my review of the 1st republican presidential debate.
Last night, 10 GOP candidates for President took the stage at the impressive Ronald reagan Library in California. The debate was hosted and moderated by MSNBC's Chris Matthews. New to the Presidential debates in general was the asking of questions from Politico.com readers. And while the new twist was refreshing, most candidates couldn't deal with the questions and brushed them off or dodged them more often than not en route back to their previous agenda.
Most of the candidates came prepared. And most probably did better than the pundits were willing to predict going in. the democrats who weren't as well prepared last week could take a couple of pointers from some of the GOP candidates. Not that they answered the questions any better, but they didn't stumble quite as much as some of the democrats. Their dodges were smoother and less diliberate.
Here's how I saw the individual performances "in a nutshell." ....
John McCain - got better as the evening went along. McCain got the 1st question and started off a little off his game. In his 1st reponse, he rambled thru the phrase "my friends" like he was desperately trying to remember the prepared statement he had tried to memorize. But by the end of the night, he loosened up and became the John McCain, shooting from the heart, that we all know. regardless of how we side with his positions. McCain had a little more trouble with the format than others, as his style more suits a laid back "town hall" setting where he can give his more nuanced and expressive answers.
Rudy Giuliani - The ex-NYC mayor touted his toughness, of course. He was also the only one who stood up for Roe v Wade. The 9 others eagerly anticipating it's reversal. one calling it "a glorious day" and making religious references that pro-lifers are in tune with. Rudy's final declaration of defending the landmark decision did only come after he seemingly was all over the map on the issue, trying to appeal to everyone at the same time. Rudy's best answer might have been when he defined the difference between a sunni and a shiite muslim. Post debate fact checking showed him to be right. Some of his abortion claims didn't pan out as well, however. And someone needs to teach Mr Giuliani a little Reagan history. Rudy claimed that his method of fighting terrorists was indeed "Reaganesque." By that, he stated that Reagan never backed down or retreated from terrorists. I guess he forgot about Beruit, the 253 soldiers killed, and Reagan pulling them out of there to fight another day.
Mitt Romney - The businessman and ex-massechucetts governor tried to talk all night about "faith." And after going on and on about his strong faith (and he never once mentioned his actual religion, which is mormon) he then tried to backtrack and claim it didn't affect his decision making. this, after Mike Huckabee pointed out that his faith did affect those decisions and saw the issue this way --- if your faith is strong, it has to affect your judgement, as it is part of who you are. and if it doesn't affect your jdgement, your faith can't be that strong. Outside of that, Romney did deliver confident, well spoken answers. Unfortunately, some of those answers, whjile nice and neat, fell down on fact checking on post debate reports.
Ron Paul - The Texas congressman was billed as the representative of the "libertarians" before the debate. He was. At times, his repeated mentions of the constitution got to be a bit much, like a broken record. But that is what he is all about. And he talks about the Constitution in a way that is a little different than people who just want to use it as a political tool to gain an edge. And like McCain, had a little trouble getting his answers finished in time. Unfortunately, in between many good answers, Paul would jump to larger "meta issues" and issues of conservative Libertarian ideology. And in the short format, would often get cut off before he could actually make his point. Paul's fatal error came when he actually answered one of the internet questions about his experience in crisis management. Paul foolishly stated that he had never been in a position to make a critical decision. And by the time he realized what he had said, and tried to correct himself, it was too late to say anything else...his time was up. Paul might be able to find a place in a GOP cabinet or something if he makes the right friends and plays his cards right. But he's not gonna be President.
Tommy Thompson - Tommy looked like his mother dressed him. He looked awkward and had a haircut you could set your watch by. He touted his conservative record and 1900 vetoes until tom Tancredo pointed out that one can veto all the discretionary spending they want, it is the mandatory spending that is crushing us. that was the last we heard of the vetoes. Like Paul, his candidacy won't go far from what I saw, but maybe he' s buckin for a cabinet seat or the like.
Tom Tancredo - Tancredo was the nerd in the corner who shoved out all his words as quickly as possible while staring at the ground. I really don't remember much of what he had to say actually. I just remember that he kept claiming that he was the only person alive essentially who can secure our borders. That, and shutting up Thompson. Outside of that, I just remember waiting for him to say "wapner in 5 minutes" or tell me how he's "an excellent driver."
Sam Brownback - Brownback, who is popular with evangelicals, played to that crowd all night. If you were a born-again christian, you probably loved him. If you are not, you probably didn't. usually, in mixed crowds, Brownback is adept at honing in his rhetoric for the masses. Not this night.
Duncan Hunter - The California congressman was typical Duncan Hunter. Tough talk on immigation. Tough talk on military. Fast and loose with the facts. Hunter was the only one who proudly declared himself a "bush republican."
Mike Huckabee - Like Brownback, the ex-Arkansas Governor wears his religion on his sleeve. And surprisingly, was more adept at keeping that pro-christian viewpoint in check than Brownback, who came off like a charismatic preacher at times, complete with the phony smile.
Jim Gilmore - The ex-virginia gov. billed himself as the only real conservative in the race. During the debate, he retracted that statement, and offered that he was the most "consistant" conservative in the field. In a night where most of the candidates were in essense, trying to "outconservative" each other, his messages got lost as he spent most of the night defending his past statements about his conservative uniqueness.
Most of the candidates played it smart. Most of the candidates did their damndest to come of fa s the "most conservative" on the stage. Fortunately, atthe beginning of the evening, Matthews put out a request not to all individually spend time thanking their host (nancy reagan) which freed up more time for debate. Going in, I wondered about the first 20 minutes of the debate being a bunch of old men gushing over the former 1st lady and trying to pitch that they are the continuance of her husband's legacy. Matthews warning effectively eliminated those kiss-ups.
And most of the candidates made a lot of hedging statements that are surely designed to be used next year if they are indeed the candidate for the GOP. But so did the Democrats last week. It is to be expected.
Overall, the debate was better than the 1st run MSNBC did last week. The "run down the line" questions actually made it down the line. Last week, Brian Williams consistantly would stop the questioning 1/2 way down the line and move on. It was annoying and defeated the whole purpose of the question. I was glad to see Matthews not be so jumpy to move on.
And the internet questions provided by Politico.com readers added a much needed dimension to the stale debate format. A trend I would like to see continued.
Liek the Democrats, there was no clear winner. But unlike the dems, there wasn't any great "killer" lines that were very memorable. I didn't see a clear winner. Romney did well for the "top tier" candidates on style, but his substance was lacking, and sometimes just not correct. I thought Mike Huckabee came off as very "Presidential." And like I said before, McCain gained steam as the night went on. Perhaps a metaphor for the upcoming race.
Next up for both parties will be the CNN debates in June. We'll see how they do then.