Tammy Bruce: GOP Debate Live Blog/Complaining

GOP Debate Live Blog/Complaining

Not that I thought it would be interesting, but it just got so. Hot Air also has an open thread on the debate.

7pm:

This is the best moment of the evening: The exchange between Ron Paul and Giuliani was very interesting. Paul, as many of you have already determined, is as much of a moonbat as a Republican can be. What a disaster. He said directly that September 11th happened because we asked for it. He also noted we should talk to al-Qaida, and recognize, essentially, that we deserved what happened to us.

Over and out for that freak. Giuliani stepped in perfectly, and shamed him for the comments, at which point the audience applauded.

John McCain was asked about flip-flopping on the Confederate flag issue. He spun around a bit. Not impressive.

Great and now Tancredo is talking about global warming, and how we need to get away from "petroleum products" because they're related to national security. Uh, if we were killing more of the enemy we wouldn't have to be discussing defensive measures. During WWII we weren't thinking of alternative measures figuring we would have to deal with a perpetually hostile Japan and Germany. For crying out loud, what is this ridiculous, we 'can't-win' position mouthed by so many of these men?

I personally know and like Tom Tancredo. He's a great guy, I guess I was hoping he would be a bit different from the average Republican. I need to get him back on my show to ask him about these issues. regardless of what happened in 08, Tancredo is someone who will make a big difference in America, certainly on the imperative border/immigration issue.

7:15pm:

Brit just set-up an imagined scenario of an impending terrorist action and what we should do with terrorists we've captured who know when the next attack would occur. McCain (sheesh) said that the most important thing we have is world opinion (!) and torturing people to get information would never be worth it. Just so we're clear: John McCain thinks world opinion is more important than thousands, perhaps tens or hundreds of thousands, of American lives. Yeah, let's put him in the White House.

Next.

Brit now asks Giuliani about 'enhanced interrogation techniques' such as water-boarding and his position on the issue, applied in the scenario he described earlier. Giuliani tried to dance a little, says the interrogators should use "every method they can think of, but it should not be torture." For Christ's sake. Who are these men that appearing to be morally superior as to not use torture is more important than saving American lives? What the hell is that? He reiterates "every method" when Brit presses on water-boarding.

Romney says the answer is in preventing the bomb from going off, intelligence and prevention. He's avoiding the question by focusing on Gitmo, and says we should make Gitmo larger! Woo hoo. So now he also dives into the new spin "Enhanced interrogation techniques, but not torture." Oh friggin' brother. When Islamist savages feel having a woman standing next to them is torture, exactly what are these men going to do? So far, though, only McCain thinks we should all agree to suicide in order to be thought of as "good" by lefties and the Euros.

Tommy Thompson invokes Reagan. I should have implemented the Reagan drinking game for the debate tonight.

Brownback, while he's a theocrat and a guy I will never vote for, actually just made my point--if you have to choose between our standing in the world and U.S. lives, he'd choose U.S. lives. Isn't it horrible when that statement sets someone apart in a GOP debate? I'll give Giuliani the benefit of the doubt and presume he agrees with that statement. As far as Brownback goes, yawn.

7:20p:

Brit asks McCain if he understands him right, that he considers Enhanced Interrogation Techniques as torture. Yes, of course he does. Let's all die in the name of being nice. McCain notes that a big issue is, if we use torture that puts our captured troops at risk. Yes, you heard me right.. McCain thinks that al-Qaida and the Islamist savages who enjoy cutting off peoples heads on video will be nicer if we don't use enhanced techniques. Oh wait, we never have tortured prisoners, but al-Qaida cuts off peoples heads anyway. Hmmm.... This is insane.

Tancredo just nailed it, saying the whole hypothetical discussion about the candidates being against torture even after a nuclear strike, and we've got men who know when they next one will be, Tancredo was incredulous and says he's 'looking for Jack Bauer at that point' to appropriate applause.

Chris Wallace asks what it means that the entire field of candidates are all white men. No minorities, no women. Huckabee pretty much doesn't know what to say. Chris asks Romney about flip-flopping. Frankly, he strikes me as a pretty boy, the Repubs Silky Pony. Just don't like him and I've learned to trust my instinct.

Ooh, Wendell asks about the power of China economically. Duncan Hunter is smart about it, and has been especially impressive tonight. "Arming with American trade dollars." Brings up Tiananmen Square.

Debate over.

Giuliani and Hunter were the most impressive to me. Tancredo not great on everything, but generally very good. If there was any doubt after the last debate, Ron Paul needs to be locked up somewhere. Something is wrong with him.

The silver lining of this particular debate, perhaps second-tier and the "we deserved it" candidates will drop out of the race. Ron Paul needs to go away, Huckabee, Brownback, Gilmore, all need to think about stepping away.

Posted by Tammy · May 15, 2007 07:06 PM · Permalink
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I gave up after ten minutes of it...I found my shovel was not big enough. I really wish these people would tell it like it is and not tell us what we want to hear. This was almost as bad as the Democratic Debate.

Posted by: ltlme at May 15, 2007 07:48 PM

FoxNews is carrying some text message poll where Ron Paul "won" the debate. This has got to be evidence that the Moonbat crowd is so well organized as to immediately tilt any post-debate polling towards the Left now and likely in Presidential debates.

Tammy, I too think that Rudy acquited himself well.

Fox and Chris Wallace did a much better job in giving the candidates time and intelligent questions than did Chris Rodham-Matthews and Politico-Clinton-dotcom did. Lesson to the R's: stop letting the enemy run your debates.

