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Mitt Romney - Romney came out of the debate unscathed. There was a chance for Pawlenty to come after him on healthcare and he balked. While I didn't find Romney particularly engaging in the debate, he did nothing to hurt his front-runner status. In fact, his response to the healthcare question was the best I heard from him so far on the subject. His other answers were textbook and "safe" (except for the constitutional amendment on marriage, which threw me a bit).
Herman Cain was horrible and just completely stumbled on the Muslim purity test question. He is done.
Michele Bachmann did well, but her silly first statement on announcing her presidential candidacy in the middle of answering a question just threw me off. I also didn't find her answers particularly effective, especially on foreign policy.
Newt Gingrich gave the most intellectual answers of the bunch, but they were often off-topic and not particularly "exciting." I don't see him making it much further.
Ron Paul - what else can I say? He is the most consistent of the bunch for sure, but I find nothing about his answers to be "mainstream", as mentioned in another post. I don't think, for example, it's a "mainstream" idea among Americans today that the free market is the best answer to our economic system when, to some degree, de-regulation and unchecked markets contributed to the financial disaster.
Tim Pawlenty - He didn't do enough to get people engaged in him as a candidate. He is quite "boring" to be honest.
Rick Santorum - I still cannot stand the guy and I don't think he did anything last night to help himself (or hurt himself really). I don't see him making it far into the primary season.
I guess you haven't seen Ron Paul in any of these debates, they try to limit him severly because he does attack the other guys and calls out their BS.
Yes. I liked the way he embarrassed Romney with his comment about how to lead the military. Romney admitted he would allow his generals push him around, and Paul said that as a Commander In Chief he would give orders to the generals, not the other way round. I love that guy. Wait until he gets going with the monetary policy discussions.
I guess it took an economic meltdown and the aftermath for people to realize it, but clearly the country is more in line with Paul's kind of thinking than in 2008. Paul has not changed, but finally the country is begining to realize we have been on the wrong path for 40 years.
I actually think that Newt saved himself tonight. Newt plays well to the NH intellectuals. Both him and Paul are willing to speak their mind and discuss things at a level that they deserve to be discussed.
Newt Gingrich is Obama with a different ideology. He's had a series of jobs (Congressman, professor, historian, author, documentarian, analyst, consultant) that show he's an ideas guy, not a doer. I won't vote for him for that reason (and for him being the ultimate Washington insider) but I wouldn't object to him being some type of advisor as long as the other advisors are doers. I don't disagree with everything he says. I just don't think he's ever held a job where he's had to see his ideas through implementation and adjustment/correction. That describes Obama, too, before he became President. Of course they don't have failures in their records. They never held any job where they had to hands-on deal with the problems resulting from their ideas. I'm voting for a governor or a businessman. I just haven't made up my mind which one because I don't think everyone is in yet.
Why shoud they go after each other? Because that is the purpose of the primaries. You think they are all going to get nominated?
Their job is to introduce themselves and spell out their plans to lead the country. It is up to the voters to decide which candidate will get the nomination. These are NOT real debates where the candidates get to question each other. They are ALL running against Obama, not each other.
I tried to watch the debate but everything was 'it's Obama's fault' and no one presented their plans to aid the financial recovery of the US.
One candidate said that jobs have been leaving the country for 20 to 30 years. Five minutes another candidate said that obamacare is one of the reasons for jobs leaving the country. Huh? 30 years ago Obama was, what, in his 20's?
They all said the reason manufacturing jobs are leaving the country is because of 'high taxes'. That is BS. Jobs are leaving for the CHEAP LABOR!!!
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