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You wrote: “Newt as Commander in Chief and John Bolton as Sec of Defense or Sec of State...it couldnt get much better. Gingrich is MY Winston Churchill and Gen Patton combined...WOOT WOOT ..I LOVE NEWT!!! If the GOP doesnt give Gingrich the nod...we will have lost a great opportunity and chance of a lifetime. NO other candidate is in his class...period.”

BTTT

You’ll probably like the comments by Kevin DuJan at HillBuzz on the candidates BEFORE the debate began last night. As far as I’m concerned he’s pretty much “right on” in his analysis:

Republican Debate Live Blog Transcript: Des Moines Iowa ABC Yahoo Debate Saturday December 10th, 2011
http://hillbuzz.org/republican-debate-live-blog-transcript-des-moines-iowa-abc-yahoo-debate-saturday-december-10th-2011-2011
Posted on December 10, 2011 by Kevin DuJan

NOTE: This is a live blog transcript of the Republican Debate taking place in Des Moines, Iowa on Saturday December 10th, 2011 and covered by ABC News and Yahoo. In my opinion, that’s as professional a level of coverage as allowing Al’s Plumbing and Air Conditioning Supply and Burger King to host a debate (with no offense intended towards either Al or “The King”). They’re bringing Diane Sawyer out of the malfunctioning cryo-chamber she sleeps in and they’re borrowing a booster seat to prop little Georgie Snuffleupaguss high enough over the table to participate in questioning as well, like a big boy and everything. I fully expect this to be a severely amateur hour performance by the “journalists” playing “moderators”, with ample “Gotcha!” moments where these people beclown themselves in their attempts to harm the Republicans running for president against Barack Obama. Since Newt Gingrich is the latest frontrunner to emerge, the goal tonight for the “moderators” will be to tear him down so that Willard “Mittens” Romneycare becomes the ultimate (and, according to them, “inevitable”) nominee. Let’s see how much these fools get away with tonight, and how aggressively Gingrich serves whatever they’re dishing right back at them. ......

In the few minutes I have before the debate starts, I think it’s a good time to run through my thoughts on each of the candidates and what I expect from them tonight:

Newt Gingrich: I still marvel at the fact that the man I actually hated once upon a time in the 90s is now someone I can actually see becoming the 45th President of the United States.

The reality is that voters do not unseat an incumbent president unless a challenger emerges who forms a clear remedy for the current president’s failings: and Gingrich is clearly a remedy to Barack Obama (unlike Willard “Mittens” Romneycare, who is essentially Obama-lite, or Obama-white, as the case may be). Gingrich is fast on his feet and intelligent where Obama fumbles and bumbles with TelePrompTers.

Gingrich speaks in cold hard facts while Obama waxes in nebulous platitudes. Gingrich clobbers his opponents in debates while Obama relies on the memories of his soaring orations from 2008.

There are a lot of very foolish people out there who keep harping that Gingrich’s three marriages will keep voters from embracing him, but that’s just nonsense. I surely hope that if the Obama campaign attacks Gingrich on a marital front in 2012 that Republicans are smart enough to call Barack Obama’s own marriage into question, and start openly talking about the fact that Obama is a closeted gay man in a sham marriage that includes frequent cheating on his wife with male staffers. I don’t think Democrats are going to want to go there, so the “Gingrich has been married three times” bit really gets trumped by “Barack Obama used to frequent bathhouses in Chicago and still sleeps with men in the White House” reality.

The GOP is indeed the Party of Stupid and is meek beyond comprehension most of the time, but something tells me that Newt Gingrich will see to it that all of Obama’s own dirty, bathhouse-scented laundry sees the light of day if the White House decides to try to make 2012 a referendum against heterosexuals marrying and divorcing multiple times.

Willard “Mittens” Romneycare: Romneycare is the least electable Republican in this race because he does not provide any contrast at all with Barack Obama in a general election. If Republicans run Romneycare, they take Obamacare off the table for criticism which will be a disaster down ticket since this election will really be about jobs, the economy, and repealing Obamacare before it does any more damage to jobs and the economy.

If Romneycare is the nominee, the conservatives will lose the ability to criticize Obamacare. They’ll also lose the ability to criticize any of the myriad other things that Romneycare has supported over the years, before deciding to no longer support so long as the polls tell him that’s the best position for him to have today.

Barack Obama is vague, nebulous, and manufactured in all that he does; the same can be said for Romneycare. Voters do not replace one president with a man who is so similar to him; voters want a remedy for the current president and will only side with a challenger against an incumbent if they feel the new guy makes up for the key failings of the current Oval Office occupant.

