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Quick Take on the GOP Debate
I’ve just watched a 90-minute undercard debate followed by a three-hour mainstage debate. I never want to hear the terms “birthright citizenship,” “shining city on a hill,” or “yuge” ever again. However, as your faithful servant, I will offer my quick takes on the winners and losers of tonight’s debate.
Winners
3. Gov. Chris Christie
The normally brash New Jersey governor was thoughtful, self-deprecating, thorough, and seized his moments with aplomb. He ranks in third place for my winner’s list.
2. Sen. Marco Rubio
Wow, does he shine at these things. Utterly unflappable, polished without looking plastic, and connects with the audience on a heart level. A second solid performance.
1. Carly Fiorina
“Lady Liberty” wins the night in a walk. Coming into the primaries I wondered why she was even running. But Carly exudes gravitas. She’s compelling. Even when I don’t agree with her, I want to hear her out. That’s political star power.
Losers
3. Gov. Scott Walker
Walker didn’t do anything wrong, but he didn’t distinguish himself either. With his numbers plummeting in Iowa and his money-men getting nervous, he really needs to step up and soon. (I almost chose the somnambulent Ben Carson for the three-spot, but his fans seem to like his low-key style.)
2. Gov. John Kasich
In the first debate, Kasich seemed to be seizing the squishy moderate crown of Nerf from Jeb. But the Ohio governor spent most of the second debate defending Democrats’ programs and failures. Out-of-step with the national mood, not to mention the GOP.
1. Donald Trump
Wishful thinking on my part? Perhaps. But the frontrunner always enters a debate with the most to lose. Standing amid the accomplished GOP field with Reagan’s jet as a backdrop, The Donald looked petty, small and out of his element. He improved as the night wore on, but I’m wondering who sat through until the end.
Beyond the candidates, the biggest loser of the night was CNN. What a shameful, disorganized, and unserious presentation. The majority of questions were directed to Trump. Those that weren’t, were questions about Trump. And often when another candidate responded, even on a non-Trump topic, CNN had a split-screen showing Trump’s dramatic reactions to their answers.
CNN’s intention was not to inform voters or discuss ideas, but to toss scorpions in a bottle and watch them fight over side issues. I’m quite shocked that the normally excellent Jake Tapper and Hugh Hewitt agreed to this silly format.
UPDATE: Interesting Twitter stats…
Published in GeneralTwitter’s debate data pic.twitter.com/JkVwk9y6Mo
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) September 17, 2015
That’s right. Obama won—twice—without the votes of any middle-class, people who work hard…somehow, he managed to win with only the votes of the indolent poor and those pesky illegal aliens, whom he somehow persuaded to stop raping Californians long enough to vote (illegally!) for him. Obviously, it couldn’t be that substantial numbers of educated, intelligent, hardworking entrepreneurs, businessmen, physicians, nurses, police officers, teachers, military personnel and engineers were so fed up with George Bush, the Republicans and their crony-capitalist brethren that they voted for Obama too?
Obamacare came into being because, IMHO, the existing, dysfunctional, expensive, lousy system was not working for middle-class people. Who vote. The Republicans had their chance to fix it, and they didn’t fix it.
I disagree. The near instantaneous disappearance of the anti-war movement was the result of electing a president who would —it was believed—end the war.
I disagree with this, too. Rumsfeld claimed (and probably believed) that his plan for the war would not only be more efficient, it would also not break the bank. An administration unconcerned with the price of an invasion does not try to persuade the public that the oil revenues of the invaded country will pay for it. The Bush Administration predicted that the war was going to be over quickly, and would not require economic sacrifices on the part of the American public (e.g. “go shopping” rather than “buy war bonds.”)
Not being particularly well-versed in economic theory, might I just say that it strikes me as slightly suspicious that budget deficits are completely understandable, and even a good thing under a Republican administration, and yet an unparalleled evil under a Democratic one?
Except it wasn’t “lousy,” it provided the best quality care in the world. It was expensive, true — but ultimately socialist systems control costs by rationing care.
Can I ask something more in line with the OP?
Jeb! in defending his brother, stated firmly “He kept us safe.”
Didn’t the 9/11 attacks occur on Bush’s watch?
Why is it that when a Republican president fails to manage the Middle East, we all agree that this is because the Middle East is unmanageable… and yet, when a Democratic president can’t manage the Middle East, it’s because the Democratic president is either an idiot or in collusion with the minions of Satan?
The point was that after 9/11 there were no further attacks on American soil. The tit for tat with comparing presidents is not very helpful, but don’t get me started on Clinton and his responses to terrorist attacks during the 1990s.
It depends it part what you get in return for all the money spent. Running up a huge debt to win WWII, for instance, was IMHO money well spent.
What exactly did we get in return for all the money Obama spent? He certainly didn’t win any wars with it. Supposedly most of it was spent on “shovel-ready infrastructure” projects, but everyone seems to agree our infrastructure is still in bad shape and needs a lot more money so it doesn’t seem like it accomplished much there either.
In other words, GW Bush learned nothing from the failings and defects of the Clinton administration. It was his failure (or unwillingness) to address those failings and defects that kept me from voting for him.
That was again based on the premise that consumer spending drives the economy, so if consumer spending dropped the economy would crash. Whether or not you agree with this as an economic theory, it has nothing to do with winning the war except indirectly to the extent that a healthy economy provides more revenue to fund the war.
The idea that individual Americans should all sacrifice something in order to vicariously participate in winning a war has a certain romantic appeal, but it makes little sense outside the context of a mass-mobilization total war like WWII.
Bush had been in office nine months on September 11. Sure, if he could have seen the future… but there is a reason almost nobody woke up Sept. 12th blaming him. That was really a Clinton failure.
I remember plenty of criticism from the right of Bush’s approach to the Middle East. I remember arguments that we should have gone into Iran instead of Iraq, for instance. There were abundant disagreements on a range of issues and no blind loyalty. But everything we know tells us he took our safety seriously and was willing to take political risks to ensure it.
And he didn’t draw red lines and then not bother enforcing them. There will always be some level of partisanship in evaluating presidents; that’s human nature. But that doesn’t mean Republicans aren’t right about Obama.
Our defective health care system is not the reason that Englishmen and Canadians came here to see our doctors and get their care. Perhaps it was because sitting in a queue waiting for a doctor to see you, and then sitting in a queue waiting for your turn at the hospital or surgery would have been life limiting.
You might actually want to think some of these things out before you expound on them.
I think Jonah Goldberg put it best: Using Bush’s deficit spending to justify Obama’s is like saying that if a wife goes over budget on a shopping trip she has no room to complain when her husband loses the house in Vegas.
And in a supreme act of grace, GWB went out of his way to not highlight that. Contrast that with President Barack Hussein “My predecessor…” Obama.
I agree with all your assessments, including Jeb, all except Huckabee. His defense of Christian values was moving and I think it help him. It did with me.