Election Central Debate Roundup
• A full transcript of last night's Republican debate is available here.
• Chris Wallace got things off to a good start, by instigating some verbal fights over Fred Thompson's attacks on Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani, regarding issues like abortion, gun control and immigration. After Rudy and Romney responded, Wallace asked Thompson if he was satisfied that they were true conservatives. "Well, we've got an hour and a half," he said sarcastically. "Maybe they can work on it."
• Rudy turned the accusations right back in Thompson's face. "I mean, Fred was the single biggest obstacle to tort reform in the United States Senate," said Giuliani. "He stood with Democrats over and over again."
• Thompson said pro-choice groups have an ulterior motive in brining up his brief time lobbying for them in the early 1990's. "Frankly, I'd forgotten about it. But they've come forward now, because I'm their worst nightmare," he said. "After that happened, I went to the United States Senate and voted consistently against them on every bill that came up. Now they're trying to defeat me."
• John McCain got a standing ovation for his remark about why he missed Woodstock: "I was tied up at the time." Even the other candidates joined in on the applause.
• Ron Paul was booed more than once. One time involved him saying that more than 70% of Americans are "sick and tired of it [Iraq] and they want our troops to come home." Another instance was when he said that we need to start talking to other countries and trade with them, rather than "assume that the world is going to blow up."
• Rudy sought to give the crowd some assurances on gay marriage. "I did 210 weddings when I was mayor of New York City. So I have experience doing this. They were all men and women — I hope," he said to laughter from the crowd. He then took a page from the Romney playbook, and made another joke at the expense of his former constituents: "You got to give me a little slack here. It was New York City, you know."
• John McCain got in a good crack at President Bush's expense: "I don't know about naive, but I do know that when I looked into Mr. Putin's eyes, I saw three letters: a K, a G and a B."
• Rudy joked to Tom Tancredo during a commercial break that they'd gone a whole hour without talking about illegal immigration. So Tancredo used their first question after the break, regarding Social Security and Medicare, to talk about the strain being put on the health care system by illegal aliens, and alleged that there are plans afoot to give them Social Security benefits, too.
• Romney hit Hillary Clinton in creative terms: "She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president, you know, as an internship just doesn't make any sense."
• Romney balked at Thompson's ideas about changing the way Social Security benefits are indexed. "I'm prepared to be entirely bold, but I'm not prepared to cut benefits for low-income Americans," he said. "We're going to make sure that we protect these programs for our seniors." Instead, he entertained changes to indexation as an option for higher-income people, and spoke well about putting current Social Security surpluses into private accounts.
• Mike Huckabee joked that the Social Security actuarial tables were designed around people dying at 67. "Well, I'm sorry, but folks aren't dying that early," he said. "And short of taking them out, which is not a good idea, we're going to have to make the benefits work better. And that's one way to get it done."
• Many conservatives allege that the Democrats went astray when they embraced McGovernism, but Duncan Hunter put their decline about ten years earlier — when John F. Kennedy declined to attack Cuba. "You know, 300 miles off this coast is a place where another party, once a great party, the Democrat Party, lost its identity," Hunter said. "And that's when, in 1961, the Cuban freedom fighters were struggling with a toehold on the beach, trying to take back Cuba from Castro and a Democrat president with an aircraft carrier sitting a few miles offshore said we will not help the freedom fighters."
Comments (22)
John McCutchen wrote on October 22, 2007 10:30 AM:They partied like it was 1999
Richard L. Adlof wrote on October 22, 2007 10:31 AM:I think that overall my greatest concern with the bunch of white who were on the stage last night was the obvios lack of understand of basic economic principles. They all touted the spend less get more cuz corporate America will provide bullshit that has turned America into the Greatest debt-ridden third world country on the face of our planet. Truly clueless.
Daniel wrote on October 22, 2007 10:39 AM:Check out the numbef times they accused each other of being Hillary Clinton, quite literally.
Peter Principle wrote on October 22, 2007 10:49 AM:They partied like it was 1999
More like 1899.
Remember the Maine!
AlladinsLamp wrote on October 22, 2007 11:02 AM:Can somebody explain how refundable tax credits don't have to be paid for with tax dollars?
Duncan Hunter: "I'll see your Double Guantanamo and raise you a Double Bay of Pigs!"
nitpicker wrote on October 22, 2007 11:14 AM:I do want to point out that Tom Tancredo had an excellent point when he said, "the American Taxpayers Union, for one, gives me the highest rating; the American Conservative Union, highest rating of anybody running for president of the United States; an A rating from the National Right to Life; an A rating from every organization — every conservative organization that gives ratings to those of us who are here on this stage."
Democrats should be touting his statement everywhere. Tom Tancredo is the face of conservatism, which means conservatism's face is that of a crazy, anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic old dude who takes money from other old dudes who are connected to white power groups.
George wrote on October 22, 2007 12:09 PM:Once again I did not hear any questions or commenst regarding the environment. That's reassuring.
