Well, I watched the CNN/Youtube Republican Debate last night and much to my chagrin I must admit I'll be changing my position. I don't do that much.
First, an overview of the debate itself. Anderson Cooper was an excellent moderator and I think that CNN chose good questions; all the topics from abortion to immigration to militarism to economy were discussed. CNN used adequate discretion in directing the questions to certain candidates and at points actually tried to level the playing field, especially in the case of Rudy Guliani - he caught a lot of flak during the debate.
I won't summarize the whole debate for you - first of all, that would be really time-consuming, and secondly, I don't get paid for this. What's great for those of you who missed it (how dare you?!), you can watch basically the whole debate, sans commercials, on Youtube's Republican debate page.
Mitt Romney and Rudy Guliani I think suffered in that debate. Guliani had been attacked all along the campaign so far and I think he might have broke even in this debate, but a lot of people I talked to were put off by Romney, especially when the question of waterboarding came up and he didn't label it torture, which justifiably upset John McCain.
I was originally a big fan of Fred Thompson. He has experience in the Senate, along with this previous legal career. He's a Christian conservative and has been lauded by many as the man who could unite the Republican party. Plus, his wife is hot.
So how was I wrong?
Under the stress of the debate he seemed more frazzled and stumbled as much as Rudy Guliani and Ron Paul. Thompson is a lot older than I had imagined him to be and perhaps that's part of the equation. Also, I'm afraid that he's more of a candidate who's always preached to the choir (look at his high reelection rates), which means he's never had to defend his position as much anymore.
On the other side, when Mike Huckabee put forth his hilarious campaign ad with Chuck Norris, who was at the debate last night, I personally thought it was a two-pronged tactic: one, to get more young people interested in Huckabee, and two, to appeal to the (excuse the gross generalization) midwest-farmer-type Iowans before the caucus. But now that I saw him in the debate, Huckabee's intelligence and articulation of values have vaulted him to the top of my list.
McCain did very well, too, although I'm afraid on Capitol Hill he's like the old war vet that everyone listens to and respects but no one wants to hang out with. When Ron Paul started going on about Vietnam and called the war irrelevant, not only was McCain upset, but many of the other candidates visibly were. I wish I could vote for him, but the poor guy never seems to get a true chance in the big picture.
I did notice that after the debate some of the first people to shake hands and pat each other on the back were Huckabee and McCain. That would make an amazing ticket. And Chuck Norris can be Secretary of Defense.
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