I didn't watch MSLSD - just followed along on the thread to read others' reactions. There were apparently some good to great performances, and also some stinkers.
Huntsman supports AGW, so he's just lost 98% of the Republican base. Newt kicked the moderator hard, right near the beginning, and put the dolt (and the whole MSM) in their place. Perry's been holding his own, and even Mitt impressed somewhat. Cain barely got in a few at-bats, but he did great when he was up. Bachmann did alright, but few surprises. Ron Paul confirmed beyond a shadow of doubt that he's the loon we all think he is.
Not bad, overall, but I'm not sure I can pick a winner.
Thanks for the summary. I kind of reached your conclusions from reading from the back end of the thread.
People who underestimate Rick Perry, do it at their peril. He is a deliberate speaker...as you can see whenever he’s on tv...but he backs down to no man. Even the Zero.
His position as governor is weak as compared to some other states, but he has shown strength in spite of that in the bills he’s signed into law.
I think you called it pretty well Windflier. It certainly was better then the first one Fox put up. But more to come and we’ll see how it flies next time.
I was slaying dragons on MSNBC site during this debate. Really fun knocking them down but quite interesting many were checking out the candidates because they will not vote for Obama again. Many didn’t know Santorum or Huntsman , some thought the debate was rigged because Perry and Romney were given so much face time.
I watched most of it, and really thought the moderators were attempting to shape the debate and the time given to candidates appeared directly proportional to the latest poll results. Ithink that played against the group as a whole and put too much focus or lack thereof on specific individuals.
Huntsman supports AGW, so he's just lost 98% of the Republican base.
I thought Huntsman did well until he inferred I was an idiot because I am skeptical of the AGW theory and that the science was settled. Big mistake since that cuts his legs out regarding energy which is the core issue as it relates to climate change theory.
Newt, as usual was a great debater, but didn't do anything to indicate that his entire campaign won't implode tomorrow. THink he'd make a good Sec. of State though.
Perry was put on the hot seat all debate. Would like to see a percentage breakdown of questions (and follow ups) per candidate and time during the debate per candidate. The cameras were definately on him and they were looking for sound bites to use against him. Why did the field agree to MSNBC for this anyway?
Mitt was impressive. Some of that was due to format - never hit anything other than some fleeting Romneycare debate. Again - the debate seemed to be designed to pull ammo to use against Perry and was mostly softballs to Romney.
Every time Cain talked he made sense and talked well - but the moderators apparently wanted to minimize that and him. A shame in my opinion.
Bachmann was pretty flat in my opinion. Again - the moderators facilitated that, but she only did okay on the rare opportunities when the moderators blessed her with time to talk.
Ron Paul jumped the shark, looked lost, and paranoid. I very much like his dedication to the Constitution, but stating that we should not secure our borders from illegals coming in because those same securities might be used to fence us in was absurd. Not because it could never happen, but I want a president that believes that in the future our major problem is not going to be citizens trying to escape. Not a real positive concept in my opinion.
Nobody knocked it out of the part. The moderators and moderation were awful and in my opinion did their best to marginalize every candidate that was on stage.