Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #1~ Reagan Library 05/03/07 - Official Discussion Thread

[CounterCounterCulture]

Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #1 – Reagan Library 05/03/07 - Official Discussion Thread

• Sam Brownback
• Jim Gilmore
• Rudy Giuliani
• Mike Huckabee
• Duncan Hunter
• John McCain
• Mitt Romney
• Ron Paul
• Tom Tancredo
• Tommy Thompson

  The debate will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, and will air live on MSNBC from 8:00 to 9:30 pm (ET) and stream live on MSNBC.com and politico.com and will include audience questions gathered on politico.com.

[jwalsh07]

I was impressed by point Ron Paul made, we survived an era with 40,000 Soviet nuclear weapons pointed at us with capable rocket technology and here we are threatening to go into ANOTHER preemptive war over a third-world nation that doesn’t even have any nukes and more importantly any capability to weaponize and launch anything more than 50 miles.

This statement alone should disqualify ROn Paul from consideration. He thinks we still live in the 1960's having nuke drills in grammar school. The confluence of WMD and islamonuts is a whole other world friend. Paul doesn't understand that at all. Pulling the covers over your head and writing constitutionalist on the top of the blanket deters exactly zero islamonuts. They are not afrraid of mutually assured destruction, they yearn for it.

[mutley]

I’m suprised nobody had the testicular fortitude to ask him, after some of those responses, whether he was in the right party’s debate.

He was definitely the odd man out. It is nicely surprising, how conservative, and in your face, the rest of the candidates are. After this debate, I think I've X-ed out Ron Paul and Tommy Thompson. Rooty of course was X-ed out before he announced. I really liked the rest. Great bunch of candidates. I wish the evolution question were an across the board one. That would have been interesting.

[do the dhue]

Was one NRA question asked?

[Ultra Sonic 007]

Not really. It’s a horrible debate format.

[EternalVigilance]

Anyone who thinks Mitt Romney is pro-life is fooling themselves, at a minimum.

[ChessExpert]

I think they are working in a terrible environment with Chrissy interrogating them machine gun style. I agree with you that Mitt and Hunter both look better than most in this rushed environment. Those that don’t look so good have a fair excuse that the environment was not conducive to good discussion of complex topics. McCain and Rudy do not LOOK like front runners. I thought Gilmore, and Brownback were pretty good. Handling the liberal press is part of the game. Another part of the game is handling liberal voters!

It may be a bow to shallowness, but I think liberals and conservatives will like the look and sound of Romney and Hunter. And I think I can live with them on the issues.

[George W. Bush]

I like Duncan just fine. But that photo is at least ten years old. Maybe more.

It's about time for FR's Duncan camp to get a current photo of him.

[Signalman]

Mitt starting to pull ahead. Beating Rudy handily.

http://drudgereport.com/

[LWalk18]

I vote for Romney in most of the catagories- I wasn’t a big fan but I was the most impressed with him. I haven’t been sold by Giuliani and I wasn’t impressed with him tonight.

[oakcon]

That would be great, although, God forgive me I’d be OK with Mitt/Fred, Fred could keep him honest. NB this would be as a last resort

[NittanyLion]

Who stood out from the pack? - Mitt
Who showed the most leadership qualities? - Mitt
Who was the most convincing candidate? - Hunter
Who had the most rehearsed answers? - McCain
Who avoided the questions? - Giuliani
Who had the best one-liner? - Mitt

[LibertarianInExile]

The more I think about it, as disappointed as I was in what seemed to be to be an unpolished candidate Paul, I forget that I’m far more cynical about it than the typical viewer. Paul certainly stood out from the pack tonight. It’ll be interesting to see if that is enough to make him visible in a positive way.

[Pinkbell]

I liked Hunter’s responses, but I really wish he would have been given more time. I felt he was marginalized. I’m not a Romney fan, but Romney came out very strong and presidential. Rudy flopped. All he ever could do his toot his horm about NY City crime being reduced. I have dial up, and I could hear sound but not see pictures. I really like Brownback as well.

I have them ordered: Hunter, Brownback and I was mixing up some of the others without being able to see them. I thought Huckabee and Tancredo were ok.

Which candidates came out in favor of stem cell research?

[oakcon]

That was the best line of the debate.

[NeoCaveman]

Anyone who thinks Mitt Romney is pro-life is fooling themselves, at a minimum.

Ya. The Mormon who has 5 kids and one wife couldn't possibly be pro-life.

[mylife]

Im all for business, he just comes across to slick for me and it makes me wary

[CharlesWayneCT]

I guess I expect my politicians to come across like politicians. I think Romney comes across as presidential, and since we are a movie-of-the-week kind of world, it doesn’t surprise me that he looks like “movie-of-the-week” presidential to some.

Fred definitely has a different delivery. It will be good for him to get into the race when there are fewer candidates — I’m not sure his style would have stood out on the stage tonight, although I’m certain he would have done well.

I think Romney benefited the most from Fred not being there, because Romney came across in my mind as the leader in framing the answers, and not just because he got to go first so much. I think Fred would have done just as well with it, which would have detracted from Mitt.

[jwalsh07]

I would certainly be voting for Ron Paul before any of the current three front-runners, I assure you of that. I don’t trust any of the Rudy McRomney trio, and I don’t care how many debates make Romney’s tanning booth look like a good investment.

Thankfully you have very few fellow travelers.

[EternalVigilance]

Don’t you think a candidate’s rhetoric should bear at least a passing resemblence to his record?

[CharlesWayneCT]

Good one!!