Posted on 01/30/2008 4:16:12 PM PST by khnyny
Reagan Library Republican Presidential Debate: January 30, 2008
SIMI VALLEY, California (CNN) -- Republican presidential hopefuls will face off Wednesday night without a familiar face as ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is expected to drop out and endorse front-runner Sen. John McCain.
The remaining candidates will take the stage in a debate -- sponsored by CNN, the Los Angeles Times and Politico -- beginning at 8 p.m. ET Wednesday.
The event at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, follows McCain's Tuesday night win in the Florida primary.
McCain topped former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 36 percent to 31 percent in the hotly contested race.
Giuliani placed third with 15 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee with 14 percent, and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was fifth with 3 percent.
Giuliani is expected to end his White House bid and endorse McCain at a campaign event in California later Wednesday, Republican Party sources said.
Minus Giuliani, the debate will be a four-candidate affair -- McCain, Romney, Huckabee and Paul -- with CNN's Anderson Cooper moderating.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
That made me laugh...
McCain’s lies/accusations have been completely debunked multiple times.
I hope you’re not accusing Ron Paul of ranting crazily. Read your own stuff. Try not to chant.
His view that we are the root cause of jihadism and that Iraq was going through life minding their own business disqualifies him from holding any public office in my view.
He sat in that chamber along with thousands of others these past 30 years while jihadists killed Americans and our friends with nary a damn word. If it was up to me Ron Paul and every damn one of them who joined him in that silence would be gone.
ROBIN ROBERTS (ABC NEWS): Do you believe that there should be a timetable in withdrawing the troops?
ROMNEY: Well, there’s no question - but that the President and - Prime Minister al-Maliki have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about. But those shouldn’t be for public pronouncement. You don’t want the enemy to understand how long they have to wait in the weeds until you’re gonna be gone. You wanna have a series of things you wanna see accomplished in terms of the strength of the Iraqi military and the Iraqi police and the leadership of the, of the Iraqi government.
ROBERTS: So, private? You wouldn’t do it publicly because - the President has said flat out that he will veto anything the Congress passes about a timetable for - troop withdrawals. As president, would you do the same?
ROMNEY: Well, could you, yeah - well, of course. Could you, could you imagine the setting where, where during the second World War we said to the, the Germans, gee, if we haven’t reached the Rhine by this date, we’ll go home, or if we haven’t gotten this accomplished, we’ll, we’ll pull up and leave? You don’t, you don’t publish that to your enemy, or they just simply lie and wait until that time. So, of course, you have to work together to create timetables and milestones, but you don’t do that with the, with the opposition.
Romney expanded on his remarks in a June 7 interview with the Associated Press, in which he said he was opposed to the Bush administration’s vision of a decades-long U.S. military presence in Iraq, similar to South Korea, and called for “public benchmarks” to gauge progress. The Associated Press then quoted him as saying:
“I think we would hope to turn Iraq security over to their own military and their own security forces, and if presence in the region is important for us than we have other options that are nearby”...Romney said the Bush administration would be wise to publicly disclose some goals for success in Iraq to restore public confidence. Benchmarks that would tip off adversaries, however, should remain private.
Talking vaguely about “timetables and milestones” is not the same thing as setting “a date for withdrawal,” from Iraq, as Senator McCain has tried to argue. And while Romney has talked about secret understandings with the Iraqi government, that is very different from promises by Hillary Clinton and other Democratic candidates to remove most U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of 2009.
The Pinocchio Test
McCain has distorted the meaning of a nine-month old quote from Romney. While Romney has mentioned “timetables and milestones” to be met by the Iraqi government—some secret, some public—he has never proposed setting “a date for withdrawal.”
(About our rating scale.)
I’d rather waste my money on someone who can at least bring these ideas out to a sizable population, than waste my money on a RINO or a socialist.
None of the other so-called conservatives even can articulate conservative positions. None of them understand why conservatism and limited government even work!
Instead, they debate things like timetables, and tax cuts.
It’s like watching a bunch of mechanics tune an engine without understanding what the 4 strokes are!
Will you explain the obscure “Queeg” reference? I have seen it before and have no idea what it means.
Thanks.
The second biggest danger of nominating McCain is that he'd probably lose to Hillary or Obama.
The bigger danger is that he might not (if he doesn't, we'll wish he had).
Timetables for what exactly? He already spoke plainly about timetables for withdrawal stating emphatically that he would veto any measure that called for them. Capesce? Now that we’ve cleared that up about withdrawal timetables, what is it exactly that these other time tables you bring up are all about?
I disagree...they both have legitimate voices that need to be heard....social conservatism and libertatianism re not irrrational at their core...they are about what is and has been the best of this nation...a belief in God as our creator and through whom ALL of our rights are founded, and a belief in our Constitution whereby our government is restricted and dirtected to serve the people and not the people serving government.
You are right, hope. RR probably wasn’t pure enough...and you know what? He would be ripped for an amnesty deal he cut and for his two lousy SCOTUS appointments.
I think the man was a great President, too. America needed him and he was a hero.
Look....you got a problem with me...report me to the mods. Otherwise just ignore my posts and leave me alone.
Hi Leni, I agree with your synopsis of the debacle.
Well, this is not exactly a compliment, but McCain can handle himself just fine among the libs. Most don’t realize his voting record is pretty conservative except on Amnesty...which I think he finally gets it now...and campaign finance...Don’t forget those are two issues one that past and the one that almost did were given to us by Bush also.
NOT IN SAN DIEGO HE’S NOT!
No problem.
LOL. You guys are killing me!
No .. I have no recollection of that.
Would you reiterate the essentials?
As disgusting as it is, yes. I just can't accept letting the Clintons back in the White House.
But maybe, God willing, we won't have to make that choice.
Amnesty is a drop in a huge bucket of Liberal issues that Traitor John has been a part of. The list is long.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.