Posted on 10/18/2011 7:08:00 PM PDT by smoothsailing
Bryan Preston
October 18, 2011
There were two Ricks on debate stage tonight, and both came in loaded up and ready to hunt. Rick Santorum threw a blizzard of punches at Mitt Romney early over his claim that as president, Romney, the author of RomneyCare, would repeal ObamaCare. The punches landed and the damage showed on Romney’s face. Rick Perry came in loaded up to speak aggressively for his energy plan, and spoke with an energy and conviction that has not come through in previous debates. Romney came under the most intense fire he has faced in any of the 2011 debates and while he handled it well, the criticisms of his record are legitimate and will sting. Romney’s red face as he tried to to redirect the examination over to Newt Gingrich revealed that he knew the night wasn’t going well for him.
Herman Cain also faced the toughest questioning of any debate so far, regarding his 9-9-9 tax plan, and handled it mostly with his usual humor and wit. The former talk radio host can engage in an open debate with the best of them, but his lack of depth showed in spots. He didn’t seem to know the details of his 9-9-9 plan early on. Cain did do well when discussing his ideas for reforming health care: No mandates, but focus on market-based reforms like allowing purchase across state lines. Nothing new, but nothing wrong with any of it either.
Perry also hit Romney directly for “hypocrisy” for having hired illegal aliens. Romney laughed and denied, but the story has been out there since 2007 or thereabouts. Romney lost his cool, for the second time. Perry scored another direct hit, and Mitt turned red again. The ice man melted.
Perry also did well on the question of securing the border: It’s about a fence, plus other security measures including technology and boots on the ground. Bachmann got in a jab about the president’s illegal alien relatives who keep popping up in the news, before moving on to declare that she would build a fence along the entire border. There is actually less policy daylight between most of the candidates on the border than the stage arguments suggest, but the arguments drew out some personalities, and it’s hard to see Romney benefiting from the exchange.
Tonight’s was the most lively debate, and does have the potential to change the race a bit. Perry came to fight and from tax policy to spending to funding the UN, showed that his issue knowledge is broad. Romney wasn’t prepared to take hits from so many other candidates. Romney’s packed supporters in the audience and other blogs provided some soundtrack to back their man up but I doubt it did much good. Romney’s cool broke too many times for his own good. His whining about being talked over, when he isn’t shy about interrupting others, was entertaining but revealed a thin skin. Romney probably had his best moment during the religion debate, but that’s such tired ground now and Romney has so overreached on that issue that it’s unlikely to make any difference.
This was Perry’s best night. He took control when he needed to, threw the president’s and his competitors’ words against them at opportune moments, and showed a strong and knowledgeable presence going toe to toe with Romney. Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann also had good nights. Gingrich can speak brilliantly on any policy thrown at him. His brief closing statement showed that he is among the adults in the room. Santorum spoke very well on values. Cain and Romney took sustained fire and handled it unevenly. Cain was at his worst on the question of whether he would contemplate releasing terrorists held at Gitmo in exchange for an American hostage. There is simply no way to justify his answer to Wolf Blitzer, earlier today. Ron Paul was, infuriatingly, Ron Paul, capable of saying things at the edge of brilliance but coupling them with statements that make little sense or betray a hole in his moral thinking. While I admire his logical mind, I don’t admire some of the places it takes him.
The clear winner tonight was Rick Perry. He looked like a seasoned leader who has found his voice, at last. Newt Gingrich came in a strong second, Cain and Santorum follow him and Romney follows them. He was strong in spots but had trouble keeping his cool, an d had no good answers to explain his own policy history. Passion is one thing; all of the candidates brought that tonight. Edging close to revealing a Hulk moment is something else.
There was something else different about tonight’s debate. In past debates, Romney’s press team has easily outpaced all of the other campaigns combined in the number of press releases they sent out while the debate continued. Not so, tonight. The Perry press team must have rolled over the Romney team 8 to 1 or more. From the top on down, the Perry team is moving with a new energy.
CAIN (B+) - Overall Cain handled himself extremely well under fire. His finest moment was when he stated that the OWS crowd should occupy the Obama White House instead of Wall Street. I feel he stumbled during the answer about trading prisoners for hostages but I feel he amended for that in the spin room after the debate. Still making rookie mistakes but seems to be learning fast. He'll have to if he's going to win this nomination. For now, Cain should take satisfaction that he came out of this evening's debate mostly unscathed.
