Drunkblogging the GOP Presidential Debate
4:44PM Tonight, the talk is supposed to be all about the economy. That’s just fine, since the debate is being hosted by financial-centric Bloomberg TV, which is the network we here at PJTV laugh at.
4:48PM Say this much for Bloomberg’s lineup: They aren’t flashy, but they certainly are uninteresting.
Al Hunt? Wasn’t he that guy who used to be on CNN? We’ve got Austan Goolsbee, too, and I swear to you the first thing he did during his introduction was stick a finger in his eye and start digging around in there.
I’m not – yet — drunk enough to wonder what he found.
4:51PM Also, you probably heard already that Chris Christie endorsed Mitt Romney today, release his donors to Mitt’s already-flush campaign.
And if I can steal one of my own gags from Twitter, Christie’s price was Secretary of Cheese.
Follow me on Twitter if you don’t already.
4:54PM This is the lamest pre-show ever. It’s going to be a long night, and I make no apologies.
5:00PM Bloomberg TV will have two candidates on after the debate, but they’re not saying which two. So I’m betting on Gingrich and Huntsman.
5:00PM Debate moderator: Charlie Rose. There’s some small chance that the candidates, too, will be allowed to speak.
5:01PM The candidates will also be allowed to question each other in the second half. This could be fun.
5:02PM I haven’t seen this many people looking this uncomfortable being so close to one another since my first mixer.
5:02PM First question to Cain: What’s your plan for the economy, specifically.
5:03PM Cain: My plan is to present a bold plan and get serious. Also, some nines.
5:04PM To Perry: Will you compromise like Reagan?
5:04PM Perry: I’ve had to deal with folks on both sides of the aisle in this tremendously big state I govern.
Also, I have a plan for drilling, but Palin took “drill, baby, drill” already.
5:05PM Romney: Be specific.
5:05PM Romney: I would, very specifically, be a leader. Which, in a very specific way, our current president is not leading.
5:05PM Specifically. That’s our drinking word tonight.
5:06PM To Perry: Why aren’t you being specific like Mitt?
5:07PM Perry: I would be very specific about opening up drilling. Specifically.
5:07PM NOTE TO SELF: Charle Rose isn’t any less absurd than any of the other moderators I’ve seen. Just more — if this is possible — self-important. And specific.
5:08PM To Bachmann: Wouldn’t it be cool if some Wall Street people took one right in the nads? (I’m paraphrasing.)
5:09PM Bachmann: Dodd-Frank got us into this mess.
Sorry, it’s just no fun to make fun of Bachmann since the Bad Lip Reading guys did it. I bow to them.
5:10PM If Bachmann uses the word “institutionalized” again, I will giggle.
5:10PM To Newt: Obamanomics sucks, huh?
5:10PM Or maybe it was “Wall Street sucks, huh?” Honestly, this Karen person goes on like me after the third after-dinner brandy.
5:11PM Newt: “Start with Barney Frank and Chris Dodd… ”
And Newt suggested they go to jail! That’s a drink.
5:12PM Newt drew first blood on Bernanke, too. Ron Paul must be steaming.
5:12PM To Paul: How much would you like to tar and feather Bernanke?
5:13PM Paul: “There are some even at this table…” who didn’t want to audit the Fed.
5:13PM Typical Paul — great first half of the answer, dog barking in the second half.
5:14PM Hey, Rick Santorum! Haven’t seen him in ages. What’s he doing here?
5:16PM To Huntsman: How would you make the economy innovative?
5:16PM Huntsman: I’d bring back heavy industry.
Wow. Bad bad bad.
5:17PM If you don’t have Bloomberg TV on your dish or cable provider, it’s being streamed online, too. Go to Bloomberg.com, I’d guess.
5:18PM To Gingrich: Save Medicare. Right now. Kill off some old people for us.
5:18PM Newt: I am against the killing of old people for political gain.
5:19PM Camera switched to Perry during Newt’s answer, and he looked a little lost. Like when Joey on Friends tried to do math in his head.
5:19PM To Bachmann: Seriously, won’t YOU kill some old people?
5:20PM Bachmann: Obama will kill old people, but I won’t.
5:20PM CORRECTION: Obama’s secret cabal of 15 people will kill old people.
5:21PM To Huntsman: Who are your econ advisors?
5:22PM Huntsman: My dad. And living people, too.
Actually, Huntsman is pretty darn good. But he has no constituency in this race, and he’s tried to build one by being an ass. That makes me not like him so much.
5:22PM Huntsman wants to get good people into government. How very progressive of him.
5:22PM
5:23PM For the love of God, Huntsman cannot still be talking.
5:24PM Cain can’t wait to “throw out the current tax code.” I’m with him on that, but the idea of giving the Feds a sales tax without taking away the income tax strikes me as dangerously naive thinking.
5:25PM Really, seriously, naive. Like, worse than my very first last call.
5:25PM To Romney: Europe is going to bring us down, huh?
5:26PM Romney: I’m not going to answer this question because it’s TOTALLY HYPOTHETICAL that Europe’s economy could effect ours.
Punter.
5:26PM Romney: “I’m not going to call up Tim Geithner and ask him how the economy works.”
