Republican Debate 6/05/07

So the Republicans hashed it out last night... the spin rooms are mixed on the winner. Some say Huckabee emerged as the best "second tier".. some say it was McCain's night (he did, after all, start the "standing answer" trend in the second half- likely in order to feel closer and more personal with his "friends")... but last night made it more clear than ever for me: Rudy is the man.

Rudy knew his stuff through and through. He read the 400 page immigration bill and appeared to know it better that McCain- a co-sponsor. He seemed to have memorized the Democratic debate and refuted a lot of their points clearly. He took the same presidential stance in this debate that I felt Hilary did on Sunday night.

Rudy's finest moments:

1. His explanation of health care. He summed it all up by saying: "It's your health, you should own your health insurance." It is this free-market/hands-off government approach of his to not only this issue but so many others that makes me want him to be our next President.

2. When asked what to do if General Petraeus comes back in September with a verdict about how the war is going, Rudy made the crucial point that he bets the press will react very differently if the General says it's going well instead of saying we are failing...

I just hope the abortion issue doesn't get in the way of his getting the nomination. I see eye to eye with him SO clearly on this issue... it is NOT the government's right to decide for us.

A TURNING POINT/CHANGE OF HEART:

After a debate with my own husband last night, I have changed my mind on the topic of English as the official language. At first I was outraged at Tancredo's comments on this last night.. and while, all in all, the man is still a nut case, he did have a point. English is our first language. This is not something to be embarrassed about. We are not saying we should speak no other language... for me, the more the merrier. However, everyone who lives here needs to have a mastery of English. This IS the glue that holds us all together. For the Federal government to be required to print everything in two languages is saying that we don't care if immigrants learn English or not and we'll cater to the fact they don't. As Ian pointed out to me last night, this should be an issue decided upon at the State level using their own funding based on the needs of their respective domains. The states should CHOSE... the Federal government should not MANDATE.

However, let it be known I am nothing CLOSE to a Tancredo fan. The absolute LOWEST point of the debate was when Tancredo chose to use it as a forum to air his own dirty laundry/personal shame that he obviously holds about the President and Karl Rove. Blasting George W. Bush, our current President, by stating that if Tancredo were the Commander in Chief he would never hire Bush or let him into the White House was immature and completely disrespectful. He has all the right in the world to feel that way in private, but we are still one nation serving under one man that we elected as President- and we need to remain that united front- ESPECIALLY if he's running for office.


MAJOR THEMES OF THE DEBATE:
1. Washington is an ineffective mess. Many echoed this last night... different from the Dems who, although hate the current administration, seem to feel increased government involvement (when they're in charge) solves everything.

2. Dems are underestimating the power of our enemies.. Iran especially. I liked Huckabee's quote here about the Taliban- explaining that while Dems see them as a tiny enemy, it's "not the dog in the fight it is the fight in the dog". In this week's Economist, Tony Blair writes a solid and concise essay entitled, "What I've Learned" where he directly speaks to this issue as well- a good read. Take a moment... especially #3. http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9257593


3. Our entrance into Iraq was about Saddam and no one regrets it. There were more than a few regrets about how things have been handled after Saddam's fall. I'm glad Hilary's comment of it being "Bush's War" was repeatedly slammed.

4. Immigration. I do agree with Romney and Kristen.. the Z Visa should be temporary. I still do not feel like we have a bill that is cut and dry and fair- and nor do I think anyone has laid out such a solution.

Candidate shout-outs:

Huckabee: He's that great dad that lives next door. Former ordained minister. Should have a solid role in the administration.. just not President.

Brownback: Way too conservative for me. And the cancer issue.. I understand he had it and it touches him personally... but I think that eliminating the fear around cancer is far from Bush's biggest mistake or what I want the President to be concerned with. Government needs to butt out of our health- it is ours.

McCain: Kristen I completely agree with your comments... hilarious and my thoughts exactly. Ian says his arm/elbow thing is like a fighting/war time motion. I think it makes him look like the Tin Man.

