Thursday, January 10, 2008
Don't Call It a Comeback - The South Carolina Debate
"This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party and its future. On the one hand you have the Reagan Revolution ... on the other hand you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us ... liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies."
I'm not sure if I've witnessed such a clear-cut debate result since the Obama/Keyes debates of 2004.
As the Fox News focus group showed, Fred Thompson was the runaway winner of tonight's FoxNews GOP debate. If I had to rank all of the candidates, I would probably say:
1) Fred Thompson
2) Mike Huckabee
3) John McCain
4) Mitt Romney
5) Rudy Giuliani
6) Ron Paul
The only reason that I knocked McCain down from #2 to #3 was his horrid performance at the end of the debate where he bungled his answers on immigration reform. McCain still did more than Mike Huckabee, whom Fred Thompson labeled as the chairman of the "hate America first crowd."
I gave Huckabee second, mostly because I doubt that most voters would care to look at his record, leaving his lies about raising taxes and the like unchallenged. Giuliani is also good at openly lying about his record at debates, and tonight was no exception.
It's a bit of a shame that Duncan Hunter wasn't included. I heard Duncan Hunter speaking on Tom Sullivan's radio show this afternoon, and Hunter was quite impressive. Hunter's knowledge of military issues certainly would serve him well in an executive appointment, perhaps as a Secretary of Defense. He's certainly more of a conservative than Mike Huckabee - by far.
The big question is if Fred changed enough minds in the Palmetto State to spark the momentum he needs to win South Carolina next Saturday.
Labels: 2008 GOP Presidential Primary
Permalink posted by Rob Huddleston @ 11:26 PM 
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Sean -
Lord no! Even while conceding that Alan Keyes is one of the best orators of his generation, he was destroyed in those debates by Obama. There may have been a number of factors in play - Keyes carpetbagging his way in, being bullied into running, etc. - but those were whitewash wins for Obama.
Cheers,
Rob
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Lord no! Even while conceding that Alan Keyes is one of the best orators of his generation, he was destroyed in those debates by Obama. There may have been a number of factors in play - Keyes carpetbagging his way in, being bullied into running, etc. - but those were whitewash wins for Obama.
Cheers,
Rob
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