5:27PM Romney is defending TARP. Meh, he wasn’t exactly counting on the Tea Party vote.
5:28PM Is Romney’s complain with the GM bailout that the funds came from TARP instead of from some other place, or do I need to drink less — or more?
5:30PM Friedman totally stole that joke from Dorothy Parker, who said that if all the girls attending the Yale prom were laid end to end, she wouldn’t be at all surprised.
5:30PM To Cain: Is Romney right?
5:30PM Cain: Yes. TARP was a good idea, badly implemented. You listening, Tea Party?
5:31PM Newt, speaking out of turn: Bush’s people “didn’t have a clue” in the 2008 crisis.
5:31PM I really do wish sometimes Newt were electable.
5:32PM To Paul: Would you get the government out of housing, or are you a dirty hypocrite?
5:32PM Paul: I would dig Keynes out of the grave just to hit him with the shovel.
Again, I’m paraphrasing. But not much.
5:33PM Commercial break. Or refill, as I like to call it.
5:37PM Ooh, we get to watch videos on TV!
5:38PM To Perry: How much like Reagan do you want to be?
5:39PM This Rick Perry sounds like the Bad Lip Reading Rick Perry. I’m expecting him to say “ice cream” any moment now. This isn’t the top-tier performance he needs to stay a top-tier candidate.
5:39PM To Romney: You’d compromise, right?
5:40PM Mitt: Compromise, hell — I’ll flip and I’ll flop!
5:41PM Romney wants to repatriate dollars. Has he tried offering them amnesty?
5:41PM Wow. That last bit of crulety is why you read VodkaPundit, isn’t it?
5:42PM Newt just went on a great rant about the fake spending cuts and the supercommittee.
5:43PM Bachmann: I’m sane on the debt limit thing. Honest.
5:44PM To Santorum…
Just kidding. Nobody is talking to Santorum.
5:45PM To Cain: Our people say your 999 plan won’t raise enough money, while raising sales taxes on the poor.
5:45PM Cain: Nuh-uh.
5:46PM Cain: Subtract nine from 15.3 and you get 9!
5:47PM To Bachmann: You’re a tax lawyer, right? And that’s a real thing?
5:47PM Bachmann is echoing my complaints about a national sales tax.
And suddenly she’s sane again!
5:48PM And… Bachmann just turned 999 upside down to get 666.
Back to padded room.
5:49PM To Huntsman: You’d start a trade war with China, huh?
5:49PM Huntsman: Is explaining this with references to QE2. Oh, he’s right — but it’s not a good debate answer.
5:50PM To Romney: Why do you hate New Hampshire?
5:51PM Romney: We can win a trade war with China, bitches!
5:52PM Perry: Remember me? Also, Texas makes jobs.
5:54PM To Santorum:
No really, he got a question.
To Santorum: “I want to go to war with China.”
Oh. Fun.
5:55PM Santorum: “Repeal ObamaCare” and go to war with China.
5:56PM Santorum: Elect me President so I can be a Senator! I swear that’s what he just argued.
5:56PM Romney: I will repeal AND excommunicate ObamaCare which isn’t anything like ObamaCare.
5:57PM Huntsman: “That’s the ruinous part of ObamaCare.” He’s talking about 19,500 new IRS agents.
5:58PM After the break, the candidates will ask questions of each other, because Charle Rose needs his tea.
6:02PM Matthew Dowd sounds sensible. Is that a real thing, or did somebody slip me a mickey?
6:04PM These ads about the deficit with these kids who can’t read their lines very well? Please tell me this isn’t the best the right can do next year.
6:06PM From Bachmann to Perry: Why did you use to be a filthy Al Gore-loving Democrat, and aren’t you still?
6:07PM Perry: I’m just glad to get a third question after more than an hour.
6:07PM Perry: I was a Republican younger than Reagan was. Also, don’t mess with Texas.
6:08PM Cain to Romney: Can you name all the kajillion points in your stupid plan?
6:08PM Romney: Simple answers don’t work.
6:09PM Newt nodded gamely, as if Romney was finally wonky enough for him.
6:11PM Newt to Romney: Why aren’t you cutting taxes enough for people in my bracket?
6:11PM Romney: Because I love the middle class. And puppies. And pizza. And New Hampshire voters, especially. And very specifically.
6:12PM Huntsman to Romney: Aren’t you a filthy capitalist like those nice Occupy Wall Street people are complaining about?
6:12PM Mitt: I am so pleased to answer yet another question.
6:13PM Honestly, Romney just bitch-slapped Huntsman with his record at Bain.
6:14PM Paul to Cain: Why won’t you audit the Fed and hit the corpse of Keynes in the face with a shovel?
Interesting that Paul is going after Cain.
6:15PM Cain: No, the Fed really does suck. So THERE.
6:16PM Cain: And 999 jobs jobs jobs.
6:16PM Perry to Romney (surprise!): ObamaCare is ObamaCare…
And Romney is smiling as if to say, I have you beat already. And I’m happy to answer yet another question.
6:17PM Er, ObamaCare is RomneyCare.
