Posted on 09/06/2007 9:21:16 AM PDT by pissant
I found the debate frustrating. Neither of the top tier candidates -- Giuliani and Romney -- had a good night. Giuliani took a big hit early over his 1994 statement welcoming illegal immigrants to New York. Thereafter, he seemed to answer most questions by referring to New York city crime statistics. He needs to diversify
Romney seemed defensive and, at times, evasive. His answers on Iraq were rambling. When the deputy sheriff in the restaurant called him out for not articulating an "end game" strategy, Romney was unable, I thought, to take advantage of the opportunity.
McCain did pretty well. At a minimum, as always, he answered the questions. I can conceive of him having a "surge" in New Hampshire as the "straight talk" candidate, particularly if Giuliani and Romney don't step it up.
Huckabee had another decent night, and I give points to anyone who takes on Ron Paul. But (as Romney pointed out) the "broken pottery" analogy in Iraq misses the most important reason for why we need to keep fighting -- namely the implications of the outcome on the war against terror. Huckabee also totally ducked the final question concerning what we should do if Iran continues on its present course towards becoming a nuclear power.
Duncan Hunter was, once again, the best of the rest.
Sam Brownback continues to be a huge disappointment. If the best he can do is channel Tom Friedman, it's clearly time for him to withdraw.
UPDATE: For what it's worth, Fox's focus group agreed with me that McCain did better than the two front-runners, and that Rudy talked too much about New York.
You said Paul said Bush said it. Which is untrue.
Iraq was a cakewalk, if we didn’t get into nation building.
Paul is a fringe candidate. Fox gave him far too much air time. Look at the way the MSM handles Gravel. He was even kept out of one debate.
“If he wasn’t talking about the Bush Admin, who WAS he talking about???”
The people who said those things. I’ve quoted a few, many were in the Bush admin and they were right, if only we didn’t get bogged down in nation building...
I thought they didn’t give him enough air time.
His sole purpose is to add a 'circus act' to a debate process that doesn't need much help in that direction to start with. He's the lightning rod by which anti-war liberals can disrupt (to the extent they can) the Republican debates and nominating process. It ridiculous that he's still there.
Paul said ‘he told us it would be a cakewalk’.. now, I guess you can say, it depends on who ‘he’ is or what ‘it’ was..
Thanks for the update
I do like what Rudy said in the post interview, Paul and Mike Gravel should form their own little party and debate each other..
That’s about he said that made sense.....lol
“Paul said ‘he told us it would be a cakewalk’.. now, I guess you can say, it depends on who ‘he’ is or what ‘it’ was..”
“PAUL: The people who say there will be a bloodbath are the ones who said it will be a cakewalk or it will be a slam dunk, and that it will be paid for by oil. Why believe them? They’ve been wrong on everything they’ve said.”
Get your facts straight you won’t look like such a neo-twit.
..all he said...
Hmm. Strange that he wouldn’t have been identified as such in that WaPo article.
Agree. It is all about ratings and theater. Paul is just a diversion who disrupts the debate and shifts the focus away from the serious candidates. The Left-leaning MSM makes Paul the centerpiece when reporting on what happened just to discredit the Rep Party.
This Adelman guy is the only one who ever said “cakewalk.” That is not “people” or plural.
Paul said that the same people who are saying pulling out of Iraq prematurely will result in a bloodbath are the same ones who said it would be a cakewalk.
Is Adelman saying pulling out will cause a bloodbath?
I wish they would ask him why he repeatedly votes against the Patriot Act despite testimony by the FBI and CIA Directors that it is absolutely essential in our fight against militant Islamic fundamentalism.
...We’ve committed the invasion of this war, and it’s illegal under international law. That’s where I take my marching orders...
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