Romneycare just doesn’t cut it. Hopefully, enough Republican voters will see that so this can be the last time we have to deal with Willard “Mittens” “But, It’s My Turn!” Romneycare in a presidential election.

Michele Bachmann: I have lost all respect for Michele Bachmann. That’s one of the most disappointing casualties for me of this primary season. I don’t like the way she conducts herself, and don’t like how clearly she has been cozying up to Romneycare in some deluded effort to be his VP pick (mark my words, if Romneycare WERE to become the nominee, his VP pick would be Tim “Droopy Dog” Pawlenty, as those two have a weird bromance going on that Bachmann can never compete with). I used to have a lot of respect for Bachmann, but she’s been behaving foolishly lately and doesn’t seem to stand for anything anymore besides being as negative as possible whenever a microphone is in front of her. I wish she would suspend her campaign and focus on something productive at this point.

Rick Perry: The “Strong” ad was a breaking point for me with Perry, but not in the way you might first think. I don’t care if Perry doesn’t want gays serving in the military there have been gays in the military since the military was founded, and the matter is now settled so it’s truly beyond foolish for a Republican candidate to keep bringing it up. It’s also incredibly foolish for Perry to make an anti-gay TV ad while dressed up like one of the guys from Brokeback Mountain. That jacket he wore in the “Strong” ad is a dead-ringer for the one Heath Ledger wore as gay cowboy Ennis in Brokeback.

I now conclude that Rick Perry is an irredeemable doofus for setting himself up for the merciless parodies the Gaystapo is churning out against him on YouTube and Facebook.

A Republican candidate for president just cannot be this oblivious, ill-informed, and downright STUPID. A serious Republican presidential candidate should not need to be told that dressing up as an iconic character from a gay movie is not the best way to wardrobe himself in an anti-gay ad his campaign filmed out of sheer desperation to gin up a little hatred and get himself a new round of attention before the Iowa Caucuses.

You know what else is a pretty popular gay movie? To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything Julie Newmar. Which of those characters will Perry be dressing up as for his next Iowa ad? I bet if he picks the Patrick Swayze one, maybe he’ll score some points from still-mourning fans the way Jennifer Grey did when she was on Dancing with the Stars last year.

Perry supporters keep saying that “this is the last dumb thing he’ll do” or “just give him a chance and he’ll prove he’s not a complete doofus”. Well, he’s had more chances than most people, and he keeps proving how truly stupid he is on all sorts of levels. This guy is Texas toast with scrambled eggs for brains.

Ron Paul: I am horrified by Ron Paul’s assertion that the United States government was gleeful after 9/11 or that our government knew the attacks were going to happen and let them happen anyway. A good friend of mine died when the Towers collapsed, so I take these flights of fantasy from someone like Paul deadly serious. I’m sure my friend Kathleen, a Paul supporter, will have some thoughts on his remarks but I have to note going into this debate that I am furious with this man. For two presidential elections now, Paul has played the role of Mr. Mxyzptlk, saying outrageous things up on the stage and encouraging people who like to run around in V for Vendetta masks to champion him. After these 9/11 remarks, I’ve had enough of this garbage and no longer feel like indulging Fifth-Dimensional craziness in serious debate proceedings. I really hope Paul has to answer a question about his 9/11 remarks; I am sure my friend Jane will be looking down from Heaven with great interest to hear what he has to say.

Rick Santorum: It’s time for him to get off the stage so that the field can be paired down to five or less contenders. Anyone polling with less than 10% needs to join Jon Huntsman off in the ether somewhere. This is the homestretch, and the time to perpetually indulge the vanity campaigns is over.

What are you thinking about as we wait for the debate to start?

What do you think each of the candidates above needs to do tonight?

Transcript starts after the jump below:

[.................................................................snip..................................................................]

- END OF DEBATE

Talking Heads on Who Won?

Newt Gingrich, because he didn’t make any mistakes. In the last question he gave credit to others on the stage, but Romneycare kept coming across as someone without a pulse who is full of himself (note: Romney was the only one who did not say anything nice about his opponents at the end).

Talking heads say there is something very real, very warts-and-all about Gingrich. Gingrich did not harm to himself, but in fact enhanced his position.

This is fun: at the end, ABC fact-checked the whole “$10,000 debate” book thing. Perry was right, that important part WAS changed in Romneycare’s book…but the bigger thing is that everyone is scolding Romneycare for making a $10,000 bet. People in Iowa are mystified by this…they would never bet $10,000 on anything when the median income in the state is $50,000. This was a disastrous move for Romneycare.

NOTE: Check back tomorrow morning for my write-up on the Top 5 Things People Need to Know About this Debate

My note: Kevin hasn’t posted his write-up as of this moment. I’ll be watching for it. bttt