6:17PM Romney: I love children. And old people who I won’t kill. And I hate taxes. And I’m proud of what we did. Why do you hate children?
6:18PM Romney: Also, ObamaCare isn’t RomneyCare and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to answer yet another question.
6:18PM Wow. Charlie Rose doesn’t know the alphabet.
6:19PM Romney to Bachmann: HUH??? To Bachmann?
6:19PM Romney to Bachmann, which doesn’t at all belittle Cain or Perry: How would you get people back to work?
6:20PM Bachmann: I have tons of kids, so I know about job. Also, I have a dot.com website and everything.
6:22PM Santorum to Cain: I oppose things. I oppose things like TARP. And I love the Constitution. Why don’t you love the Constitution, Herman Cain?
6:23PM Cain: I will ask Congress to act responsibly.
No, really.
6:24PM Commercial break.
6:27PM To Perry: What’s the difference between your health care ideas and Romney?
6:29PM Perry: Health care is a very important issue, which people in this country care about because of its importance as a big issue around the kitchen table which is why it requires a lot of attention, especially in the energy industry, which we have in Texas, where the health care access is better because of bill I’ve signed and lower rates which we didn’t get from Medicaid but we do have innovators and innovation, especially in health care when it has block grants that aren’t one size fits all with the thought process.
6:30PM To Cain: PLEASE don’t talk about 999, just the Fed, OK?
6:31PM Cain: I still love Alan Greenspan.
You’re the only one, buddy.
And Ron Paul just shook his head so hard, the sonic waves messed up a RomneyHair.
6:31PM To Paul: Congressman Paul?
6:31PM Paul: “Alan Greenspan was a disaster.”
6:32PM Paul: Paul Volcker was good, but I’d still abolish the Fed.
6:33PM Audience question to Rose?
6:33PM Rose deflects to Romney…
6:33PM …and Romney shoots at Obama and scores!
6:35PM Bachmann: I talked to a banker in Texas who is going broke, maybe because of Rick Perry.
6:35PM Bachmann: Here’s another bill I’ve introduced which no one has read.
6:36PM Cain: Repeal Dodd-Frank, repeal capital gains, institute some nines.
6:36PM Paul: Partisanship is a problem and… I’m the cure?
6:37PM To Perry: Government subsidies suck, yes?
6:38PM Perry: Except when we do them in Texas.
6:38PM Romney: Also, the Texas legislature is my partner in crony capitalism, so we’re spreading the theft around a little.
6:39PM Perry: Also, I’m proud of picking winners.
He might be done as a serious candidate after tonight.
6:40PM To Newt: Why don’t you want Americans to own their own homes?
6:41PM Newt: I love America. Jimmy Carter and Barack Obama don’t, and they’re also much more political than I am. Also, I love these candidates and their good ideas. Charlie Rose, you and China suck.
I think I got all that right.
6:42PM To Cain: Why do you hate 14 million unemployed Americans?
6:42PM Cain: No, no — I only hate filthy hippies.
Amen.
6:43PM Romney: I hate tax increases and stimulus plans.
I didn’t hear the question, sorry. I started tuning out the moderators…. about 103 minutes ago.
6:44PM To Perry: The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer — doesn’t that suck?
6:44PM Perry: Obama.
6:45PM Santorum: Remember me? I love families!
6:45PM Santorum: I know Greek!
6:46PM Rose has lost control of his own forum.
Final round, softball: What do you want to tell America about yourself?
6:47PM Bachmann: I feel your pain.
6:47PM Cain: No, I feel your pain.
6:48PM Newt: No, no, I feel your pain.
6:49PM Paul: No, no, no, I feel your pain. And I love liberty, unlike the rest of you squares.
6:49PM Santorum: No, no, no, no, I feel your pain.
6:50PM Where did Perry go? Did Rose forget the alphabet again?
6:50PM Huntsman: No, no, no, no, no, I feel your pain.
6:50PM Oh. Not alphabetical order. I apologize to Rose. But not for much.
6:51PM Perry: No, no, no, no, no, no, I feel your pain.
6:52PM Romney: No, no, no, no, no, no, I feel your pain. And Iove children and leadership and the military. Specifically.
6:53PM For my own self, I’d like to thank Bloomberg TV for hosting — and Charlie Rose for moderating — tonight’s heartwarming episode of the Mitt Romney Show. I hope everyone enjoyed it, especially the inevitability. And the specificity.
Ah, there our radioactive toast(ed)master is! Ready to roll! =^[.]^=
Typing in the dark, good thing I learned to touch type in high school, hey, it’s where the girls were. Think I’ll watch me some Farscape courtesy of Amazon Prime in between refreshes. Cheap bourbon, Farscape and GlowinthedarkPundit, now there’s a Trifecta
MartiniBoy won’t be able to type in the dark, even if he wanted to.
I think the OWS drum circle outside the auditorium really needs to quiet down. =’[.]‘=
Oh, Mittens prepared to be a leader
Karen Karen?
Good answer Michelle. You only go to jail for crimes. Not for government mandated screwups.
U can’t find the station!?
I cannot find the station.
