Live Free or Debate
6:49pm First martini down. Going to run upstairs to pour a second one before things get started. Seasoned political pros claim that Steve has already watched too many debates.
6:51pm FNC found some kid wearing a tie in the spin room, and handed him a microphone. He’s doing everything but spittakes to seem Daily Show-worthy. Is this what it’s come to already?
6:54pm The kid’s name is, apparently, “Griff.” I’m pretty sure he’s a shaved Muppet.
6:58pm So my faithful PJ Media editor tells me, “I’m without a TV right now, so this is fun.” Believe me, buddy, I’d be having more fun right now without a TV, too.
7:02pm “…now let’s meet the candidates.” For livebloggers, this is unnecessary. Also, Brit Hume forgets that familiarity breeds contempt.
7:04pm: (All times Mountain, if that weren’t obvious.) The usual rules – a minute per answer, 30 second rebuttal at Brit’s discretion.
7:05pm First question: Is Fred Thompson smarter than you guys? Answer: If he’s having a postshow cocktail in Leno’s greenroom, he is.
7:06pm Mike Huckabee got the first answer in. Before the Iowa straw poll, he was lucky to get one in the first hour.
7:07pm 70-year-old McCain just picked on Thompson’s age. Viewers my age and older will recognize this as a variation on Reagan’s age judo from 1984. The Gipper said he wouldn’t hold Mondale’s “youth and inexperience against him.”
7:08pm Rudy “I think [Thompson]‘s done a pretty good job of playing my part on “Law and Order.” Obviously, the candidates were ready for this question, and had some good canned responses. So far, only Romney sounded canned. Of course, he ALWAYS sounds canned.
7:10pm Romney is getting nailed for allowing MA cities to act as “sanctuary cities” for illegal immigrants. He’s talking a lot, but the correct answer is, “Dude, I was governor of Massafreakinchussetts.”
7:12pm Rudy is playing a little immigration judo, too. He claims he went as far as he could, by cracking down on crime-committing illegals. He makes his answer sound, I think, palatable to the heartland. Practical, at the very least.
7:13pm McCain looks better than he’s looked all year. Is fourth place a good place for him to be?
7:13.5pm I take it back. He looks great when he’s joking. When he’s trying to explain away his support for comprehensive immigration reform, he sounds like any other candidate running for any other office. He’s a goner.
7:16pm Huckabee is talking again, and I’m so impressed by him, all I can think is, “Fox’s webcast has their audio totally out of sync. Either that or my second vodka martini is actually grain alcohol.”
7:18pm Watching Tancredo talk about immigration is always fun. It’s a lot like bringing up the New Deal where your Republican great-grandfather can hear you.”
7:19pm Hunter Duncan (“Duncan Hunter?” -ed.) is bragging about his border fence so vociferously, he reminds me of a joke from 1984. “Why didn’t Mexico send a team to the Los Angeles Olympics?” “Because every Mexican who could run, jump, or swim was already in LA.” In fact, I think Hunter (Duncan?) really did steal that old racist joke. Boo.
7:22pm National ID card, yadda yadda. Rudy has three steps to it: 1. Require national ID card. 2. We’ll get back to 2. 3. It works!
7:24pm Romney wants to talk immigration, and Brit could tell. Mitt was so upset by what McCain was saying, that he developed a twitch in Hair Flock #22187
7:25pm Also, remember that Romney’s tie is “peach” or “salmon,” and not “pink.” He’s Mormon, not Idahoan.
7:26pm Who is the guy with the tone-on-tone lavender thing going on? Just when I think I’ve learned all the candidates, one of those anonymous Jim Beams shows back up.
7:27pm I think Jim Beam (or maybe that Dunkin’ Hunter guy) just said “Democrats promote gays in Congress.” But it doesn’t matter, because I’ve finished my second martini. I’ll see you in three minutes and four ounces from now.
7:31pm OK, I’ve got another martini on my desk. Did I miss anything good?
7:31.5pm That last question was so rhetorical, it just got invited to a Oxford Union debate.
7:32pm Really, I’m back now.
