The GOP Presidential debate in New Hampshire settled some questions and raised some new ones.
Settled is that Wolf Blitzer is a hack who, if he hadn't stayed in Baghdad in 1991, would be filing "human interest" reports today. Also, if there were any doubts, that Giuliani and McCain are the heavyweights in this race, and Tancredo, Paul, and Thompson just don't belong on the same stage.
I rated Rudy and McCain about even, but head and shoulders above the rest, which is a "win" for both of them. Rudy wins as the frontrunner who continues to impress. John McCain needed to reverse the impression that his campaign is faltering, given weakening poll numbers and the base's reaction to the immigration bill, and he did so, in spades. It was clearly the best performance so far for both men, and they have set a "gravitas" bar too high for any of the Democratic contenders to match.
Romney wasn't bad. He was unflappable, but after his star-power performance in the first debate he has done well, but not very well. This was an opportunity for him to make his move up in the field before Fred Thompson jumps in, and he missed it, IMO.
Duncan Hunter, Mike Huckabee, and Jim Gilmore are impressive men, and I am proud to be on their side. It isn't that they aren't as sharp as the leaders, because they probably are. It's that Giuliani, McCain, and Romney have the experience on the bigger stage, and that shows. Fred Thompson will be able to compete - that was evident in the Senate Watergate hearings over 30 years ago - but the rest may as well go home.
I'm embarrassed for Tommy Thompson. He is the Republican equivalent of Bill Richardson this year: very impressive resume, but falls apart in the spotlight.
Tancredo and Paul need to go away. They're dumb enough to be Democrats, for crying out loud!
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2008 Presidential Race, Commentary, Primaries, Republican, debates
Tags: debate, presidential campaign, primaries, Republicans
Comments (1)
Who let Brownback wear that... (Below threshold)1. Posted by John in CA | June 6, 2007 3:29 AM | Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
Who let Brownback wear that ghastly tie? Obviously his wife didn't help him dress.
Gilmore's tie was knotted badly. Noticed he straightened it up during the halftime show.
Glad to see Tommy Thompson actually move this debate. He was much more animated. He also obviously knows his health care. Which is probably why he was a Cabinet member.
Didn't like McCain using "my friends" so much. Once or twice is okay, but seems he adopted that as his default address for the crowd. Mix it up some Maverick.
Huckabee is a good candidate, and I wish I could consider him. However, no matter how much he talks about his record of lowering taxes while he was Governor of Arkansas, the state has a budget surplus of one billion dollars. To me that means taxes are too high. Besides, I've just got this impression from some of his policies in Arkansas that at heart he's a nanny stater.
I wish Duncan Hunter had a higher national profile. I really, really like him. I'm more aware of his ideas and what he's done because I live in SoCal and he's been on talk radio quite a bit in the past, so with that and local stories he's better known by me than he is by the casual political observer.
I thought the "what would you ask George Bush to do for your administration" was a dumb question. Let it suffice to say that he's NOT going to go around sticking his nose in policy issues, and if asked to do something to help the next President, he will do anything he can to help.
1. Posted by John in CA | June 6, 2007 3:29 AM |
Score: 0 (4 votes cast)
Posted on June 6, 2007 03:29