Romney: The NY Times, despite being the liberal rag that it is, had an interesting article on Romney on their front page the other day. He made his riches by commandeering a private equity firm- which the article suggests did NOT give him the skill set that comes from running a business/managing people.. but one that revolves around schmoozing/"sales"ing. Even former colleagues at his firm attested that he wasn't the world's greatest businessman... but just a great salesman. I don't think this helps his case... he already comes off a little untrustworthy... a little too polished... supported by his "flipping" on issues at election times. We need a President we can really trust, through and through. That being said, I think he might be great in rebuilding our international alliances... VP VP?




The humorous stuff:


The buzzing sound of the lightening was just awful... and at times, the camera men/women seemed drunk. Best technical difficulty moment: the loud lightening 'zaps' once Rudy attempted to respond to the question about the criticisms of the Roman Catholic bishop on Giuliani's abortion stance. He laughed, was chill and shrugged it all off.

I really think there were more freaks/unknowns on the stage last night than Sunday night. Hoping the next round of debates (late July on CNN) is more streamlined.

Saucier audience... more clapping.

Tommy Thomson's hair puzzles me... I mirror Dad's blog comments. I will give him credit for the solid point re: if he would pardon Libby/found his punishment extreme- We barely punished Clinton for perjury, and yet Libby, who in many eyes did not actually commit the crime, is sentenced to 30 months in prison.


Links to note:

1. Brownback kept talking about the new bill he's putting forth laying out the plan for a three-state solution in Iraq. http://www.brownback.com/s/NewsRoom/PressReleases/BrownbackOffersAmericanLeadershipandSolutions/tabid/367/Default.aspx
Looking forward to seeing if this is feasible.

2. For all that were wondering, here's a casual the definition of a 'neo con'... a term Ron Paul repeatedly slathered about... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoconservatism

Question for all of you.... if Rudy gets nominated... will Romney or Huckabee be a better V.P?

Read on... blog on... tell us all what you think.

The Democratic Debate- 6/3/07

Yes, I am starting a political blog. For any of you who didn’t get to see the Democratic debate in its entirety last night, I have summed up the pertinent moments below.

Please, please opine, correct me, set me straight… I plan on keeping this up until the elections.
Opening thoughts:

Kucinich and Gravel are LUNATICS. They are, as I wrote mom last night, the Sanjayas of the Democratic primaries.

Bill Richardson, despite his BOAT LOAD of credentials, is seriously nothing but a Humpty-Dumpty with a dark toupee unless he learns how to SPEAK. Nothing he said was cohesive.. he was unable to get any solid point across. This is sad, because based on the man’s extensive international relationships and experiences, he has a lot to say. He is way too liberal… way too impractical. When asked what he would do in the first 100 days he starts rambling about education (after wrongly stating that no one had talked about it- not true at all)…

Hands down, Hilary and Obama blow everyone else away. They are the only two who I believe truly know what they are talking about.. and thus, I understood everything they had to say. Neither one rambled, went on bizarre tangents or repeatedly skated around questions.

Every other candidate, including Edwards, was so filled with double speak that it was so difficult to ascertain 1) what they were trying to say 2) what they believe in 3) If they even really got it.

However, Edwards was aggressive this time around… you can tell he was clearly there to try to gain in the polls and try to push down Hilary and Obama. Interesting, however, that Obama made no attempts to push Hilary down… she has been gaining on him in the polls of late.

Everything about this debate clearly framed out the top three- if not the top two. The seating/standing arrangements… the times that Hil, Ob and JE spoke.. Gravel probably was addressed 1/5 of the amount of times the others were.

Anything directed to Dodd (to quote my father- “A blowhard”- I love it), Kucinich, the raving idiot Gravel was just in sympathy/to make sure they’re not left out.

THEORY: Hilary asks Biden to be her VP. I have to admit, I thought the man was pretty rational last night. Biden, although he needs to reign in his emotions, knows his stuff and made SENSE frequently when he spoke. I don’t think a Hill/Obama ticket is feasible. Hil and Biden seemed to have a clear respect for each other- and were throwing subtle compliments back and forth. I think I picked up on a vibe... also, he would help her in some senses gain some of the conservative vote.

