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Posted on 11/28/2007 9:17:58 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
CNN's YouTube debate was a good one. And Americans -- while wacky at times with their homemade videos -- may have convinced me they can ask better, more direct questions than the media elite usually do.
As for tonight's winners and losers, I think John McCain, Fred Thompson and Rudy Giuliani helped themselves; Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul had both ups and down -- and Mitt Romney was an unmitigated disaster...
Let's start with Romney. I've said since he first entered the race that I think Republicans would be in bad shape if he emerged as the party's nominee. If John Kerry was accused of flip-flopping, then Romney could be accused of writing the How-to manual on the subject. And Thompson highlighted that point perfectly with his own YouTube video that showed Romney -- who claims to be anti-abortion now -- touting his pro-choice stances a few years ago. As Thompson pointed out, he didn't have to say much. He let Romney hang himself. Romney's response was the only one he could give: "I was wrong" ... which I'm guessing you'll see in another campaign video somewhere down the road.
Later, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper asked Romney about a line he said in the 90s when Romney said he looked forward to the day when gays could serve openly in the military. Cooper was asking him to explain that line compared to his current stance -- which supports "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Romney mumbled something about listening to wise men and advisors, but mostly looked like a deer caught in headlights.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.orlandosentinel.com ...
I disagree. Here’s what I posted earlier:
I despise Huckabee and consider him a socialist tax-raising nanny-state RINO fraud. HOWEVER, I will concede he looked pretty good tonight. That said, I will still vote third party if he is that candidate.
Giuliani and McCain did serious damage to themselves tonight. Of all of them, I thought Tancredo was a standout, and wish he would have got more questions. Hunter, Thompson, and Paul all did very well for themselves. Paul came across as wall as he could with his end-is-nigh-tinfoil-hat inflection. Thompson and Hunter both hit it out of the park on the questions asked of them, and there should have been more for both of them.
Romney was a mixed bag. He and Ruity beat the hell out of each other, and I don’t think either gained anything, but I think FAR more damage was done to Ruity, much of it by himself. He appeared VERY uncomfortable all night, and constantly had to bring up the “In New York...” meme.
WINNERS: Thompson, Hunter, Paul, Tancredo, Huckabee
DRAW: Mitt
LOSERS: Giuliani, McCain
Ambush by CNN!
GOP too stupid to know it, go like sheep to the slaughter. Idiots.
I didn’t see it, so I don’t know who won the Republican debate.
But from what I’ve heard, Hillary lost it...
I should modify that: Fred pwn3d, but he didn’t pwn Mike by much (mike got a lot of softballs, so this isn’t Fred’s fault), and his pwnage over Mitt is not yet complete. His video was the best hands-down and he won on substance, but he didn’t get near enough airtime (neither did Hunter, IMHO), and his solutions are too substantiative to fit in a 30-second soundbite.
All the remaining candidates, Huckabee, Romney, McCain, Paul, Hunter, and Tancredo presented themselves well, but they were not equally engaged in the debates by Anderson Cooper, which is a shame. Keyes wasn’t missed.
Although it has gotten little discussion, I am very pleased there are so many debates taking place.
FRED looked very presidential and above the antics of this debate, if you could call it that. I want to see a one on one debate with FRED and Rooty-tooty. That would be very good. FRED has all the substance with real solutions to incredibly complex problems. However, it appears from the polls, that America is just stupid and believes what the MSM feeds them.
FRED THOMPSON will carry the Conservative mantle into the 2008 election and he will win.
The real video had Rudy in it, too...I think I pinged you for that.
Gotta agree with you. What struck me was how tough the questioning was tonight - so much tougher than anything the Dems have faced than they will face - and how competently this deep group of GOP candidates handled them. So much more substance, realism, maturity, and overall guts than the other guys.
I would say Fred Thompson did seem the most presidential and had clear cut and to the point answers. Never once did Cooper have to say "time" to get Fred Thompson to stop talking like he had to several times especially to Rudy and Romney.
Also surprising to me, was that Fred actually got most of the applause that was genuine, not that staged Ron Paul "Revolution" canned responses from the audience.
Fred was definately the winner from what I saw. Although with the lack of questions going to Hunter or Thompson (even Tancredo wasn't asked much of anything) the questions that were asked, Fred hit home runs. I was surprised Hunter didn't give a standout response to immigration other thsan he built a fence in San Diego, and if he was president he'd build the 86x miles fence to New Mexico in 6 months. To me that seemed a bit lame as last summer the goofy head of Home land security Chertoff was bragging about the 3000+ mile fence that was going to be built.
Fred was great tonight.
I believe he will be our next President!
You are seeing Rudy dropping in the polls, next you will be seeing Mitt and the Huckster dropping as well as people see their pasts matched up against their current words.
What are you referring to? Chertoff or anyone in the Bush Admin. has never talked about building 3000 miles of fence. They won't even build the 800 miles madated by law. Bush's amnesty called to cut that to 374 miles. Please tell us where you found such information?
No question that Fred was the most ‘Presidential’ tonight—his voice, his demeanor, his responses were all great (and several very humorous). I’d give Huckabee second place tonight, followed closely by Hunter.
Ooops maybe that was a number slip. I remember when I heard that idiot Chertoff talking on one of the radio shows (maybe it was Medved interviewing him? Hugh Hewitt?) they indeed mentioned the need for the full 3000+miles over the coarse of a few years, but maybe he did say only a few hundred miles and even that was going to be a lot longer than it should take. The guy was making excuses and it was at the height of Shamnesty. The surprising thing was the host interviewing him, was going easy on him and sort of defended him with some critical callers later on (which makes me think it was Medved as he tends to do that (he won’t come out with it but he seems like a total Mitbot and he praises Rudy.))