DonnaG wrote on October 22, 2007 12:16 PM:Watched the debate live. If I had to vote for a Republican after watching one debate, it would be Huckabee.
The answer to the question of whether Hillary Clinton is the surest way to 'fire up the republican base' was obvious. Every time one of the candidates dissed Hillary or otherwise mentioned her, the audience became wildly energized. That was sobering to watch.
Neal wrote on October 22, 2007 12:17 PM:Why is it that Ron Paul is the only one (rep or dem) who sounds sane on forign policy?
IWW wrote on October 22, 2007 12:39 PM:Thank you Peter Principle! That was hysterical! Yes, let's all invade Cuba...
Anonymous wrote on October 22, 2007 12:58 PM:What human being boos when a politician talks about ending war and bringing troops home? I mean, how can the Christian right boo "peace"? Don't they worship, like, the "Prince of Peace"?
Yay war!
Cinderella Ferret wrote on October 22, 2007 1:25 PM:"I did 210 weddings when I was mayor of New York City. So I have experience doing this. They were all men and women ... "
We know Rudy! Jesus H. Christ, but what we don't know is how times were You the Man, and how many times were You the Woman? Was it a 105-105 split, or not quite that even? More specifics, please! After all that saber-rattling we want to know how Butch you are.
Jinchi wrote on October 22, 2007 1:46 PM:Ron Paul was booed more than once.
The applause and the boo's surprised me. They reflect a specifically partisan Republican ideology.
Are these debates open to the general public or do they preselect the audience the same way that Bush preselects his?
kjoe wrote on October 22, 2007 1:48 PM:The media continues to promote Rudy Giuliani, hoping for the narrowest of choices, and least amount of change.
I am trying to come to terms with having Hillary shoved up my ass no matter what----I kind of envy the republicans' who will not be manipulated by the media nearly so much----they might even nominate a man of serious principles with which I strongly disagree-----Mike Huckabee.
Romney had an interesting line---he said we don't want Hillary "interning" in the white house.
Fractal wrote on October 22, 2007 1:48 PM:Josh posted a comment about members of Congress being "hostages" to the war. I think he was talking about GOP members, but I could not be sure. He linked to the post above about Ron Paul getting booed for saying we should get out of Iraq.
I'm curious if anybody in Congress (Dems or GOP) is ready to admit what the military is now finally admitting: there will be no "victory" in Iraq, no matter how long our troops stay there. That is in fact what the new classified military campaign plan for Iraq now says, according to WaPo. See Link.
If you can't open the link 'cuz you don't want to register with the WaPo, here is the money graf from that article:
"The plan also acknowledges that the U.S. military -- with limited time and troops -- cannot guarantee a wholesale defeat of its enemies in Iraq, and instead is seeking 'political accommodation' to persuade them to end the use of violence, the officials said."
No "wholesale defeat of its enemies." How are the GOP candidates going to swallow THAT? Are they going to demand the U.S. military stay in Iraq forever, chasing the elusive pony of "wholesale defeat of its enemies," when our own military says it ain't going to happen?
And if the military cannot defeat its enemies "wholesale," nobody is going to be able to claim any "victory" in Iraq. Ever. So why are we there?
greg wrote on October 22, 2007 1:53 PM:DonnaG,
I'm not a Hillary supporter, but whenever I hear people worrying about her (or anyone else's) galvanizing impact on the wing-nuts, I think about US Grant, who when he arrived at the HQ of the Army of the Potomac found all of his generals fretting about Lee might do this or Lee might do that. His response (paraphrased):
"I'm tired of hearing what Bobby Lee might do to us. I want to hear what we're going to do to him."
goodgirlroxie wrote on October 22, 2007 2:06 PM:If one of Fox's media darlings had been booed even half as much as Paul was at this Hillary Bash-Fest in Orlando, you can bet your sweet bippy that Hannity would have been all over it as sure proof that the "far left loonies" are unwilling to listen to a variety (full and balanced) of ideas and opinions. They are such hypocrites!
Anonymous wrote on October 22, 2007 2:30 PM:It was not difficult to imagine why Paul was booed. Who would attend a FOX sponsored GOP debate? I suspect that this group represents about half of the 20 something percent that still support these wingnuts. This was the quintessential koolaid crowd. Who in their right mind would go sit anywhere to listen to the likes of Hannity, Hume and Cameron?
Long Memory wrote on October 22, 2007 3:13 PM:For those who are geographically challenged -- especially Mr. Huckabee -- Cuba is about 90 miles off our coast. Question: Is the Republicans learning?
MNPundit wrote on October 22, 2007 3:40 PM:It's a damn shame the Kennedy didn't attack Cuba with these idiots or their fathers. The Soviets and Cubans could have done us a favor and rid ourselves of them.
john mccutchen wrote on October 22, 2007 5:16 PM:Romney
That skill, that experience is essential. Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world, the government of the United States. It employs millions of people, trillions of dollars in revenue. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city. She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president, you know, as an internship just doesn't make any sense.
Superb!