It’s online:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics?hpid=z1
=^[.]^=
Karen: you guys are starting to make sense, Ron, give us some crazy.
Connie, it’s on Bloomberg. DirecTV @ 353
Thanks! Finally found it on Bloomberg.
Cain’s plan is fine, but you have to make it a Constitutional amendment, repealing the 16th.
Works for me! =^[.]^=
Mitt just defended the Wall Street Bailouts, actually said they were a good thing: EPIC FAIL!
OK, Stephen.
How about 995 instead of 999?
Seriously, wiping out the federal tax code from A-Z is by far my favorite plan so far.
I’d give a sales tax of 5% for that.
Why again is Newt not electable? Obama got elected. Kerry nearly did. We almost had Gore,too.
Sadly, Newt doesn’t have the base or consistency to win.
In a photo, the shot of Newt sitting next to Princess Pelosi is all you need to know.
I mean, you may as well elect a Romney/Huntsman/Gingrich triumvirate, and go for the full Rome.
Thank you. Some days I think I’m the only one that remembers these things.
You bet. But once you see Pelosi and Gingrich side by side on a couch, praising the efforts against global warming, it can’t be unseen! It’s indelibly printed on the back of my eyeballs!
I’mna still liking Newt as Czar di tutti Czars of the Cain administration. Romney will always be ‘My Turn Boy’.
And Herman Cain does? Of the folks up there, who do you think has the chops to actually undig the $10 trillion hole that Bush and Obama have dug? I’ve watched all but one of these debates and thw only two guys up there who know what they want to do and when are Romney and Gingrich. If those were the party’s two picks, I hope it isn’t Romney.
Gingrich’s comment the Fed’s decision documents was worth listening to Huntsman and Santorum and 999.
Refill time is when Huntsman is on.
Isn’t it nice who polite the moderators are by letting folks OTHER than Romney answer an occasional question? =0[.]o=
Ya gotta love Cain…”liar, liar, pants on fire. “
Go Cain! 999 plan!
I’m liking Cain’s bluntness.
I’m blown away by these moderators. I’ve never seen moderators interrupt candidates so frequently, so defensively, so cluelessly.
I stopped watching Charlie Rose quite a few years ago because of his untimely interruptions.
Helloooo! Charlie I-invented-interruption-in-lieu-of-interviewing Rose.
Lame Michelle.
why is evryone so scared of pissing off china?
who else can they trade with at our level?
Did they just cut Herman Cain off against the rules?
Mitten’s a little to polished.
A, specifics!
Again, enshrine it in the Constitution.
Too polished? Do you mean merely preppy, or do you mean BHO-strength polished?
I think Dear Liar has been exposed as not all that polished. Just has a compliant media.
At this point I think most people would vote for Romney’s too polished car over Obama.
uh oh
Santorum goes off
Bachmann lost me tonight with the 666 comment. She’s making a habit of attacking the wrong people.
There, there. She is just channeling her inner psycopath.
It’s the outer one that frightens me.
Bachmann is the best looking candidate on that stage, Stephen. Have another round and you will notice that she has specifically submitted another bill to Congress. Thanks for the entertaining blog.
Red Stripe!
Here’s a vote for smacking Keynes with a shovel. Of course, that’s just the start of my list.
Can somebody tell me why the GOP keeps letting liberal asshats moderate these debates and ask questions? How does the likes Austan Ghoulsbee get within 100 miles of these things?
I was thinking the SAME thing. Would the Democrats let Rush Limbaugh moderate THEIR debates? (Though I’d love to watch that!)
Since this is what the winner will face next summer, it’s good practice.
Austan Goolsbee as moderator is amazing-he’s a part of the catastrophe currently befalling this country. And he gets to interrogate OUR candidates? Boggles the mind…
Who are these two Bloomberg clowns discussing the debate? Bore anyone lately?
Sir
New here so bear with me.
You definately are the epitome of the Cliff Notes on the debate. All of the important items condensed down to a few words. If they would all do that choices would be much easier.
I would, very specifically
drink up
gordon
Indeed. Better now than…
Now are you ready to rumble!! Like watching wrestling. Made for TV. Who came up with this format. Trying to make them all look bad.
Reagan!
I’m with you, Stephen. Income Tax + VAT tax (national sales tax) has “Danger, Will Robinson” written all over it. (Can we all say, “Europe.”)
Did I misunderstand, or did Cain basically say that revenues will match spending. Isn’t that backwards? Shouldn’t he, the conservative pick, be arguing that spending must not exceed revenues? Or better, spending must be below revenue so we can pay off some of our bleepin’ debt?
Re Bachmann’s question: Reagan increased spending 69% in 8 years(to Perry’s 50% in 11 years) and the debt went up 188% to Perry’s 137%. Inflation was higher, of course. But of course, Reagan is the Chosen One, so let’s just ignore that and use him to criticize people for spending money.
YOu do realize that was the DEMOCRATIC controlled congress that jacked up the spending, right>?
Yes, a Democratic Congress wrote and passed the bills. And then Reagan signed them. He traded the liberals their agenda so that he could pursue his own.