7:34pm Ron Paul gets asked a question! I’m not sure what he’s saying, but it involves waving his pen around while accusing the questioner of having bad premises. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen a candidate possessed directly by the spirit of Ayn Rand.
7:35pm Sam Brownback (that last Jim Beam from a few minutes back) wants to “rebuild the family structure” by amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage. He also wants to rebuild the military by getting rid of recruiters.
7:37pm Excuse me, I meant to say “By getting rid of 5-10% of recruiters.” This is going to be a long night, and another short cocktail.
7:39pm Now I’m watching the Fox webcast with the live “people meter” graph superimposed on the screen. For McCain, it’s pretty much a flat line. Coincidence?
7:41pm As soon as Rudy started talking, his meter went up. As soon as he got sarcastic, his meter went down. This could be his Achilles Heel.
7:42pm It occurs to me that talking about graphs is as boring as a candidate talking about… whatever it is they talk about. Since I’d like PJ Media to keep paying me tens of thousands of dollars and a case of scotch every time I do this, I’ll shut up about the people meter.
7:42.5pm Tens of thousand of dollars, case of scotch, my editor is getting very, very sleepy…
7:44pm It wasn’t that many months ago that McCain said it was a “moral imperative” to end things in Iraq. Now he says the “surge is working.” What changed?
7:47pm Ron Paul is still on this fiction that oil would somehow pay for the Iraq War, and that it would be a “cakewalk.” And he keeps waving his hand around.
7:48pm “Are you saying, [Mr. Paul], that we should take our marching orders from al Qeada…?” And that, in a nutshell, sums up my problem with the nuttier Ron Paul.
7:50pm Brownback is talking from the Biden playbook, calling for a kind of semi-partition of Iraq. While I’d hoped, pre-war, for a multiethnic Iraq, some form of partition or confederation is looking smarter and smarter.
7:52pm “We must continue the surge.” -Mike Huckabee. Of course, he’s also saying we “broke” Iraq. I call BS. We didn’t break Iraq any more than we broke the Soviet Union — totalitarian states can only be fixed, because they’re already broken.
7:53pm Now Ron Paul is white-knuckle-gripping his microphone. He’s got to switch to decaf.
7:55pm The problem with Paul in particular, and with big-L Libertarians in general, is that they don’t understand (or won’t understand) the importance of honor and prestige in international relations. Until and unless they do, scorn is all they deserve. (Sometimes, I’m an angry drunk.)
7:56pm Hey, Tom Tancredo! He’s from Colorado like me! And that’s about all the enthusiasm I can muster there.
7:59pm Good question from the dad of a GI in Iraq: “How do we come to an endgame, with honor for us and the people of Iraq?”
8:02pm Sue me, but I’ve got one more people meter comment to make. Romney couldn’t move that meter very much. But conservatives and moderates both went up for him when he picked on Democrats for their Iraq stance. Say what you will, but I think it’s far too early to write off the GOP in ’08.
8:04pm The subject, once again, is legalized torture. And the answer is always the same. In normal times, the American public won’t sanction torture. In extraordinary times, the American public wouldn’t prosecute or convict anyone who stopped the (very unlikely) ticking time bomb. Which strikes me as sensible.
8:05pm “We can’t close GITMO, because nobody will take the people there.” -Rudy G. Duh!
8:08pm Why is it only Republicans even start to make sense when it comes to Gitmo? Why can’t just one Democratic candidate say, “There’s some dangerous mofos out there, and we need a safe place to lock them up for a very long time.”? After eight years of Bush, I’d vote for that Democrat. Where is he?
8:10pm OK, we’re talking taxes now. Watching Republicans talk tax cuts is like watching children chase after candy. It’s fun, and nobody loses so long as there’s enough to go around. Also, hey, I like the money.
8:13pm McCain sounds principled on taxes and spending, but principled won’t cut it. People are so fed up with Congress and earmarks, that principles are no longer believed.
8:15pm Rudy really is doing his best to channel Reagan. For a NYC mayor, that’s quite a trick — but one it seems he can turn.
8:17pm Romney just promised to make “the Bush tax cuts permanent.” I might be drunk, but I’m pretty sure that’s the first time anybody on stage tonight has used the B-word.