Ian felt Biden was playing the victim card much of the time… I didn’t see that.

On the issues:

IRAQ:
This obviously dominated.
Biden emerged as the best for me here… he was the only one up there that voted to continue funding the troops. The man makes sense.
J.E. tried to slam Hil and Obama here for not speaking or in his words, “leading” on this issue- even though they voted “correctly” in his words by not supporting spending. Because they didn’t speak out publicly ahead of their vote and “slinked” quietly up to cast their vote, JE tried to crush them for this. This led up to Obama’s shining moment as he pointed out that JE was “4.5 years late in leading on the issue” as Obama has been against the war from the beginning.
If I could opine… enough of the “well you voted this way” crap. I personally don’t care if they voted for the war or not at this point. I don’t care if they apologize for voting for it… I think they did the right thing by doing so.
One of the worst comments: Hilary- calling the Iraq war “George Bush’s war”. FALSE. This is OUR war. We’re all in it. We have to end it the smartest way possible.

IMMIGRATION:
Again, Biden made SENSE. There are estimated to be 14mm illegal immigrants here in the US. Let’s be practical, he said, we can not just cart all 14 million out of the US and make them stand in line at the border- this would cost Billions of millions of dollars and CRUSH our economy. RATIONAL. He likes the bill… says we weed out the criminals and then make the others EARN the right to stay here by learning English, paying back taxes, etc. I’m in support of this. Call it amnesty, call it what you will… we have to be practical.
Richardson- based on his being a self proclaimed “border governor” he should WIPE UP on this issue…. Instead, he stinks. He started this crap about not separating families (not trying to be insensitive- but that shouldn’t be the base of his platform on the issue) and could not actually answer whether he thought it was amnesty or not… ANSWER THE QUESTIONS. It looks ten times worse NOT to answer than to say the answer you know people don’t want to hear.
Interesting fact I learned from Hilary: Regarding making English the “official” language vs the “national” language. It is currently the national language… however, if we ever made it the “official” language, this means that we could never print ballots in any other language, the govm’t wouldn’t pay for translators at hospitals, etc…. essentially everything would be in English. I fully support NOT making this the “official” language and actually do agree with HRC.

HEALTHCARE:
People have to start admitting that they need to raise taxes for this to happen. Hilary is still afraid to say it. All candidates have plans out there… JE thinks Obama’s isn’t universal…
Interesting/Awful: 46mm people do not have healthcare and 50mm people are under insured… this has to be fixed.
It should NOT be fixed by repealing the Bush tax cuts for those who make more than $250K year. What enraged me MOST about the Democrats last night was their whole “steal from the rich and give to the poor/Robin Hood” attitudes… it is seriously CRIMINAL. This viewpoint and way of taxing gives the poor ZERO incentive to ever be rich… to ever work hard to get ahead… why should they when the Democrats want to REWARD them for their lot in life and punish those who have WORKED HARD and make $$. I know there are exceptions to this… but it’s hard to not take this issue personally…
We need a FLAT TAX. NOTHING else is fair.
Kucinich embarrassed himself by talking about a not for profit healthcare system… get off the stage.

Hilary was very presidential here… she made the point that essentially all the candidates have the same healthcare plan… but what is missing is the political FORCE to actually make changes.
However,… she tried it again by attacking all “hypothetical” questions… whining to the big bad Wolf Blitzer that any of the ‘hypothetical’ questions shouldn’t be answered because it would have to depend on the situation. This, I disagree with. Your entire campaign has to be filled with hypotheticals… that is how leaders are PREPARED and SOLID… they think of every hypothetical situation and have an ACTION plan… she was obviously trying to skirt the real issues in certain cases… basically any question that she didn’t want to answer/thought would put her in a bad place was a “hypothetical” that shouldn’t be answered…

Closing comment:
WORST question of the night: If you were President, what role would you give Bill Clinton in your administration? WHY is that a question?? Why does that matter? It was silly.. stupid… and embarrassing to see everyone kissing Bill’s cheating butt.

Repubs hash it out tomorrow night… can’t wait.