Conservatives need to get over the fact that Reagan’s governance did not match his rhetoric. Which is mindblowingly sad, because his rhetoric was exceptional.
adjusting for inflation, which was about 40% over a three year span, reagan increased the size of govt by 14.5% in his first term.
second term was 7.4%.
also, adjusting for inflation, he increased the debt by 97%(82-89). but, you were close…
bottom line?
adjusted:
federal spending up 23%, gdp up 29%. in my book, that is breaking even.
clinton?
adjusted:
federal spending up 13%, gdp up, 30.4%.
the only difference between the two, is tat reagn walked into an economic disaster, while gdp was at 4.1% the month clinton was inaugurated.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms
did i drink too much too soon?
it’s a literal “firing squad” round table with the candidates asking questions to each other?
Helping make Obama TV ads for next year.
Romney: Simple answers don’t work.
Yeah, and would you argue the tax code works, you with the best hair this side of Stephen Green?
Um… did you just write that like I’m taking Mitt’s side?
No, that was just my perennial jealousy.
Wonder if Romney’s gonna get all the candidate questions from here out? Folks have to be careful, and not give him too much airtime. =’[.]‘=
Heh. Figger it’d be Ron Paul to turn the Fed heat on Cain.
Cain made great use of the opportunity to settle his hash, too.
Now, back to Mitt. =^[.]^=
9,9,9
Plus cap v. GDP
hello!
Ah, more Ron craziness!
Michelle Bachmann has a nerve going after Perry’s Gore-love when she campaigned for JIMMY FRICKING CARTER.
Lighten up a little here. Bachmann and Perry are just a sideshow now, and I personally like Bachmann’s smile a little better, don’t you?
This guy has to be the worst moderator I’ve ever seen.
cain v. paul
yup
classic
Is Charlie Rose drunk moderating?
No. He’s always like that.
wouldnt this be a perfect opportunity for the candidates to “hijack” the debate and do a little diddy on the merits of socialism/capitalism in the form “questions” to each other? invisible hand versus iron fist; voluntary exchange versus government mandates? hayek v keynes, cooperation coercion, etc etc…
this debate makes no sense and there is zero cohesion
Santorum: 4 of you are stupid and I’ll tell you who you are!
Sorry but the 999 thing is creeping me out. We can all sit here and pretend it isn’t really, really creepy, but everyone knows that everyone else knows that everyone else knows, etc., that it’s just a little too close to Satanism for comfort. Like it’s a coincidence that he chose three digits that if you flip them over show the sign of the devil? Come on.
There, I said it. Someone had to.
is the 707 plan better?
Make it the 007 plan and put a sillhouette of VP next to it and I’d be more comfortable with it.
LOL?
Oh, it’s just those pesky Arabic numerals.
IXIXIX doesn’t look nearly so sinister upside down. =^[.]^=
999? I like it. Un the UK, “999″ means the same as “911″ does in the US-EMERGENCY HELP!
Bachmann already said it tonight, and it got a big laugh.
I agree with Thomas Jefferson.
Romney questions Bachman: basic debate tactics – don’t give your real opponents the microphone.
Masterful move by Romney in ignoring his closest rivals and questioning Bachmann. And not even an attack question, either, a free-gift “please explain your ideas” question. He comes across looking Presidential.
Romney also won Cain’s question. “Mr Romney, why don’t you have an excessively simple plan like mine?” “Your plan is far too simple.”
Perry is really hard to listen to. Very few of his sentences actually have an ending which belongs to the same sentence as the beginning.
Romney’s question to Bachmann…slick move. Ignore the obvious competition by throwing a softball question to someone who isn’t a real threat. This man knows exactly what he’s doing.
Romney said he thinks Obama is well meaning?
That should be a problem.
A well meaning president? Mittens, what part of “fundamentally transform” don’t you understand? You don’t fundamentally transform something you believe is essentially good.
Romney’s smooth. How come I can’t trust him?
because he …stutters…
Depend on Romney for solid economic policy. Also, green jobs and Muslim outreach.
“Depend on Romney for solid economic policy. Also, green jobs and Muslim outreach.” AND an bigger, mpore important EPA~and global warming programs!
Mitt need to get a Patriotic civic religion or else be put out of our misery at the polls~pronto!!
Don’t forget TARP and mandatory government health care. Sorry, people, I go by record and not rhetoric.
I LOVE Newt!
Get in line….
* does anyone think newt and michelle are engaging in any hanky panky behind the scenes?
she always giggles like a schoolgirl at his quips and gives him the ogling eyes
nvm
havent had any booze for a long time- it’s getting to me…
Cain, don’t discount the multipierced, multitattooed people themselves. Nor the ethnic/gender studies folks too. I wouldn’t hire any of them.
Yes, Mr Perry. When you give a new corporation a ton of money, you take it from me. The whole practice of luring employers by giving them other employers’ money has got to stop! It is an entirely pernicious practice! Stop giving flush companies bribes by subsidizing them through robbing everyone else!
You love them so friggin’ much, give them your money!
(Sorry for all the exclamation points)
I say let the Wall Street protestors stay out there. It will be winter soon! : )
LOL — I was just thinking about that today. I wonder how tent-living in the city is going to be when its under 60 degrees in the day and around 40 at night. Have fun with that 4 month sit-in.
mom’s basement doesn’t have any heat either so ‘six of one, half dozen of the other’
Can’t we just build a nice wall around them?