Well, true, anything could happen with Medved, but it certainly wasn’t due to Hunter’s ignorance as you suggested. He doesn’t talk about something he doesn’t know and just tells you the way it is. That concept seems very difficult for many people to grasp.
See post # 12, 14
Pinging the person you posted incorrect information to.
Thanks for your correction.
The frontrunners did absolutely horrible. Rudy and Romney.
Except McCain (supposedly frontrunner). I thought he did good. But I still isn’t voting for him simply because hes good at short speeches.
McCain was also stupid to tell the entire world he does not own a gun. Helllo McCain, even if you don’t own one, it is not a good idea to announce it.
I was disappointed in the theatrics and some of the very silly and ambush style questioning, as well as the fact that he was not given as much time as Rudy, Mitt and Huckabee. Still, I think he and Duncan Hunter made the best of what they were given and had a most successful evening.
Actually I was only mistaken about the actual number I recall Chertoff mentioning. What Hunter said was still underwhelming 860? miles in 6 months... Around here on FR he is the one everyone looks up to as the guy that means business on immigration reform. I was expecting him to say, "In my first year of my term I will guarantee the fence will be built and completed. The border will be sealed and enforced, no more excuses!" That to me would seem like he is serious. 860 miles seems like a promise any of the RINOS could have made...
I'm not anti-Hunter, I just think he could have made a more impactful statement than that.
I agree, I wonder if the people who said he has no fire in his belly are eating their words or do they still think that? People with no fire in their bellies don’t have the wit and humor someone like Fred Thompson has.
Unlike most of us, the elitists like McCain, Huckster, Romney, Giuliani, Hillary and other amnesty-for-illegals enthusiasts have guards and live in luxurious gated communities, so why own a gun?
I thought Fred came out the best tonight too. Huckabee had a few very good answers but a few very bad answers. And living in L.A. makes me very sensitive to the illegal immigration issue, and Huck doesn’t have a CLUE what life is like for us here, or he’d never offer scholarships to kids who do not belong in this country.
Mitt looks far too polished on the surface, and gets very testy and insecure when he’s confronted. Rudy is just wrong on so many issues, though he is a good speaker. Hunter looks sensational when he’s even asked anything, but that just doesn’t happen much.
Thompson is my man. He looks best with a slightly tanner face than tonight, but not made up with bronzer like one previous debate. He also cannot be too pale or he looks sickly. Tonight he was one millishade too pale but I thought he looked good. He came off like the smartest guy up there. He is doing far better on not licking his lips so much, but I still keep wanting to hand him some chapstick.
McCain had some good points tonight, but he is a candidate who really does not look well. He’s very strong on the military and I appreciate that, but he is just WRONG on illegals, very wrong.
I thought McCain killed himself on amnesty and “torture” (I know he has issues with that, for obvious reasons). He looked great on Iraq, but (with the exception of Paul) they all look good on Iraq.
Truth be told, I would prefer McCain over Ruity, Romney, and especially Huckabee (thank God I have Thompson and Hunter to cheer for and hopefully won’t have to resort to McCain), but I thought he did very poorly tonight.
Yes your so right, but I still like the idea of a man owning a gun for protection. Thank you for responding.
It’s interesting how differently we all see these silly events.
I thought Thompson did very well — he was quick on his feet, relaxed and gave substantive answers. I thought McCain also did very well — he made many points with which I disagree, but he fundamentally came off as a serious candidate (and I’m no McCain booster). Hunter did a very good job, too, especially on guns and his answer about not apologizing for the United States of America. I also thought his aside about not throwing guns around was great.
In my view Giuliani looked tired and was just kind of blah. Huckabee seemed very uneven to me — his answers on the Bible were of course very good, but his other answers faltered, I thought. I thought Tancredo was spotty; his best answer was his point about government not being able to be all things to all people.
I think Romney looked stressed and didn’t seem to take a stand on anything all night — what jumps out in my memory was his repeated “I would have to ask advisors/generals/etc. about that,” and his massive dodge on the social security question (he turned it into a “there are many hard questions in front of us, we must be strong” kind of non-answer. I didn’t see his answer on don’t ask/don’t tell, as CNN cut the whole segment out of the replay. Dr. Paul (whom I respect a lot on domestic issues) also didn’t do well in my view because he keeps using questions as an opportunity to talk about the war again. That was disappointing — it’s too one-note, and Paul has a lot to contribute on domestic issues.
I also think Keyes should have been there (I’m not backing Keyes, but he’s on the ballot and so should have been at the debate).
So, my wrap-up:
Winners: Thompson, McCain, Hunter
Draw: Giuliani, Huckabee, Tancredo
Losers: Romney, Paul
Should have been there: Keyes
WINNERS: Thompson, Hunter, Paul, Tancredo, HuckabeeI came up with the exact same list actually. I thought Fred sounded great especially on the social security question. He took his time outlining the problem in stark terms instead of just going policy wonk for 90 seconds and I think it made an powerful, punchy statement. I really dislike Huckabee and his downright disturbing positions on many things, but I have to admit that I think he put on the best performance tonight. He was quick with his answers and maintained his composure the whole time. Sadly, I can see him picking up more support from this debate because he's a very good spinner of his record.
DRAW: Mitt
LOSERS: Giuliani, McCain
Serious question.
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