My mistake,this one was much better, people actually looked alive and aware, all except Ron Paul, who I believe has a few screws loose, and that is being kind.
The moderators were much better this time and the debate was actually very interesting to watch.
Those that didn't watch the debate probably didn't because they didn't want to see it, so I will skip over the boring parts and get to the highlights one of which there is a video over at Hot Air that has to be seen.
From Pajamas Media:
Then Ron Paul offered up the biggest set-up since the Olympic volleyball tournament, saying that 9/11 occurred because of how America conducts itself in the Middle East.Giuliani, who was next, leaped all over that. That is a simply extraordinary statement that we invited 9/11 because we were attacking Iraq, he said. I’ve never heard it before and I have heard absurd statements. I ask him to withdraw the comment and apologize for it.
Rudy Giuliani ripped right into Ron Paul, correctly so too, given Pauls incredibly stupid remarks.
WATCH IT at Hot Air.Fox has more about the debate up at their site.
Michelle Malkin live blogged the debate so for a round by round analysis, go have a look.
Here is the transcript for the whole debate via NYT.
Captain Quarters sums it up: "Giuliani Wins, But Paul Threw The Game"
Team Rudy should send a hundred roses to Ron Paul -- yellow roses, of course -- after the Congressman essentially tossed the debate to Giuliani. Rudy had a pretty good night going anyway, but when Paul as much as said that the terrorists had a point in killing 3,000 Americans, Rudy let fly with the righteous indigation that an entire nation was busily hurling at their television screens.
YUP, exactly.
All in all, after watching the whole thing, then the after debate coverage and interviews with each candidate, I would have to give this one to Rudy, actually Ron Paul gvae it to Rudy.
McCain, I like him, but I do not believe he has the strength to run this country in a time of global war on terrorism.
I do not think Romney did bad at all, but he didn't do wonderfully either.
I have seen a couple statements to the effect that Fred Thompson, in his video response to the assinine Michael Moore, did better than anyone, save Rudy last night, and the man wasn't even part of the debate and I don't think he has even officially announced whether he is running or not!!!!
Breitbart.tv Exclusive: The confrontation over Cuba continues. Michael Moore has challenged Fred Thompson to a health care debate. At issue -- Moore's trip to Cuba and Thompson's criticism of that trip. Moore noted Thompson's evident favor for Cuban cigars as a possible violation of the trade embargo. Now, Thompson responds. Cigar in hand.
Next time I guess I will be liveblogging the event.
A few high lights from last nights debate:
Brownback, even though I do not find him very impressive at least condemned Baghdad Reid for his recent statements about Iraq:
And I condemn the statements of Harry Reid, the majority leader of the Senate, saying we've already lost. We haven't lost. That's his declaration, but we've got to pull people together here. And when we can do that, and when we do that, we will win.
Giuliani calling the Democrats in Congress "highly irresponsible":
MR. GIULIANI: First of all, that isn't exactly what I said. I was talking about the timetable for retreat that the Democrats passed in Congress, in which they did something extraordinary and that I've never heard of in the history of war, which is to give your enemy a schedule of how a retreating army is going to retreat. That was irresponsible, highly irresponsible.
Then from page 3, Giuliani continues:
And I think Senator McCain is correct, these people do want to follow us here and they have followed us here. Fort Dix happened a week ago. That was a situation in which six Islamic terrorists, who were not directed by al Qaeda but claimed to have been inspired by them, were going to kill our military in cold blood at Fort Dix. It was a 16-month investigation done by the FBI and the United States Attorney's Office, and thank God they caught them.
But we have to remind ourselves that we are facing an enemy that is planning all over this world, and it turns out planning inside our country, to come here and kill us. And the worst thing to do in the face of that is to show them weakness.
High lights from Round Two:
When speaking to the issue of tax cuts and spending, Huckabee got a good laugh from the audience, with this comment:
And instead what we've done is what Senator McCain has suggested. We've had Congress that's spent money like Edwards at a beauty shop. (Laughter.)
(Reference to John Edwards $400 haircuts)
On to Round Three High lights:
Giuliani once again nails a topic I have often mentioned here and thats Hillary Clinton's "agenda for the common good"
But you know -- but in any event, you know, I think that we can respond to that and discuss all that, but there's something I think really big at stake here. We're looking at a race here in which the leading Democratic candidate for president of the United States has said that the unfettered free market is the most disastrous thing in modern America. That's a quote -- or that's a quote she agreed with. She's also said, with regard to taxes, that we have to take money from you in order to give it to the common good.
Now Hillary's exact words were given at a San Francisco fundraiser in 2004 where she said:
At a San Francisco fundraiser in 2004- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., told wealthy supporters the government will need to take money away from them for the "common good."
Clinton headlined an appearance with other women Democratic senators in San Francisco, where donors gave as much as $10,000 to California Sen. Barbara Boxer's campaign.
"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Clinton said, according to the Associated Press. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you."
We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."
Isn't that special? I am glad Giuliani made that point.
Round Four High lights:
I did appreciate Hunters comment about illegal immigration.
REP. HUNTER: Yeah, and I want to get into this, Chris, because you know, I built the border fence in San Diego. When I built that fence, we had massive illegal immigration across the border. We built the border fence; we reduced illegal immigration and smuggling of narcotics by more than 90 percent. And the crime rate in the city of San Diego fell by 50 percent.
I wrote the bill that the president signed in October that takes the San Diego fence 854 miles across Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, and it's mandatory. I called up the other day, and they've done two miles of border fence.
This administration has a case of the slows on border enforcement. If we have border enforcement, we will be able at that point to start to regulate the internal problem that we've got. Because as long as you've got a revolving door and you have no border -- and this 2,000-mile porous border, incidentally, is our biggest homeland security problem; it's not just an immigration problem, it's a homeland security problem -- we need to build the border fence. We need to have a Border Patrol which is big enough to get the job done, and we need to be able to ask people when they want to come into America, knock on the front door, because the back door is going to be closed.
Knock on the front door because the backdoor will be closed. Well said.
Now I have to say, the two most idiotic comments came from Ron Paul, one we dealt with above and this one:
There's a strong tradition of being anti-war in the Republican party.
The they get to a question involving a terror attack scenario.
The scenario presented to the 10 Republican presidential candidates was chilling: Three American shopping malls had been bombed, producing scores of casualties. Terrorists with detailed Fknowledge of another imminent and deadlier attack had been captured and taken to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
The question: How far can the authorities go in interrogating the terrorists to get information to avert a fourth attack?
You can read all their answers to that question starting on page 17 of the transcript.
Better showing from most of them than in the first GOP Debate, of course having better moderators helped greatly.
[Update] Some excellent points made by Amy Proctor from Bottom Line Up Front.
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