Day By Day© by Chris Muir.

January 10, 2008

South Carolina Republican Debate: Winners, Losers

I just finished watching the debate on Fox, and I'm now watching the candidates natter with Sean Hannity and Alan Colmes. This is the first debate of the election season that I'm weighing in on here, and want to get my thoughts down before rigor mortis sets in:

WINNER: Fred Thompson!
Fred nailed it! Whether it was the economy, national security, electability or our borders, he was spot on. Yes, he tends to say "uh" a lot, and as a former radio person that gets on my nerves. But the "uhs" were sandwiched in between a lot of great stuff. He jumped all over Mike Huckabee, and I think that's because he thinks Huckabee represents the greatest threat to him in SC. He said Huckabee was part of the "blame America first" contingency. He came out swinging and kept on hitting home runs.

Fred invoked the first round of applause for the night when he interrupted within the first half hour to address the Reagan Revolution and the "battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party." He also had some great one-liners, like the one about Iranians looking to meet "the virgins they're looking forward to seeing" when the discussion was about the recent Iranian gun boat incident.

He made an excellent point: if we force Musharref out of Pakistan, who will replace him? Pakistan is the only Muslim nation with nuclear weapons, and those cannot fall into the hands of the Islamofascists.

The Fox focus group led by Frank Luntz also thought Fred was the clear winner. Fred was awesome; let's hope this trend continues. Was it really too little too late? We shall see. The pundits have been wrong before...

LOSER: Ron Paul
My gosh, that man gets loopier all the time. As my friend Tim wrote me, "He looks and sounds like a high school nerd who bought his way in. His point of view about Israel was way out of line from the main stream."

I would add that he seemed petulant, whiny and yes, totally out of touch, like Tim said. For example, when all the other candidates said they, as president, would agree that the commanders in the field (or on the sea) have the training and the on-the-spot ability to make cruicial decisions like the Strait of Hormuz incident, Paul started ranting about an aggressive going to war mentality. It got to the point where Brit Hume asked him exactly what it was that he was responding to.

He also said we need to stop treating Israel like a stepchild who has no responsibility, and that we need to let Israel sort out her own affairs with her Arab neighbors. Huckabee let him have it over that, and rightly so.

People say Fred Thompson is kind of a sourpuss, but have you seen Ron Paul's face when he's being criticized?

Surprise, according to the text message poll conducted by Fox, Paul is the winner thus far (35%), but we know the Ronulans are capable of spiking polls. I wouldn't take that seriously at all.

The others, in order of best to worst:

Mitt Romney: He continued to look presidential and sound presidential, and his comments were consistent. There was a point when he didn't directly answer a question posed by one of the commentators (can't remember what it was now, but that doesn't look too good.)

Oh wait, I remember: he was asked if, as president, he would support including an abortion benefit in a national healthcare plan as he did with the Massachusetts plan. He balked by saying something about the courts forcing him into it, and then veered off to answer a question asked to someone else.

I must say, the camera shots of Romney looking at Paul with incredulity during Paul's diatribes were classic.

Rudy Giuliani: Again, he stayed on message, and to appease those who said he relied too much on his experience as NYC mayor, he also talked about his stint as Associate Attorney General under Ronald Reagan. But really, his experience is based in NY, why shouldn't he talk about it? But he's lost a lot of his early sparkle. He's strong on national defense and fiscal responsibility. I wouldn't have a problem supporting him in the general election.

John McCain: McCain stayed on his path, but his comments sounded canned...I heard many of them during the last debate ("I'm the sherrif in the senate," "I won't be voted Miss Congeniality"). He keeps saying he's learned his lesson about amnesty, but did he really? And he mentioned climate change being something we can actually control, which for me is a major turnoff. Sorry, Maverick.

Mike Huckabee: Fred Thompson said Huckabee is a liberal at heart and Huckabee denies it, but is he really conservative? When defending his record on tax and spend in Arkansas, he employed a typical liberal tactic: "it's for the children." Children who received healthcare, education, etc., because of his generosity with taxpayer money. Whenever you hear about "the children," hold on to your wallet.

I did like his comeback about the religion question (that religious questions were off-limits for everyone else but him), but there were points where he acted and sounded like an annoyed parent putting a fractious child in place whenever he was responding to a criticism by another candidate. Very annoying indeed.

Others checking in: Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, John Hawkins, Ed Morrissey