Everybody go FReep the Drudge poll now!
I think Tommy Thompson is getting the Fred Thompson vote.
Freep the Drudge Poll on the debate:
http://www.drudgereport.com/
Case in point:
Go see the Politico’s homepage
http://thepolitico.com/
Jim’s Summary and Wrap-Up
First thought: Who the hell thought Chris Matthews would make a good moderator? I thought he interrupted the candidates too much, got into this bizarre tussle with Huckabee over a comment he gave to George Stephanopolous, basically brought his whole hyper, over-caffeinated Hardball persona, and it just wasn’t the right tone for the debate that introduces so many of the candidates to the public for the first time. The questions from the Politico were a joke, including asking Thompson to name the exact number of casualties in Iraq. Absolute sandbagging; if the Democrats won’t go on Fox, the GOP should tell MSNBC and the Politico to go to hell.
I’ve got big gripes with McCain on some issues, but I think he gave a grade-A performance. Fired up, some good lines, and in command.
Romney had some strong answers, good humor. “Would it be good to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?” “You have got to be kidding.”
Giuliani is going to get whacked around a lot for his performance tonight. Clearly the format didn’t help him. I said watching him try to explain the difference between Shia and Sunni was as painful as watching Joe Theismann have his leg broken by Lawrence Taylor back in the 1980s. Rudy’s better than this performance; the question will be whether this really hurt him.
Although honest to God, if Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama had been given the same question on differences between Shia and Sunni, I’d bet either of them would have/could have fumbled as badly. Really unfair that he got hit with that one.
Huckabee impressed me, he might be the guy jumping up to the middle tier. Polished, professional – something reassuring about him. I guess he didn’t seem to be straining to appeal to the audience. Like a rookie who doesn’t spike the football when he scores a touchdown, he acts like he’s done it before. (I’m full of football metaphors tonight, must be a draft-day hangover.)
Brownback didn’t impress me. There’s something artificial and hucksterish about him, something that I don’t quite trust. He certainly didn’t seem to overwhelm the audience with details tonight.
Gilmore? Well, he didn’t hurt himself with any of his answers, but I wouldn’t say he shined. I’d put him on the practice squad, to use yet another football analogy. Duncan Hunter is in a similar category. It’s hard to point to any one problem or mistake, but he didn’t really do enough to stand out on a crowded stage.
I had heard before the event that Tommy Thompson might be the breakout candidate, but he seemed rather bland. Not a bad performance, you can see the guy is smart and he made a good governor and cabinet member, but he didn’t really stand out as the leader in the room. As someone once said about Lieberman, he’s a guy you want at the table, but not at the head of the table.
Ron Paul… sigh, yes, thank you for telling us how a libertarian idealist would do it.
Tancredo didn’t froth at the mouth about immigration as much as I expected, but he didn’t do much to demonstrate that he’s more than a single-issue candidate. He couldn’t even be bothered with the organ donation question, and if he thought the question was wasting his time, he should have said so.
http://hillaryspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NmU5ZGZkODZmNTllMzE5NDE4ZDQ0N2Q4ZjE0ZGMxYzU=>Verdict</a>”</span>%20<span%20class=
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