8:18pm I would so hire Mike Huckabee as my accountant. Heck, I might even vote for him for city council. And that’s about it.
8:20pm Ron Paul wants to eliminate the FBI and the CIA, and defends his position because of 9/11. He’s on drugs. And worse, he’s not sharing.
8:21pm In ten minutes, I’m going to grill some strip steaks. Do you know how much interest I have left in this debate? Probably still more than the average, well-fed viewer.
8:27pm Scenario set up by Hume. Iran is producing nukes, has kicked out the UN inspectors, is still messing with us in Iraq, is still making threats against Israel, and the UN isn’t cooperating. What do you do?
8:28pm Ron Paul: “We should back off.” All I can say is a word my editor won’t let me get away with: f***er.
8:29pm Tancredo is totally flubbing his answer, and it’s only the third or fourth he’s gotten all night. I call him: Toast.
8:32pm Huckabee makes sense, saying the President can’t know all the scenarios before going in. Which makes Ron Paul’s pre-surrender declaration all the more cowardly.
8:37pm The candidates are still talking about Hume’s hypothetical, and so far, only Huckabee has made much sense. Except for Rudy, who said you don’t take options off the table. He might be the first candidate since Goldwater to do that unilaterally. And bless him for it.
8:38pm “At the end of the day… Iran cannot have nukes,” followed by a long list of Tehran’s sins. That’s John McCain talking, and concluding that “at the end of the day,” the US will have to make things right. He sounded sad when he said it, and that strikes me as the best and truest thing I’ve heard in any of these debates.
8:40pm It’s all over, except for the spin. I’ll let people who care about that kind of thing actually tell you about it. Me, I’m going to drink some red wine and grill some red meat. Cheers!
You are so funny! HAHAHHAHA!!!
))
Well, now I’m convinced Ron Paul is an idiot.
It seems that the old pro-war section of the Blogosphere is not too happy at the popularity of, and enthusiasm for, Dr. Ron Paul – on the web and elsewhere. It figures.
GO Ron GO!!
Wow, these FOX people run a tough debate. No softballs tonight.
No wonder the Democrats are afraid.
Ron Paul’s popularity? Who smacked you on the forehead with a shovel? Paul is in single digits, except in the comments sections of websites where trolls are left free to roam.
and since when does the president not have the authority to go to war?
the constitution says that the congress has the power to declare war… not that war cannot be fought without congressional approval
You know, maybe you shouldn’t be quite so wedded to the idea that we have to be everywhere at once trying to fight ‘teh terrorists’. I’m sure glad this crew wasn’t in power during the Soviet Era, cause if it was anyone but Paul and Huckabee we’d all be dead.
Pick your battles. Don’t create them.
That was a tough debate. Hardball. Unlike Chrissy Matthews’ flaky nerf-ball questions.
In the horse race question, I wrote elsewhere.
The panel of voters in New Hampshire called it for McCain. They thought the loser was Giuliani.
I thought Paul was much stronger and saner than he had been before, though still a long-shot, and Huckabee was strong as usual, cementing his position in the front rank. Romney was kind of blah. Hunter, Tancredo, and Brownback didn’t step out of the shadows.
“It seems that the old pro-war section of the Blogosphere is not too happy at the popularity of, and enthusiasm for, Dr. Ron Paul – on the web and elsewhere.”
Oh, please. Ron Paul is a joke. The only place he is popular is on open polls on websites. On national polls he’s running behind Huckabee. (And no one’s heard of Huckabee). The Paul people are like some deranged cult from the Idaho hills. But they’re amusing.
Agree with Paul on foreign policy or not, this sort of anger towards him borders on derangement. And if he’s such a fringe candidate, why is his name mentioned more than any other in this post? What happened to the old tactic of simply ignoring the guy? Hmmm…
It’s worth mentioning that not even democrats are the objects of such scorn from Mr. Green, although their respective platforms are certainly much more harmful to America than Paul’s proposals. If this kind of rhetoric is what we’ve come to, I’m embarrassed for American conservatism.