And then fill it with water.
Public housing with a cistern-that’s very “green”!
Call it “public housing”.
Romney wants to fundamentally transform America’s econonmy.
From when to whata/
Will the media make a big deal out of the rudeness of the gay marriage guy who shouted out of the audience?
Do you know that is what that was?
That’s what I heard when I re-listened to it.
…Did he actually just say “I believe in tables”?
Stephen,
My wife says to thank you. Because I’m playing with you guys, she could watch “Dancing with the Stars” without interruption…you know…screaming at the TV and calling them all bad things, fools being the nicest. Obama has made her much more political and actually right-wing, but “Dancing” is her only addiction. I’ll give her the lowdown after it’s over.
Thanks from me, too.
You’re quite welcome, but the pleasure was mine.
I mean, cocktails.
Gosh that was stimulating. Is it time for Monk yet?
Thanks Stepehen for once again making this bearable. Se ya’all next time around.
Is that “bearable”?
Sorry, “bearable”?
Beer-able?
Funny spellcheck would not allow.
I thank you Stephen. Well, except for my liver.
I don’t care for the inevitability. Romney is Obama lite. I wonder who the Libertarians will run this year??
But seriously, who else that you saw tonight can truly challenge Romney? They hardly laid a glove on him, and he got to expound his views a lot and fairly effectively.
I find what Mitt Romney says more troubling that that the MSM/LSM has picked him as the easiest for a Dem to run against!
feel the mo-mitt-um, not.
seen this guy, last time around. locked in with 25% on the party. looking at the polls, and he still has the same 25%.
for him to have a chance to win, he needs to stand on four horses, bachmann, cain, perry, and paul, and keep any of the horses from pulling out to 30%. He has to pull this off for the next three months, and then recalibrate, after the first primary wave.
basically, he has no chance. his supporters versus the people who will be sure to pick any one but him, puts him behind at least 5pts, but probably 10.
didn’t watch the whole thing, but i think cain held his own. having perry turn in another deer in the headlights performance was probably the single biggest factor on tomorrow’s polls.
hard to believe that anyone will honestly move from one of the others, excluding huntsman’s 2%, to romney.
two months ago, the panelists were worried because romney was the only one polling even with obama, and they feared his candidacy. today, i see the fear that 4 of the people on stage would really have a good shot.
they want romney in the worst way.
Nah, I think Mitt has a good chance of winning. He’s solid, no surprises, and makes people feel safe. Plus, he’ll get the media vote in the primaries.
Cain’s plan is too bold for some, and he’s an unknown in many ways. Perry’s just not performing up to expectations. No one else seems to have a chance at this point.
Alas.
First off, Cain’s plan will not pass as is. What he’s displaying is his desire to change the tax code to a fair/flat tax. Maybe it’ll end up being 15/10/5 or something like that. 999, though, is easy to remember and gets the point across.
Cain comes across as genuine, something Obama has never once given a thought to and couldn’t do if he practiced 24/7. (Romney has problems with this one too.) Cain has real life experience. Cain can spar and do it without malice and without being petty. And more importantly, in the economy/class warfare election of 2012, Cain comes from very humble beginnings and WORKED his way out of it to become VERY successful. He’s not afraid of working or of obstacles. The left HATES him because of it and if he becomes the candidate he blows their class warfare out of the water.
He’s also spoken out about the dangerous side of Islam, which in this day and age is pertinent and necessary; and the EPA’s strangling of the economy with such things as “dust regulations”. He also readily admits he hasn’t taken his politically correct class and doesn’t really intend to which I, and I’m sure many others, find extraordinarily refreshing.
False. They fear Mitt the most. Do you honestly think that Perry/Cain/whoever else the tea party decides to back, can defeat Obama??
Winnie the Pooh could defeat Obummer. Romney? Not so much..
Once again Romney proves he has no peers. I look forward to Romney destroying Obama when they debate. Romney will be a great President.
When he can then pass another TARP bill and “fix” Obamacare. Because he’s the kind of jerk who thinks government can work as long as he’s running it. Wake me up when he stops overdosing on hubris.
Yeah, I know he promised to end Obamacare. And Obama promised to close Gitmo. Also, read my lips.
A political promise isn’t worth crap. Go by the candidate’s record. Unless you want to wind up looking like those poor saps who voted for Obama that are busy crying over it now because, you know, he *promised*.
Vodka Pundit!!! UB the baddest boy …. Still on white wine, could not do this without you …
what, specifically would the panelists fear about romney?
he’s not born again, he isn’t a cowboy, he isn’t (perceived as)crazy, and he isn’t black.
of any of the candidates who would have a sense of mercy on obamacare, mitt is their guy.(newt comes in, an uncomfortable second).
i do agree that in some sense, they have an instinctive fear of romney, as the the head to head polls are a ‘strong’ point of how romney is capable of beating obama. I just think that even the libs are getting the idea that they better hedge their bets, and make sure romney is the one.
