I watched the debate earlier. Let me start by saying Diane Sawyer gets on my last nerve. Holy crap, spit out the damn question already. Dude, the debate is only an hour long and it takes her 10 minutes to get the question out!
Anyway, now that I have that out of my system. It seemed as if they wanted the candidates to spend most of the time arguing amongst themselves. For the most part, it worked. Newt tried a couple of times to get things back on track.
I thought Rick Perry did a great job. He stayed on message and answered the questions in an intelligent and respectful manner. He scorched Ron Paul on an earmark issue. Ron Paul has a habit of loading up a bill with earmarks for his district and then voting against the bill. He knows the bill will pass and he gets what he wants out of it without being on record as voting for it. Rick Perry called him on the hypocrisy. When the candidates were asked about the situation in Iraq, Perry said that he would send troops back in to re-stabilize the area. I kind of have to agree. We spent a lot of money and blood in that country and it began to destabilize within hours of our pullout. Putting troops back in the country may not solve the internal problems but it would keep iran from getting a foothold there.
Newt didn't get as much attention as he has in the recent past. What time he did get he spent wisely. He gave good answers to the questions he was asked. He also beat up on Ron Paul a little. Ron Paul recently called Newt a chicken hawk because he never served in the military. He also accused Newt of getting multiple deferments during Vietnam. Newt said it was false and also pointed out that he is in a position to understand military personnel and their families because his father was a career military man and Newt was an Army brat.
Rick Santorum also did a pretty good job. I would have figured him to have an equal share of the spotlight with Romney, he didn't. I do like his view of the importance of family. The degradation of our society is in direct proportion to decline of the American family. There have been lots of stories lately about Santorum's relationship with Arlen Spectre. Those things do concern me and I would like to hear more about those issues. None of that was brought up tonight.
Mitt Romney did about the same as always. He is a decent debater. His message has been the same since day one. I don't think he has a bold plan for either fixing our economy or creating a business friendly environment in our Country. He seems to want to try to work within our current system and make small changes and fixes. That's not going to work. He is very safe though for the republican establishment.
Ron Paul spent half the time defending himself and the other half beating people up. He didn't want to talk much about the newsletter issue. I don't blame him, I wouldn't want to talk about it either. He says it is a waste of time to bring up things from 20 years ago. Great, then why does he bring up things from the distant past of Santorum and Gingrich? I guess it's ok to do that, but people bringing up things from his past isn't? Ron Paul made lots of money off of that newsletter. I find it very difficult to believe that he wasn't aware of what was being published in hi name.
Jon Huntsman... OMG, this guy REALLY bugs me. It's getting to the point where the very sight of him angers me. I don't believe a damn thing he says. He spends the entire time telling us that he was the ambassador to China and that he lived in a foreign country 4 different times. Ok, great. We know that, tell us something new. Start out by actually answering one of the questions you are asked. This guy refuses to answer even the easiest of questions. He tries to use misdirection and redirection to avoid what he doesn't want to talk about. I see right through it. I hope everyone else is bright enough to do the same.
There you have it. I think Perry did a very good job and will probably see a bump in his numbers because of it. Romney, Newt and Santorum all did a decent job and shouldn't lose anything because of tonight. Ron Paul came out looking a little desperate and kind of petty. He will probably see a little decline. Huntsman, who really cares, he's in the toilet anyway.
