Posted on 08/12/2011 9:29:02 AM PDT by yoe
On last night’s Republican presidential candidates debate in Iowa, as William Buckley used to say, a few observations.
Mitt Romney: He has the frontrunner role nailed, and his canned responses on Romneycare and Bain were enough to deflect attention last night. He escapes relatively unscathed for the moment. But his defense of Romneycare is a defense in substance of Obamacare. And his comments on his work at Bain haven’t improved much since his debate with Teddy Kennedy in 1994. He is one cold fish.
Rick Santorum: I admired him greatly as a United States Senator, but his wipeout by Bob Casey is not exactly a stellar platform from which to launch a presidential candidacy. He seems to me to be diminishing himself in this race.
Herman Cain: The guy has a sense of humor and an occasional shaft of insight, but his candidacy is a joke. Is it really okay to retail the bigoted thoughts of his Georgia neighbors about Romney’s Mormonism and disclaim responsibility? I don’t think so.
Ron Paul: Can we trade this guy to the Democrats for a player to be named later? He would make a great consultant to Dennis Kucinich on foreign policy.
Jon Huntsman: Asked about the 80-20 ratio of foreign to American employees in the family business, he thrashed around in search of an answer. That shouldn’t have been a tough question, but this one is: what makes him think he should be president of the United States?
Newt Gingrich: He did a good job last night, but what is he selling? There is no market for his candidacy.
Michele Bachmann: Michele Bachmann was a backbencher advocating conservative causes in the Minnesota Senate, where Republicans were a decided minority during her years in office. She continued the role in Congress, where she has yet to achieve a position of political responsibility. To the extent that she has become a lightning rod as a national figure, she has drawn on her native gifts to turn herself into a fundraising machine. With her Iowa roots and appeal to a conservative base, her moment has come around as a presidential candidate in the Iowa straw poll and caucuses. What Howard Dean was to Iowa Democrats in the 2004 cycle and Obama was to Iowa Democrats in the 2008 cycle, Bachmann is to Iowa Republicans in this cycle: the Ivory soap candidate, 99 and 44/100 percent pure.
Tim Pawlenty: Bachmann is the fly in Tim Pawlenty’s ointment. Pawlenty has staked everything on Iowa. He is the generic Republican candidate at a time when the generic Republican seems to be what is called for to match up against Obama. Pawlenty thought that a strong gubernatorial record in the state next door would prove enough to break through in Iowa and launch him to the top tier of competitors in New Hampshire. He didn’t factor Bachmann into his calculations. Bachmann is highly unlikely to secure the Republican presidential nomination, but she is highly likely to derail Pawlenty’s aspirations. Thus the fireworks in last night’s debate.
The winner? That’s easy. The winner last night was Barack Obama.
Romney definitely skated last night. But my wife’s one comment during the debate was about him and it was one word, “slimy”. Many do seem to share that view.
I was pretty disappointed last night. I mean Michelle talking about her big legislation as being the Free Lightbulb Act, or whatever it was, was cringe-worthy. I think she otherwise did pretty well though.
However, it is still quite early. Not many watch these debates at this point.
I thin the biggest thing we need are for some of the stragglers, i.e. Cain, Pawlenty, Gingrich (who I think is running for a VP slot), drop out so there can be some focus on Obama.
Again, it’s early, but nothing particularly encouraged me last night.
Absolutely.
RINOs, Wackos and Wierdos..we're in biiiiig trouble.
I don't think any of them came across as a giant, however.
To me, it just makes it obvious that Palin needs to enter the race. She's a real person, she's got a great track record, she's a real executive, she's funny, she's smart, and she loves God and the Constitution.
Head and shoulders above anyone else on the GOP side.
“The winner last night was Barack Obama.
Absolutely.”
Hahahahahaha. Yea... we’re so lucky to have him.
With the possible exception of Jon Huntsman all of the GOP candidates came off better than BHO last night. Bright, conservative, patriotic Americans all. Pick the one you like best and I promise they will be 1000% better than the illegal alien, usurping, muzzie lovin commie that is currently stinking up the White House.
This article is the sort of angst ridden babble you expect to hear from a bratty 16 year old. It is not the product of an intellectually serious, thoughtful adult mind.
If this moron bother to listen and study the candidates rather then mindlessly regugated the idiotic babbling of the Junk Media clown posse he would realize ANY of these candidates would be a significant improvement over the current occupant of the White House.
Ronald Reagan was a "back-bencher" by the loony e'STAB'lishment standards as well.
