Come back when you’re at ten percent in one of the early primary states or a national poll.

UPDATE: In my e-mailbox, every campaign thinks their guy won. I know this will come as a great surprise to you. I pledge, any campaign that sends me an e-mail: "EXPERTS AGREE: OUR GUY LOST, BIG-TIME; PUNDITS CALL PERFORMANCE 'CATASTROPHIC' AND 'EMBARRASSING" I will print in this space in its entirety.

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[Sadecki]

Wow. The national review called it almost exactly the way I saw it.
As I said on another thread, Rudy won the debate hands down. Huckabee came in 2nd, Romney and Thompson tied for third McCain a distant 4th. Can we just get rid of the other guys already, they are just dead weight at this point. Rudy is by far the quickest on his feet with the best timing and the best ability to punch his point across. Huckabee is the most likeable. Romney is the GOP version of Clinton he is just another Slick Willie, I don’t believe anything he says. Thompson put me to sleep. The guy is just too long winded. Mccain is too old and he’s been in the Congress too long — he’s replaced his principles with"inside the beltway" horse trading and lost his soul in the process.- everytime he says nice things about Hillary or the democrats I just keep thinking McCain-KENNEDY and McCain-FEINGOLD. But Rudy won big. Rudy got louder cheers then anyone and he was supposed to be facing his most hostile audience. Rudy scored huge points among conservatives tonight. he did far better then anyone expected. I mean, based onthe comments on this site, I expected Rudy to be booed the way Ron paul was booed. That never happened. This audience of "values voters' loved Rudy -- and if he only gets 10% of the hardcore religious conservatives vote, and picks up a large majority of the moderate Republicans then he wins the nomination -- because the religious conservatives will dilute and split their vote between Thompson, Romney, Hunter, Huckabee and McCain.

[pankot]

The new president will be the one who can “Bash-the-Bitch” best.

[jellybean]

Fred was awesome tonight!!

[RockinRight]

Was watching the Tribe/Sox game...was it true that Rudy was so much better than the rest?

[daylilly]

Thanks for posting this jellybean. I listened and saw most of it live streamed on the Fox website and read the live blog on Fred08.com.

There were several memorable moments beside Fred’s comments. They were asking John McCain about the Clinton attempt at funding a Woodstock memorial, and several things were said, but the one I remember was when McCain said he was “tied up” at the time. That was good.

And it sounded like Ron Paul was booed, maybe more than once.

I was impressed with Fred tonight. The reasoning was the same as some posters I’ve read on the Fred threads, but Fred saying it buttressed what all of us had been saying.

[kittymyrib]

Who was the GOP genius who thought scheduling this debate at the same time as Sunday Night Football was a good idea? And for baseball fans, the seventh game of the ALC?

[daylilly]

He came across well and got some laughs, but I thought he was dodging the question more than once. For instance, they asked him what was the difference between him and Hillary on specific issues [gun control, abortion etc]. He never did answer, but joked about it.

Some might find that likeable, but not me. I always like it when a candidate can get across a point well about Hillary, but Rudy didn’t answer the question about his own record. He couldn’t. I don’t like a dodge, no matter how likeable he seemed. It is the substance that was missing.

[DoughtyOne]

Between 45 and 50% of the people who frequent this forum will not be casting a vote for Giuliani.

I am one of them.

While there are some things I like about Rudy, I simply cannot and will not vote for him.

[perfect_rovian_storm]

Fred really came through tonight. Rudy’s great with the one-liners, but he got his head handed to him by Fred. Fred backed him so far into the corner that he came out yelling ‘Executive experience!’.

Fred and McCain really made it evident to anyone who’s watching and not familiar with the records of Rooty and Slick Willard that they might want to investigate their pasts...that’s a VERY good thing.

[irishtenor]

Who won?

[txhurl]

Thanks for the great coverage tonight. You been gettin lessons from hole_in_one? :)

[perfect_rovian_storm]

The Bears.

[DoughtyOne]

You bet! (Well not really.)

Thank you.

[tennteacher]

However, given that Huckabee was allowed so little time compared to others (5 comments to Guiliani’s 10, including rebuttals) a second place is amazing.

I think that the political debates should be run like formal debates, with each candidate given equal time.

[freekitty]

Because they paid $100,000 a pop.

[irishtenor]

Da Bears? Da bears play football, not to be confused wit dat other game da play in de old contry. Soccer.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

Between 45 and 50% of the people who frequent this forum will not be casting a vote for Giuliani.

That's in the general election, he won't get 5% of us in the primaries.

[jellybean]

<...was it true that Rudy was so much better than the rest?

NO!! Here's the liveblogging from fred08

I think Fred Thompson accomplished exactly what he set out to accomplish. It was a good night. Adding: Commenter participation is a fun, and integral, part of any liveblogging, so let’s highlight some great comments…

“Fred is giving a commanding performance.” - Michael Quattrociocchi

“Fred gets a huge lift tonight.” - David Church

“Fred is truly the WE THE PEOPLE candidate. He is kicking butt and taking names.” - Barbara Grieb

“Fred rises above the GOP clump tonight … Way to go Fred! And thank you for standing up for conservative principles…” - Joseph Westerberg

“Great ending Fred. He nailed it tonight. I am going to go give another donation.” - Jeremy Hutchinson

[Sun]

Here’s Mark Levin’s take on the debate and Rudy, and I’m looking forward to hearing Levin on the radio tomorrow:

Sunday, October 21, 2007

Rudy? [Mark R. Levin]

I just don’t see how it can be said, after nearly every debate, that Rudy won when he cannot distance himself from his record. Thompson hit him hard right out of the box, and Rudy responded with tort reform. At least Thompson can justify his position on tort reform on federalism grounds. But Rudy’s extreme positions on a number of issues cannot be squared by someone who continually wraps himself in the Reagan legacy. Rudy is quick on his feet. But there is serious doubt among conservatives.

10/21 10:22 PM

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=N2RmZTk1YzE1MGQ3NDE4MGMxNTA1ODFlYjY4ZGIyYTM=