This whole election process is a farce, although it gives for a good drinking excuse. Both Democrats and Republican agree on the basic issues anyways. Roe vs. Wade is far from going to be overturned, no matter who the candidates pick for the Supreme Court. So why make abortion a central debating point? Is it just for the votes of those happy little sheeps?
Good, mature debate but I might be biased as I watched it sober
Wallace was especially snarky!
I like how Fox started the debate addressing the big elephant not in the room Fred Thompson. It was a nice tone to start things off, got everyone laughing even if it was at the expense of Fred. Which is his own fault. Dick Morris is quite right; Fred should’ve declared on Monday or Tuesday and walked into this debate the star of the show. Instead, he took the easy route. Two words that emanate from that action: weak and listlessness.
All the candidates were fairly solid. They spoke passionately but also in a professional, serious manner. Except of course Ron Paul. Every time he talks about his policies, I get this sneaky suspicion he has a sandwich board hidden in his wardrobe that has “The End is Near” written on it!
Romney was the best of the bunch. When he was confronted with a passionate rebuking by a soldiers dad regarding an unfortunate misstatement of his; Mitt was a little shaken but he was contrite and to the point about it. He didn’t do that typical political pandering of “I’m going to say I’m sorry until I can get your vote right now” speechifying.
Also his answer on immigration was the best. No one else addressed “closing down the magnets” as Romney did when he talked with San Diego border patrol. An ICE officer at a lecture I attended said the same thing about the magnets. This is what I like best about Romney as a problem solver. He seems to have the philosophy that if you want to improve a bricklayers job, you go ask the bricklayer.
Romney, Rudy & McCain were the best in answering the last, most pertinent & sobering question about Iran. In fact, these three should remind our nation why, at this time in history, we need to keep a Republican in the White House.
Where is this webcast you were watching? Is it still online? I can’t find anything at foxnews.com.
One of the biggest immigration magnets is the minimum wage.
I’m not entirely convinced that Thompson is smarter than me because he’s been on the Tonight Show. He probably is, but I’m not sure it’s because of that.
What hogwash. Who is nuttier – the delusional NeoCons who lied us into the trillian dollar Iraq fiasco and are taking away our liberty for security from terrorists which they provoked OR Ron Paul who wants to get us out of this quagmire and stop killing people?
By your logic, it is “nutty” to: stop killing hundreds of thousands of Arabs for no reason; stop wasting our tax dollars; stop destroying our currency; stop getting our soldiers killed; and stop destroying our liberty at home.
I’ll vote for the nut, thank you very much. Now back to your NeoCon koolaid.
Interesting that Ron Paul wins yet another debate (according to the vivers who voted via SMS)
FOX NEWS DEBATE POLL – who won the debate?
33% – Ron Paul
18% – Mike Huckabee
15% – Rudy Giuliani
Umm…Steve…that would be you are nuttier. What you and the nut (your word, not mine) Ron Paul can’t seem to wrap around that shell of a brain of yours is that we didn’t provoke this war. It’s no delusion & takes no Kool-Aid to know this fact; only a rudimentary history lesson.
Start at 1928 with Hassan al-Banna, the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood. He was a great admirer of Hitler and Mussolini and had Mein Kempf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion translated into Arabic.
The lineage continues with Hajj al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, who instigated a pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in 1941 and urged Nazi governments in Europe to transport Jews to death camps. He also plans a death camp near Nablus, modeled after Auschwitz, to kill Palestinian Jews.
These tenets continued with the writings of Sayyid Qutb, whose greatest devotee is Ayman al-Zawahiri. Qutb eerily even had a Hitler styled moustache.
Rafsanjani, bin Laden, Nassrallah, Arafat, Saddam & Ahmadinejad are all disciples of this melding Islam with Nazi theories and practices. Do you think it’s an accident that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard goose steps?
These Islamic Nazi terrorists have a goal and they mean to do grave harm to the world, they’ve said as much. Ron Paul can bury his head all he likes on this fact but it won’t make it go away.
Stephen Green in an authoritarian, which is the type that finds Ron Paul threatening (and the type that makes up most of our current top elected officials).
People who like to spend other people’s money to tell them what to do are the sort who don’t like Congressman Paul’s message.