The moderates need to get out of the FOG and wake up that we are at the edge of the cliff, both in sovereignty, in constitutional adherence, and fiscally, and industrially, and national defense preparedness-wise ...we are heading to catastrophe.
It will take a BackBencher to save us.
This article is the sort of angst ridden babble you expect to hear from a bratty 16 year old. It is not the product of an intellectually serious, thoughtful adult mind.
If this moron bothered to listen and study the candidates rather then mindlessly regurgitated the idiotic babbling of the Junk Media clown posse he would realize ANY of these candidates would be a significant improvement over the current occupant of the White House.
This guy has been a T-Paw whorhiper for years. For the sake of intellectual honesty, he should be honest about that fact up front. No surprise he is miffed this morning
Both these things were legitimate defenses of their own policies...and took boldness and courage.
I loved a lot of what Ron Paul pushes (especially on small government and individual responsibility and auditing and ending the Fed Reserve), but not his excessively liberatarian foreign policy....so libertarian he DISREGARDS EXPLICIT THREATS TO NUKE US BY A ROGUE NATION WHICH IS NOT DETERRED by our diminishing nuclear strategic arsenal (which is in a death sprial), that is being dismantled by Obama... All with the TRAITOROUS complicity of Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice.
And his constant yammering about military spending ramping up the deficit...when it is the Entitlements and trade deficits which have done by far the most damage thereto... and he is weak on both those subjects.
I agree. Johnson does have to come out of his T-Paw closet and admit it.
Member of the House of Representatives IS and always will be.
Just a little bit of electoral reality. Do with it as you wish.
I agree with what you said. I don’t think we can talk Jesus Christ into running as our candidate so who the hell would Scotty suggest we run? Right now, I’m in the “Anybody But Barry” mode. America can’t afford four more years of Barack Hussein Obama. These wizards need to try to understand that. “Perfect” just ain’t happening anymore.
The winner last night was Perry, because the rest proved themselves to be a joke last night.
Anyone who stands for principal nowadays is going to be a 'back-bencher'...because we have an "eSTABLlishment" which continues to do the exact same things as back in the 70's. That might pretend to be 'Reaganites' but the proof is in the pudding.
Look how John Boehner went full out THREATENING the T-Party congressional caucus members with redistricting them out of the Congress...all for a total sell-out to Obama that pushes us over the fiscal brink.
Romney, like the Disney animatronic puppet he is, did another perfect impersonation of 'generic U.S. President'. Someone should get that man a Hollywood contract to play the President in every movie in the next twenty years. Hopefully, that will keep him distracted and away from eternally running for the real thing.
Pawlenty decided to self-immolate, and Bachmann tossed some gasoline on him obligingly. Unfortuately, like any good suicide bomber, T-Paw wounded Bachmann mortally. She survived the night, but badly injured in credibility. Like it or not, T-Paw pointed out the cruel truth; Bachmann talks a great game, but has no legislative accomplishments to run on. That lightning already struck the Presidency, and it's name was Obama. It won't strike again.
Huntsman finally made sense. Huntsman Company. Huntsman Foundation. A rich daddy's boy from a family obsessed with slapping their name on everything. Kind of a dime-store Mitt Romney, and an Obama employee to boot! One of the few men that Barack Obama actually found a job for, and it seems pretty clear why.
Newt had some good lines, but it changes nothing. He'd have been more at home on the Fox News panel than before it. Maybe this is just an elaborate contract renegotiation?
Santorum and Paul were occasionally interesting or colorful, but they're not cut from Presidential cloth. Ron Paul at least seems to know that, and subtly enjoys the freedom it provides. Santorum is a nice guy and a good conservative, but quite simply delusional.
I love Cain, but he's the reason we have a political class. Yes, America needs to learn to take a joke, but at the same time, you need to learn to watch how you say things. A sharp, flippant tongue is a great thing on the radio, but it's free ammunition to your enemies. Cain hands out ammo like candy.
Was their anyone else? Or was it just the candidate that wasn't there?
Wrong. Bachmann and Santorum won clearly. So,sorry for Perry-pushers. His absence but with an "impending announcement" simply proved he is the next Huntsman/Pawlenty/Romney-- he's just late to the party.
Meaningless attack. She has been pushing for the right positions consistently...and is not to blame for Boehner ... or Nancy Pelosi's mis-deeds. To blame her for that... is just like Rand Paul said of the T-Party.
It is like blaming the Firemen who came to try and put out the fire...for starting it.
In England a “back bencher” is someone in Parliament without cabinet rank - who therefore sits on the back bench.
An executive who ran a State as large and powerful as California cannot be considered a “back bencher” by anyone with any inkling of its actual meaning.
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