[samtheman]

The debate stage matters more than ever before -- and on that stage, Newt is the best. The future of the Republic is at stake. And that is why Gingrich is in the top tier to stay.

This election is a full half century after the Kennedy/Nixon debates. In all that time, the importance of debates has grown election by election until now it is key.

Newt will shred Obama in the debates.

No one else will come close.

End. Of. Story.

[fightinJAG]

This election is a full half century after the Kennedy/Nixon debates. In all that time, the importance of debates has grown election by election until now it is key.

I think that's mythology.

Fifty years ago it was very difficult, compared to today, to get a lot of information on candidates or even to see them speak.

Today every little podunk stop a candidate makes is filmed and put up on YouTube. The point is: the more information there is already out there -- and there is exponentially more than ever in the last half-century -- the less any one event makes an impact.

And, as I said upthread, particularly in this cycle, I think the presidential debates are not going to change a single vote. By that time, the country will be even more polarized than it already is, and people will be even more sure that they want Obama out or they don't.

[fightinJAG]

Also, the Dems, like the rest of the nation, and especially the Liberal punditry, have already accepted and digested the fact that Obama is actually a terrible speaker and an empty suit debater.

The expectations on him are going to be extremely low.

So not only will no one care (except, as if often pushed, for the entertainment value), no one will even expect Obama NOT to get whupped by whoever the GOP nominee is, even if they put Spongebob in the chair.

Let’s say Obama gets crushed by GOP Nominee. Afterwards, Chris Matthews still says . . . what?

[hinckley buzzard]

Newt has earned his recent gains the hard way, by excelling in the debates. Clear and organized thought will be decisive weapons against the word-woozy media-slathered obama campaign. Just having the right answers won't be near enough, which is why all the other candidates would be toast.

In the most important sense, this election is not about issues at all. It is about what kind of nation we will be--America as we have known it for 235 years, or some corrupt turd world backwater dictatorship. No other candidate is capable of engaging this meta-issue as it needs to be engaged to defeat the combined onslaught of the Left.

Getting caught up in meaningless trivia like the couch picture, or the perfectly legitimate consulting business, routinely lied about here by anti-private sector a-holes, will only insure that the real issue never is addressed--and this country cannot afford that dereliction of duty.