Posted on 10/19/2011 8:52:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Whew. Can you have a debate in which nobody wins?
The seven Republican presidential candidates on the stage during the GOP debate in Las Vegas Tuesday slapped, swatted, slashed, jabbed, picked, and poked at each other for two hours. As might be expected, most of the emerged bloodier and more ragged than when they walked in.
But then, these things are contests—largely political sporting events. So if a winner must be crowned, make it Rick Perry, who showed some fire in his willingness to go toe-to-toe with Mitt Romney, whose aura of inevitability waxed and waned during the debate. Perry was just about the only candidate who has reason to smile today.
Romney, under attack for most of night not only from Perry but from the likes of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, was at times peevish and other times rattled, particularly on the subject of immigration. At one point, Romney lost his cool and touched Perry on the shoulder as he was interrupted....
[skipping to my favorite part -- the LA Times likes it too and printed a partial transcript]
Romney went on to lecture Perry on debate etiquette: "You have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking," he said. "And I suggest that if you want to become president of the United States, you got to let both people speak."
Back to the immigration issue, Romney got candid: "So we went to the company and we said, look, you can't have any illegals working on our property. That's -- I'm running for office, for Pete's sake, I can't have illegals. It turns out that once again they hired someone who had falsified their documents -- and therefore we fired them."
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
It’s too bad they don’t go after Obama they way they do each other. I wish there was some way to stop this demolition derby. I really admire Huntsman for refusing to participate.
I (and many others, I’m sure) appreciate you and your work for Governor Perry.
Yours, and many others of course.
If I could have my wish, we’d all get past the vitriol, personal attacks, straw men, etc. and honestly look at the pluses and minuses of every candidate currently in the race.
Past the smoke, past the hyperbole, maybe we could easily see who the best person for our Commander in Chief should be.
If it’s not Perry, fine. If there’s truly someone better that can beat Obama and “carry the banner”, I’m for them.
I understand that some folks like Cain, some Bachman, some Newt, etc. I really do get that.
But the lack of civility...the lack of decency and honesty truly troubles me.
I just hope that my belief in the ability of most folks to see past the demagoguery and obfuscation bears out.
Again...thanks for your work and your “thick skin-edness” (?!)...
We’re out here and with you.
I am sorry... I despise Romney and I like Newt, but Romney got the better of Newt in that immigration debate. Not because Romney came across well, but because he successfully pointed out that Newt supported the individual mandate... something I didn’t know and it dropped Newt down a few notches in my mind.
The poster you directed that to is not a conservative. She's a Perry fangirl who is now posting everything she can find from any liberal source to try and convince someone, anyone, that Cain cannot beat Romney. It's a sickening display but Cain and FR will survive in spite her and those like her.
The media DOESN’T want them to go after Obama. They WANT them to tear each other apart - and they are doing just that.
WHY in the name of God they are allowing this to go on is beyond me. Don’t they get it???
Totally agree. And he didn't just assert it. He got Newt to confirm it. I was amazed how Romney ended up on offense on the topic of health care. He's the one who scored the body blow in that exchange.
Cain and Bachmann IMO were both put up to running by the GOP Establishment. Then Perry as well, though also as a backup if they really can’t slip Romney by the primary voters.
A pox on them all!
That was my exact impression too. Cain, for the most part, stayed out of the fray - did not attack Romney. Cain knows he's probably not going to be able to stay in this race & he's keeping his options open for Romney's VP.
Thank you Gov. Perry for drawing Romney blood last night, he was smart enough to see where the real target needs to be right now. Perry is in it to win it.
By the way, I'm sensing after Cain's mediocre performance last night - that Newt is the new "flavor of the week".
Cain did not lose , Newt pointed out which most "experts" missed why whether you like 999 its easier to attack a new or radical change to the tax structure than get it passed.
What Romney fails to add is the FACT that the so called ‘contractor’ was a friend of his from his church and he knew about the illegals working there, and did noting about it until he was caught twice.
I hear ya Chasaway.
The next "debate" will just continue with the same old, same old.
Go, Huntsman. At least he had the good sense not to participate.
All these groups invite these the candidates and they are afraid not to participate.
I agree that Newt was the best at the debate last night.
On the other hand, Romney reminded everyone that the Heritage Foundation once supported the idea that every American should be required to have health insurance.
On their own and with no big government program, but nonetheless, they believed in a requirement to have health insurance.
Newt went along with that at the time in opposition to HillaryCare’s single payer system.
But, for Romney to say that he got the “massachusetts mandate” idea from Newt is a bit disengenuous, yet Newt was honest when reminded of the old “every American requirement to buy private insurance.”
Newt agreed with that.
Is there a difference between saying “Every American should be required to have a health insurance policy.” and saying “As part of a plan to pay the costs of a government imposed plan, individual Americans are mandated to have a private insurance policy.”
I think there is.
The first is ENTIRELY within the 4 walls of an American home and a household budget.
The second is ENTIRELY within the pages of a government program that is funded by a household’s private plan.
I think the household responsibility to have a health plan is similar to a car owner’s responsibility to have car insurance EVEN THOUGH a car owner does risk others on a highway, so should have a means of paying them back.
Car insurance is not part of a big government program telling you which government agency gets to decide which collision shop you take your car to, when it’s declared totaled, how you have to dispose of it, and how you have to keep it up.
I doubt if newt can be depended on to take much of a stand against the homo agenda, either. His sister is a dike.
When the LA Times writes a story like this, I know these liberal, left-wing media types have no background in American history or politics. A quick glance back during the formation of the Constitiution and American government structure in 1787-88 reveals vast differences and much verbal fighting over the contruction and final copy of the lifeblood documents of the American Republic. Bickering, verbal insults, differences op opinion, etc. ruled supreme. And.....that has continued unabated, except for the last twenty or, maybe thirty years or so, wherein “political correctness” has set in yielding weak sisters, like John McCain, John Kerry, Mitt Romney, etc. Fact is: the verdict on who the GOP POTUS nominee will be is not yet close. So....IMHO, anything goes. And screw the liberal media, who, in reality knows nothing!!!! Political fighting, I love it. I want a Pubbie Nominee that will destroy Obama and the Democrat party at the ballot box, and take no prisoners along the Way. End of story!!!!
I suspect you are correct.
I agree. Cain is connected at the hip with Romney. That he’s a Romney fan has been apparent since before Super Tuesday of 2008.
Right now this field is a mess.
If you were to research Newt’s position on Global Warming - you would learn that he has become a skeptic (flip-flopper for the anti-Newts).
Those of us who had a traditional respect for scientific inquiry probably were also anti-pollution and believed that scientists had integrity.
Like us, Newt has learned of the fudging, corruption and lost jobs as a result of the EPA and called for its abolition.
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