Thursday, January 24, 2008
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"Live Blogging" the GOP Debate ...
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Posted by:
Matt Lewis at
9:02 PM
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10:35 - Ron Paul on switching political parties: "I wish they would worry about it, just in case ... might keep them on their toes."
10:33 - Huckabee has a good response about his faith. He hasn't done great tonight, but he is finishing strong.
10:28 - Rudy takes-down the NY Times. Well done.
10:26 - Huckabee has a funny line about Chuck Norris' comments about McCain's age. McCain has a good come-back about Stallone.
10:23 - McCain has not mentioned that he is the candidate best able to beat the Democrats in November. This is odd, inasmuch as it seems like that was the message he was settling into ...
10:14 - The Mormon question ... again.
10:13 - Romney has a good argument for why putting his own money into his campaign is actually good: When he gets elected, he won't owe anyone.
10:11 - Romney drops the Reagan.
10:10 - McCain had a very good line tonight: "I'll put my country above my party every time ... proud to be a conservative."
10:09 - Who said McCain wasn't talking about Global Warming? He has brought it up a few times tonight ...
10:05 - NY Times has endorsed Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
10:01 - The McCain campaign just released a new web ad called: Mitt Surfing. This is obviously a parody of the John Kerry wind surfing ad ...
9:59 - Rudy Giuliani is right; we need to start building nuclear plants ... yesterday.
9:57 - Regarding the Catastrophic Fund, McCain says he wants to work with the insurance companies, rather than setting up a "huge Federal Bureaucracy."
9:55 - Romney: "...Those poor folks that are snow-birds..." (Yeah, I really feel sorry for those poor souls who have two houses -- one in the North -- and then a place where they "summer" ..
9:54 - Rudy brings up the National Catastrophic Fund -- and that McCain opposes it. His question to Rudy is if he has a position on it. Romney says he does support it, which I think is news to everyone ...
9:52 - Endorsements are one thing, but real policy advisers are more important to me. I take solice in the fact that McCain has some good advisers (like Phil Gramm, for instance), just as I take comfort in the fact that Rudy would be listening to Ted Olson and Steve Forbes ...
9:48 - Yeah, real hardball questions from the candidates: "So Governor Huckabee, tell me why you're so great" ...
9:42 - Seriously, I can't believe the candidates aren't putting up more of a fight. Their political futures are literally on the line. Well, maybe the segment that allows the candidates to question each other will heat things up ...
9:36 - Huckabee looks tired tonight. The problem with relying solely on charisma is that sometimes charisma has an off night. Sometimes charisma sleeps in. You live by the charisma, you die by the charisma ...
9:36 - Ron Paul gets applause by saying Iraq was a bad war and "wasn't worth it."
9:33 - "General Hillary Clinton." Nice line by Romney. Am I the only one who noticed he praised everyone involved in the Surge, except McCain?
9:31 - I'm frankly surprised at how boring this debate is ... so far. Rudy's campaign is hanging by a thread -- yet, he's not taking any shots? Mike Huckabee is a great orator, yet, he seems to be going through the motions. And why aren't McCain and Romney going at it, yet???
9:30 - A half-hour into the debate, McCain references the Surge. Six months ago, who would've thought that this topic wouldn't have come up until a third of the way through the debate?
9:29 - Now is the perfunctory portion of the debate when a local newspaper gets to ask a question.
9:26 - John Hanlon is also "live blogging the debate."
9:24 - Citing a previous debate, Huckabee makes the point that he was right about the economy's downward turn: "I was the only guy on that stage who said, it may be doing great if you're on top."
9:21 - Campaign Emails: The good folks at Romney's campaign and Rudy's campaign want you to know that McCain doesn't think he's an expert on economics.
9:18 - Wow. It seems like it's been forever since Rudy last spoke. I think that, in order for him to have the kind of night he needs to have, he's going to have to start interrupting and injecting himself into the debate more. Remember, his best debate moment occurred at one of the early debates, when he stood up to Ron Paul over 9-11. He didn't wait his turn then ...
9:15 - Ron Paul's tie is quite nice. I think he gets the "best tie of the night" award.
9:12 - Is Mike Huckabee proposing a "make-work" highway project?
9:11 - I think it's pretty clear the candidates are tired. None of them look particularly fresh. Even Romney looks a little rough.
9:09 - McCain says he's very well-versed on economics. But in a recent blogger call, he admitted that he would look for a VP who complimented him in an area where he is not an expert. He floated the name of Phil Gramm -- because of his expertise on economics ...
9:07 - Rudy says the stimulus package is good, but doesn't go far enough. Also, this was the first compliment of another candidate: "Senator McCain is right -- we have to put as much emphasis on spending."
9:05 - On Taxes, McCain on the Bush tax cuts: "I think it's very important that we make the Bush tax cuts permanent. I voted to make them permanent twice already." More: "... We pay the highest corporate income tax of any nation except Japan."
9:01 - Boca Raton. It means the rat's mouth. (Just a little trivia)...
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