Yep, the Democrats like him about as much as they liked McCain until he was the so-called Republican candidate. Please, if you are a conservative, do NOT vote for Romney in the primary. The last thing we need is another country club Republican candidate.
Romney dominated this debate. Santorum seriously hurt Cain. Perry is on his way out. Gingrich is always good but has too much baggage. Mitt Romney is bright, quick on his feet, knows the issues inside-out, and yes, presidential. He will defeat Obama.
The last thing we need is another country club Republican candidate like Romney. Has anyone noticed that the dead tree media has been so uncritical of him?
on mitt ‘dominating’…
i am a mitt agnostic, but yes, he always goes out there and produces. never has a bad performance, never will. perfectly ‘prepared’.
his problem is that he hits for singles, and the fans want someone swinging for the fences.
caught smitty’s above line:
“Romney: Simple answers don’t work.”
i would offer that nuanced candidates don’t win, or the classic, ‘KISS’. Something that romney just isn’t comfortable doing.
who are the people that go from one of the other candidates, to him?
whose supporters does he want?
does he have any plan that gets him to 35%?
any early dropout favor the others in some degree or another.
much is made about perry sliding in the polls…
rassmussen tagged mitt with a 33% in june, coincidentally when bachmann was at 19% and riding high.
mo-mitt-um has lowered him to a 24%, but still bouncing back from an 18%, from mid august. yep, he is oscilating, but the waves are shrinking for him and 25% is his ceiling.
i have no reservations about voting for him, should he win the primary, but i’ve seen him here before in 2008. Maybe he’ll get lucky and win on the the same mccain pragmatism principle.
Romney presents himself as quite the wonk, but he thinks Milton Friedman was a sound money guy. He knows his audience, and the names and facts that will resonate with him. In the general election, he’d be playing to a different audience, and in the White House he’d be playing to the media. God save us from that. I like the Mitt Romney of the GOP primaries, but I don’t think he’ll outlast the winter wheat.
Who ever wins needs Newt as VP.
I have to agree on that. Newt’s a DC veteran and knows where all the bodies are buried.
Why? Because they might need some help drafting some legislation to combat climate change?
Does anybody freaking remember “Two Years Ago Newt?!?!” Seriously, it’s like the people evaluating GOP candidates have selective amnesia or something. Newt’s one of the biggest frauds on the stage.
Elaborate with some specifics and facts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi6n_-wB154
Maybe, but he could sure wipe the floor with Obama in a debate.
Can we please have a Republican candidate who is not a compulsive liar?
Cain and Santorum seem honest. And Paul damn well says what he means.
Agree on all three. Is it Cain? My problem with him is that he advocates a new Federal tax on sales.
Well, yes Ron Paul really believes what he says, but Earl Pulvermacher really did believe he was Pope Pius XIII, too.
So, it’s going to be a black limousine liberal running against a white country club republican, that both signed off on the proposition that Americans can be required to purchase and consume any product that any state so deems fit for commerce. Hallalujuha, hot damn, when do we have to sign up for state mandated brothel memberships and Viagra to build up our cardiovascular immune systems? Did they both go to Harvard too? I always knew Harry Reid wanted to make the Nevada brothel business interstate commerce.
no no!!
look at Newt
2012 may very well be, among other things, a class warfare election. At least that seems to be the direction Obama is trying to turn it since he has nothing else to run on. Romney, the elitist, will get pummeled in that venue. We might not want to hand this over to the “next in line”.
It’s a pity that Phil Hartman is gone. He would have been an awesome Rick Perry!
There’s a flawed assumption with this process. We are being asked to pick a leader based on how well he can debate. When was the last time your boss (you know, the guy or gal that convinces you to do your job) debated with you or anyone else? If we are supposed to be picking the “boss” of the country, is whether they can debate, or how witty they are, really the measure we should be using?
Yeah, sure it’s nice to have someone who is articulate, and seems to get it the first time you say something. It’s better to have someone in charge that ACTUALLY understands the broad picture and doesn’t just “get it” the first time by glossing over whatever “it” really was. Calvin Coolidge didn’t go down in history as the most articulate President, but he does get pretty high marks for being a good, you know, President.
So Mitt’s a great wit and a polished debator, and? He gave MA Romneycare and says its great because it allowed 92% of MA residents to kept what they already had (and pay more for it). How is a system broke and in need of repair if 92% of users want to keep it? He thinks a simple plan (e.g. 9-9-9) is too simple, but doesn’t seem to grasp that something as complex and convoluted as the US Tax Code is a bad idea. If Mitt’s so great at LEADING, why has he been campaining for seven years, and managed to consistently garner 25% of the target electorate?
