Debate Analysis

There are a number of issues upon which I want to touch base on, now that my first week of law school is done and I can devote some of my brain to politics again.

The first thing that is worth touching on is the debate held on Wednesday night on Fox News. I found the debate to be like most of the others, so controlled and time-limited that it is impossible to get into great detail about what these people believe. We are in dire need of a narrowing of the field. Also the absence of Fred Thompson was both good and bad for him; I will go into why later.

Here are my feelings on what each candidate did in this debate and where they should go from here:

Rudy – Stood pretty strong, didn’t help or hurt himself, showed he can be a frontrunner and just sit in cruse control. He made a concerted effort to show that he has the relevant executive experience by stating NYC is the 3rd biggest government in the country, and talking about bringing crime down as dramatically as he did.

Romney – Took some blows, and I don’t think he completely recovered from them. He may have the lead in Iowa and New Hampshire at the moment but the reason he trails nationally came out in this debate. The stinging rebuke from the Deputy Sheriff about the comment about his children and their service v. volunteering for him was very hard to come back from.

McCain – He looked much better in this debate, he was forceful while not seeming too forceful. The only bad point was his rebuke of Romney when he said the surge is working, he seemed to be sniping at Romney instead of debating him. His point was fair but his tone was off, not as bad as the over-practiced lines of the past but still. He seems to have come out of his summer slump swinging, but I think that if he doesn’t get back what he has lost, he may be done for good.

Huckabee – In my humble opinion, the winner of the evening. He is using his momentum out of his second place finish in the Ames Straw Poll well, and his rebuke of Ron Paul was almost perfectly worded while having the exact right tone. He may not be my Presidential pick because of his organization and his national reach, but I think he is the obvious choice for Vice President at this time, and after a stint in that office, would be an almost perfect GOP Presidential nominee.

Brownback, Hunter, and Tancredo – Their time is almost over, they are essentially issue candidates right now, with no real chance of winning. Brownback is the social conservative issue candidate, Hunter and Tancredo are there for border rights and strong national defense in terms of issues. They have served their purpose, and should drop out either in the next few months, or right after Iowa.

Ron Paul – Destroyed what credibility he had with the Republican Party with his ranting during this debate. I was waiting for him to yell “Get off my lawn!” to the crowd. Has probably the most devoted fan base, and will probably be the Libertarian Party’s Presidential candidate, but shows why he has no place in mainstream American politics.


Now onto Fred Thompson, he was mocked a bit at the beginning of the debate, but to the national audience it helped because they were all talking about him, not about the differences between them. His announcement on the Tonight Show was very good, he looked a bit nervous at the beginning but after some banter with Jay he was ready to announce and articulate himself to America. He obviously had the biggest audience of the night, and not just wonks like me who watched the Fox debate. He announced to probably the widest audience of any of the candidates, because he did so in the traditional time when candidates announce, and in the mot public venue. He had the best line when he said that to the American people politicians are like dentists, as in they only pay attention to them when they have to. It is my opinion that Rudy is leading the national polls because of pure name ID, and Romney is leading in Iowa and New Hampshire for the same reason, because Romney dumped millions into those states. The time has come for policies to start to change these numbers, so no matter how far back they started, or how soon the primaries are, the real game is about to begin.

I will get to other things shortly.