Republican Debate

Today is the 2nd Republican Debate of the political season and will be moderated by ABC's George Stephanopoulos. The Republican debates are more jumbled than the Democratic ones because they have more candidates so hopefully the candidates get desperate for airtime and start throwing haymakers at each other.

Anyhow its off to the debate!!

3:35PM Apparently there is only 9 Republican candidates left in the field as Jim Gilmore has dropped out of the field. I am sure the 90 Gilmore supporters are devastated.

3:37PM The debate opens up with George reading off the poll ratings of the candidates. Duncan Hunter checks in at 1%.

338PM Mitt Romney and Sam Brownback open up the debate by debating whether or not Romney is actually pro life. Its pretty said for Brownback that his only issue in this election is that Romney isn't pro-life enough, plus he has an eery resemblance to John Mark Karr.

342PM After attacking Brownback for his position, Romney then turns around says he thinks its wrong for candidates to speak about the other candidates and refuses to attack Giuliani. I think Romney just set the record for fastest flip-flop in a debate. He checked in at just under 4 minutes before the flip flop.

344PM Giuliani gives his stance on Abortion and basically says that he think its a choice a women and her doctor should make. He gets a labored response from the crowd who seems to be thinking "we are Republicans but he makes a good point"

345PM Ron Paul gets massive applause for saying that the Iraq War is flawed and we should come home. You would think as the only Republican candidate who is adamantly against the war he would be polling at higher than 4%. I guess the fact that he looks like Micky Mouse really hurts him.

350PM John Mccain gets a question that basically asks him "If Iraq completely falls apart will you support the surge" His response "of course". McCain is a smart guy but I just don't see how anyone can say they will support the war effort no matter what happens. That is like saying I support Mike Bellotti even if he goes 1-10. At some point you have to acknowledge reality.

357PM Tom Tancredo goes beserk by telling the moderator that "i flew a long way for this debate and wonder if it was worth it" he then uses his time to tell the crowd that the US needs to change the rules of engagement in order to win in Iraq. I am not really sure what he means by that statement, but its scary to think about.

359PM Tommy Thompson thinks the applause for Tancredo was for him and begins his response by saying "thank you" before akwardly pausing for 5 seconds.

401PM Romney makes a big blunder in my opinion by interrupting Ron Paul's anti-Iraq speech by saying "did you forget about 9-11". Pretty much every rational person knows Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and by appearing to link the two Romney could lose lots of support among moderates.

403PM Huckabee says that we should either give America the health plan that Congress has, or give Congress the health care plan that America has. Instead of switching health care plans I think we should just go out and spray paint all these candidates mansions and fill them with crack whores.

405pM Hunter opens his speech on health care by saying "lets get back to freedom". I didn't know we had gone away from it.

410PM Romney says that Castro is one of the world worst tyrants. Someone needs to tell Romney that the world has changed since 1965. Plus Castro is on IV bags right now, hard to lump him in with Kim Jong Ill.

414PM Duncan Hunter says that we need Pakistan's help to root out Al-Qaeda in Pakistan because they are hiding out in mountains that are 16,000 feet high, and are at to high an elevation for our army. I think we should just give the local Sherpa's rocket launchers and tell them happy hunting.

417PM Huckabee answers a question with some weird phrase that is reminiscent of the character the Sphinx from Mystery Men. "If you find what you are looking for, you will be looking for something you found"

421PM ABC has now shown Romney's wife twice now and she isn't even hot. I wish they would show Giuliani's mistress.

423PM Tancredo says he doesn't care about educating our children or insuring the people in America but only cares about protecting them. Tancredo is like the guy at the bar who is already way drunk and knows he will be hungover regardless of what he does so he just keeps on drinking.

426PM The moderator is a former Clinton advisor and its obvious that he hates all the candidates. He keeps harping on minor differences between the candidates and the debate has turned into a snipfest instead of focusing on the large issues.

433 McCain starts talking about the Vice Presidential office and says that he has be considered for the post several times. With McCain's age and his desire to hold a post higher than the senate he would seem to be an ideal vice president for both Giuliani and Romney given his experience and appeal to some democrats.

437PM Apparently there is something called a fair tax that would replace all income taxes and capital gains taxes with a 23% sales tax. First off this would absolutely fuck poor people. Secondly, the rationale behind this new tax system is to prevent bad people (drug dealers, prostitutes) from earning tax free income. I hate to break it the Republicans but i don't think people become drug dealers because of the tax advantages.

443PM In a question that asks the candidates what their biggest mistake was, Giuliani is the only one who tells the truth by saying he will only answer the question if he can answer it in a confessional booth.

449 PM In answering a question about what he would restore to the White House, Duncan Hunter looks like he is posing for a Kidsports picture. "Hands behind your back!"

454 On a related note, Duncan Hunter looks exactly like a corrupt politician should look like.

457PM the debate ends as no candidate really stood out. I guess if I had to pick someone it would be Giuliani just because he seems to be the most rational of all the candidates.