Posted by: stormsurge at May 15, 2007 08:17 PM

That freeking horses ass Paul should be mugged and shot on the way out tonight. Could you imagine him as Pres and Kucinich as VP????? Bring on Armagedon.

Rudy did a good huge slap on his anti-amerika remark that we asked to be attacked. We all know where that meme was coming from. I think Rudy looked and sounded a lot better in this one. Though I still like Romney.

Tancredo did have the best line on the last round of a terrorists attack basically:
Hey if we've been hit by a nuke and we know there are more impeding I'm not going to the UN or even think about the pc of water boarding--I'M LOOKING FOR A GUY LIKE JACK BAUER."
Baaaaaaaawwwahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaa WINNER!

The others were mediocre but I hope they remain in Congress. Shake it out to Rudy and Romney.

Posted by: auspatriotman at May 15, 2007 08:45 PM

You're a witty lady! Great job on the recap. I enjoyed the debate, but it didn't change much for me. Guiliani still has my vote, McCain still frightens me on security issues, and Romney just looks too much like a life-insurance salesman. Was anyone else entertained by Brownback explaining how he would counsel a rape victim (including incest) against having an abortion?

Posted by: Smocoal at May 15, 2007 08:48 PM

I don't suppose any of the candidates were asked about the FairTax rally that was going on right near their forum tonight.

I think the choices will be much clearer when Fred Thompson announces in a couple of weeks.

Then at least the Republicans will have a conservative to put up against the Democrats rather than whatever the heck it is these guys are.

Posted by: Neil A Russell at May 15, 2007 09:28 PM

Tammy,

While I do consider Ron Paul's remarks about why we were attacked on 9/11 insane, I did like his idea to issue letters of marque. http://www.house.gov/paul/press/press2001/pr101101.htm That would have made for a jolly old time.

Evil Roy

Posted by: Evil Roy at May 15, 2007 09:42 PM

Here's my take on Ron Paul's performance tonight.

And lest we forget that Paul is also a member of the Spineless Seventeen

Posted by: The Ugly American at May 15, 2007 10:31 PM

What irritates me most about someone like Ron Paul is this delusional notion that an isolationist foreign policy is going to keep us safe. It failed both times Europe erupted in flames, and between airplanes, rockets, and global real-time communication, the Atlantic and Pacific are a lot less of a barrier than they used to be. Every time a conservative trots out isolationism as the cure to what ails us, I want the throw my hands up to the sky and ask, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

Posted by: N_Campbell at May 15, 2007 11:50 PM

Indirectly off topic, but I'll offer this pointer anyway.

For anyone who is compelled to attend a meeting or presentation that is dominated by meaningless buzzwords and clichés, be sure to print out and bring along your Bullsh*t Bingo card. You'll get one at the Bullsh*t Bingo website. You'll see that your card looks like an ordinary bingo card, with each square filled with a cliché or buzzword. You check off the keywords when you hear them. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, immediately stand up and shout BULLSH*T!!

It's kind of like a drinking game, but with a slightly different accent.

There are Bullsh*t Bingo cards for several different scenarios!

By the way, thanks for summary and commentary, Tammy.

Posted by: Talkin Horse at May 16, 2007 12:55 AM

I picked up the debate about the same time you did. I preferred the sarcasms of House to the pap of the debate for the first hour. Ron Paul was speaking so for a moment I thought I tuned to PBS by mistake.

The exchanges on torture given the context made me sink my head into my hands. Didn't McCain make a reference to his POW experience saying something like when we were being tortured it helped thinking we are people who don't do this? Doesn't really sound like human nature to me. I'd like to ask McCain would he have given the North Vietnamese as much information as he did if he had a clean cell with a comfy bed, three nutritious meals a day according to his tastes, quality medical care, a Bible, and a lawyer. The thought of our three captured soldiers was going through my head the whole time. They are in the hands of people who torture for the fun of it while this self-righteous egomaniac sermonizes.

The only top tier candidate I could tolerate is Giuliani although I am very worried about his global warming views. Romney is an over-ambitious mannequin. I don't trust McCain for a minute. I'm hoping Duncan Hunter blooms so we can get a better idea about him.

Posted by: pat_s at May 16, 2007 05:12 AM

Didn't watch the joint campaign speeches, oh, I mean debate, but I'm glad to know I can draw a line through Ron Paul's name. I'm also rooting for Duncan Hunter.

Most importantly, if I didn't have to work today, I would have taken the bus to the FairTax rally. The one in Orlando was awesome. All I could do was give someone a bumper sticker yesterday.

Posted by: ashleymatt at May 16, 2007 05:35 AM

I'll chime in for Duncan Hunter. I've liked him from the beginning. I'm hoping more people sat up and took notice of him last night and that he will no longer be lumped in with the anemic and useless second-tier . He has a tough, no nonsense, straightforward way that I appreciate. I believe he wouldn't hesitate to kick-ass when necessary, and we need a little of that these days.

Thought Fox News did a great job. No wonder the Dems want to steer clear. They would have to answer substantive questions. Those deceptive weenies wouldn't want that.

Posted by: Kimj7157 at May 16, 2007 07:07 AM

Duncan all the way! If only he had the name recognition. But in the primary runs push your favorite because it's about getting ideas and stances on the platform even if the candidate doesn't make it.
It's still very very early and Newt or Fred could really stir the pot.

Posted by: botg at May 16, 2007 08:14 PM

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