I’m 100% for Perry for one simple reason. I live in Texas and I’ve seen that he knows how to LEAD first-hand. Not by what he says, but by what he does. Is he perfect, hell no, but at least he’s consistent, and that means I know what to expect next week, next month, and next year. And for everyone’s glib “he’s a one trick pony, all he knows is energy” please explain why exactly that isn’t the solution? Pick an industry in this country today and explain to me how it doesn’t work off of cheap energy. And yes, that includes all the high-tech green jobs everyone wants to squeal about. Now explain how putting more Americans into jobs creating cheap energy doesn’t trickle down to more Amreicans in more jobs utilizing that cheap energy. And yes, Virginia, even internet server farms need cheap energy to actually be profitable. Say what you will about Perry being “slow,” or a “deer in the head-lights,” but at least when he’s dealt four aces he knows what the hell to do with them.
forgive my ‘dear in the headlights’ remark…
perry, clearly not my first pick, is still better than romney. you get him thru the primary, and i’ll vote early and often for him in the general.
i don’t begrudge his actions in regards to illegals…being governor is quite dependent upon one’s consituency. I accept that perry could act far differently as president, and given his overt sympathetic actions towards illegals, would possess substantial moral authority, IF he chose to act upon it.
most conservatives aren’t so forgiving. in some sense though, he finished bachmann off in her nascient campaign stage and for that, has my gratitude. he ripped out her support and got her to insert her foot on the consequence of hpv vaccination, in desperation.
…on perry’s behalf:
he has experience governing a border state with a gdp that is the equivalent of the entire mexican economy, 1.3 trillion. big number don’t really scare him. for all the concern over his ‘optional’ plan for hpv, romney didn’t give everyone a choice. at some point, with the flick of a pen, massachussetts could be requiring hpv vaccines, without an opt out.
yes, I wish the GOP would realize that Romney really is Obama’s only hope.
The dems lost me when I tried to get into Obama in 2008. I still vote in NYC, but WANT to vote for Gov. Perry. I thought he did much better last night, but that was because I had already read his Op-Ed on energy = jobs in the NH Union Leader. Looking forward to his speech on Friday.
I do not think Cain is going to sustain his momentum after last night.
In the post-debate “analysis”, Cain was asked what he would do about Iran after the assassination plot. He actually said the US should deploy Aegis missile systems. What part of there is always a US carrier group within range of Iran does Cain not understand? and that carrier group, currently the USS George HW Bush, always has at leasttwo destroyers with Aegis missile systems.
I do not get a vote in this primary season because I am still a registered dem in NYC, but please give me Perry, the only candidate in my lifetime that I WANT to vote for (was working too hard in the 1980′s to be paying attention)
Inspired blogging, Mr. Green! Ping: Beldar on Tuesday’s GOP debate.
Didn’t watch the debates. Thanks for doing it for me. I’m not digging Mitt. I was hoping you’d tell me Cain can do much better.
Newt Gingrich clearly out-performed everyone else at the GOP debate. Newt has the intellectual ability and knowledge of history and Government to take on the mantle of Ronald Reagan and to explain to the nation why we need to reject Obama socialism and what solutions we need to adopt. Based on his debate performances, Newt Gingrich should be the front runner.
I am concerned that Romney can lose to Obama. The Democrats will play RomneyCare as the precursor to Obama Care and invoke Romney as the face of “Wall Street” rich guy in a class warfare attack. I am also concerned that even if Romney did win, Romney’s history of flipping on social issues and waffling on foreign policy issues will not provide the kind of leadership we need in the post-Obama years.
I still like Newt and I can get over his marital distress. What else is wrong with him? He is obviously the smartest. In these debates, he always looks like the adult. He could tromp Obama in a debate. What are his other negatives?
Sorry, I just can’t do Romney.
With the way conservatives eat their own, doing Romney’s work for him by insisting on 100% purity from alternatives like Perry and Cain, I can see it coming – Mitt will win the nomination, handing a victory to the establishent in DC, which wants our votes but not our input. Mitt doesn’t really want to do anything that might threaten the current power structure in government. He’ll tinker around the edges and hope that’s enough to make us happy. Nothing will really change, and the country will continue to careen toward fiscal disaster.
In other words, the base gets screwed again.
Don’t validate this cynical establishment strategy by voting for Romney in the general. Stay home in November – or, if you must vote, vote third party. The GOP establishment will never “get it.” They are hopelessly corrupt – the modern day Whigs. The sooner they go extinct, the better. If we have to suffer through another four years of The One in the meantime, so be it.
The primaries have not happened yet. The primaries are what really decide. Vote for Newt in the primaries.
I live in Pennsylvania. By the time I get to vote in a primary, the question of who the GOP is nominating will be a mere formality. If it’s Romney by that point, I’ll be switching my registration from Republican to Independent, anyway.
“And Ron Paul just shook his head so hard, the sonic waves messed up a RomneyHair.”
I. Died. That one seriously sent me off the deep end. *giggle*
You know what’s pathetic? That in this day and age, how you look on TV is more important than what you can actually do.
I cannot believe that we nominate a candidate this way. I’m for a steel cage match: let the potentials in and whoever comes out gets my vote. That would include the honey badger that would accidentally ::cough:: get slipped into the cage.
“Drunkblogging”.
Interesting. You say that with (apparently) no shame. You say almost as if it’s a good thing.
You say it as if choosing to get drunk is something other than revoltingly despicable.
cheers to that lol
Rockin’ it as usual. Almost spit my scotch at the part about Paul wanting to hit Keynes with a shovel. Nice.
I’ve been a limoncello boy for this week only
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