ROMNEY (D-) - Overall Romney came across awful during this debate. While he scored some points on Perry, he came across as immature and childish. His strongest moment was when he attacked Perry on immigration by stating that Texas had a 60% growth in illegal immigration because Perry was handing out $100,000 in-state tuition credits to them. His weak moments are too numerous to mention and he had that creepily annoying stare and smile throughout.
PERRY (C-) - Despite scoring a C-, this was Perry's best debate so far. Evidently he sampled some of the Venetian java before taking the stage (that casino coffee is strong). Like Romney however, Perry came across as childish, it almost seems like he and Romney were going to start talking about how their father was going to beat up the other's father. Perry's strongest moment was when he talked about de-funding the United Nations. His weakest moments was when he went after Romney for hiring illegal aliens to mow his grass when in fact, Romney contracted the work out and was not aware that the contractor had hired illegal aliens (and fired them when he found out). Perry also got lots of boos from the audience - never a good thing, even though it was a Romney crowd.
GINGRICH (A) - Yet another solid performance by Newt Gingrich who is clearly the statesman of this slate of candidates. Hopefully he will continue to stay in the race as he helps to keep the other candidates focused on beating Obama rather than beat up on themselves.
BACHMANN (A+) - Bachmann was clearly the star of the night. She sported a new look that made me think of the Love Boat for some reason (I now have a craving for a Mai Tai) but in the debate, she was on her game with not a single weak moment.
SANTORUM (C) - Santorum made some good points during the debate but was a big turnoff with his snottiness and self-indulgent narratives on how he was the only candidate in the room that beat a Democrat back in 1994, yada, yada, yada.
PAUL (C-) - Another typical performance by Ron Paul. Agree with 90% of what he says but the other 10% makes me want to run from the room.
HUNTSMAN (A+) - This was Jon Huntsman's best performance yet! He didn't appear on stage but apparently he was out in the casino confusing the hell out of the blackjack dealers. Last I heard, he was at the craps table posting bets on the "Pass" line.
Playing the southern card, huh? Conservatives are supposed to be interested in following rules: even ones for verbs.
Perry was melodramatic on a simple I gotcha at Mitt about a Landscaping company that hired a few illegals...dang here in CA Landscaping would halt dead in the weed blowers
I could be wrong but I thought I heard Perry say he was against it.????
Good.
We need to broaden the tax base and make sure all households pay something.
Right now over 50% pay no tax. Why would they even care about taxes if they pay no tax?
BTW, didn’t Cain say in the last debate that his loaf of bread would only be taxed Once.
Bachmann just told the american People the truth.
It probably shocks people like santorium,Bachmann, Paul, and gingrich that have ACTUALLY been in Congress to hear these naive assertions. Now that they have got over the shock, they have started to explain how rediculous Cain’s plan really is.
Nevada is probably second in the nation for the number of Mitt-bots present.
I saw how Mitt was able to marshall them a few years ago, creepy!
The Mormons (Source of most Mitt-bots) may, or may not, be a “Cult”, but they certainly WILL want some sort of pay-back for their support.
Just like O’Bummer and the unions.
Just say NO to Romney!
Yes, imo Perry's best performance. Anytime the phony and fraud Romney is slapped down by a conservative, I like it and I'm not afraid to admit it.
Cain's entire strategy remains centered around his 999 tax plan. So much so that Cain is quickly becoming a one issue candidate. Cain is also a candidate without any governing or legislative record to judge him on and that is a huge problem that will not be going away. Cain is a political neophyte in the spirit of Ross Perot.
And yours is the best attitude I have seen on FR. Too many here have stated that if their candidate is not nominated, they will stay home and not vote. What a bunch of bull.
Anyone but owebama.
I did think Newt was amazing.
LOL!
Yes, pandering to “the Moms out there” didn’t win any affection from me.
I know Mitt won my confidence tonight that he is a slimy, lying and arrogant RINO.
“Perry looked at best, mean spirited, but mostly just dumb.”
Couldn’t have said it better myself. He looked like Jethro Clampett (sp?) in a suit.
Damn, was there a second debate tonight that I missed?
Government Regs, nanny stte involvement in private property and business owner’s rights are hardly TAX issues.
Try Department of Interior, EPA, Dept. of Energy, BLM,FDA, etc.
“Salesman’s Creed: ‘Blind them with brilliance, and baffle them with bullsh!t’ !
Cain is a pro.”
Cain IS a pro.
Perry’s creed must be: “Baffle them with my own lethargy, and blind them by acting angry and make others look good by trying to talk over others and not following the debate rules.”
Perry polled close to 3% in Florida recently. Wow. Guess he better go back to the Salesman’s Creed instead LOL!
Was it my TV or was his makeup just really that bad?
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