CH 2.0 Post Debate Wrap-up

Tonight’s debate was rather interesting.  Here are some thoughts…

Gingrich: For much of the first half of the debate, old Newt came off as rather petulant.  However, he came into his own as second half went on.  As always, you have to keep the following in mind as he speaks; “this man is part of the establishment.”  When he spoke out about establishment politicians, I had my only “LOL moment”of the debate.

Santorum: Competent, and I thought he covered Conservative issues well.  He also mention the IPAB Death Panel, and stated the case against ObamaCare well. At the same time, I thought he was a bit self aggrandizing when discussing his record.   Also, he has some votes in his past that he probably wouldn’t want to discuss.

Bachmann: I thought she was perhaps the most consistently eloquent.  Solid on all of the issues.  Disagree on the social issues or not, she stated her opinions openly.

Pawlenty: He seems to be a likable guy.  He went to his record, and scored some points there.  He’s also for Right to Work, which is a plus.

Romney: Could care less what he said. RINO-RINO-RINO-RINO!!!  Did I mention RINO?  In all seriousness, he has changed positions too many times, and did RomneyCare.  At least for me, that is a non-starter…game over.

Cain: I like Cain.  I hope his stated position on TARP is his true opinion.  Also, I think he bungled the discussion on the “Muslim in my administration” question. On the other hand, I liked his responses on Social Security, streamlining government, energy, and the economy.

Paul: I also like Ron Paul.  However, I think he consistently  tried to stuff 10 gallons of answer into 5 gallons of time.   That being said, this, more than any other, may be his time.  He has the economic recipe.  The real question is if he can get people to order it from the menu.

General impressions:

Some of the questions “from citizens” seemed contrived, especially the one from the “moderate Republican.”

King tried to spin the Right to Work question into a bash session towards public workers.  Gingrich got petulant and smacked that down.

The Union thuggery going on might have just made Right to Work an national issue.  I caught the coverage after the debate, and CNN had some dial polling. The had a line in red for Conservatives, and a yellow line for independents. When the candidates talked about Right to Work as a freedom issue, both lines nearly pegged at the top of the chart.  It is both impressive that it happened, and that CNN showed it.

I think they tried to push the candidates into discussing social issues  bit more than needed.  The chief issues, and the ones that will resonate with the electorate, are the economic ones.  We’ll see if this is a trend or not.

It doesn’t matter what the candidates did or did not say, the left will lie about it.