Tag Archives: Rick Santorum

Thursday GOP debates: who “won”?

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GOP Debate, Fox, 1-28-20161. Small Table Debate:

The small table debate, held first, was moderated by Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum and consisted of Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Jim Gilmore.

There is only one clear winner: Carly Fiorina.  Period.  The three others simply need to go away as rapidly as possible.  I think that may be a self-fulfilling prophecy within, say, two weeks max.  None of them are going to pull Iowa.

2. Main Debate:

In the second debate, Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly moderated, and the big table cast included Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, Rand Paul and Jim Gilmore.  Who?

As expected, Gilmore was entirely unimpressive.  One must also question his sanity as, at this late stage, he somehow thinks he has a chance at becoming the GOP nominee for president.

Kasich was acidic and unlikeable.  Carson was likeable but vastly over his pate.  Paul is going nowhere.  His fans are even more annoying than he is.  All three need to go away.

Christie was the healing assembler he’s tended to be in the past.  I could live with Christie.  “The days of the Clintons in public housing are over.”  “That is why you need the Washinton-to-English converter.”

The focus this time around revolved around the nascent sorting-out of Cruz and Rubio.  Both made points.  Both were confronted by Megyn Kelly with prior statements in conflict with their current positions.  Both stammered and both came through. Conventional wisdom is that Rubio is ascending.  I go along with that.

Jeb Bush did well overall; certainly better than previous debates.  But Bush is still who he is, a squish.  I will not put another Bush in the White House as I will never put another Clinton in the White House.

I am biased.  I just like Cruz.  He’s extremely smart and even pisses off Republicans because he is single-minded.  Yes, Cruz got bopped, Cruz got testy, Cruz got booed.  Cruz had his opportunity to shine more, but didn’t quite pull that off.  Call me wacky.  I am biased.

My top three descend in this order:

  1. Cruz
  2. Rubio
  3. Christie

Statistics from a current Drudge Report poll post-debate.

Drudge Report GOP PollCruz #2, Rubio #3.

Finally, did Trump leaving the debate affect the results?  In terms of the debaters themselves, not so much.  Ted Cruz got the insults out of the way early.  However, for Fox News, they now state Thursday’s FNC debate was the second highest rated telecast in the channel’s history with 12.5 million viewers.  Conventional wisdom said this wouldn’t occur.  Though not present, the moderators and debaters still mentioned him.  And people say the “entertainment” factor of Trump was missed.

But one thing most definitely: Trump would not have cared for the way Megyn Kelly would have gone after him, if her tenacity with Rubio and Cruz was any indicator.  Megyn Kelly can indeed shred.

Did Trump pull off his tactic?  In a word, yes.  I don’t think he “lost” anything by not attending.  But I still enjoyed the debate because it was substantial and topic-driven for the most part.

BZ

 

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Thursday GOP debates: First Debate

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Donald Trump NOT In Thursday 1-28-2016 Debates1. Small Table Debate:

The small table debate, held first, was moderated by Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum and consisted of Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Jim Gilmore.

There is only one clear winner: Carly Fiorina.  Period.  The three others simply need to go away as rapidly as possible.  I think that may be a self-fulfilling prophecy within, say, two weeks max.  None of them are going to pull Iowa.

More after the main debate.

BZ

 

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Thursday GOP debate: no Trump

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Donald Trump NOT In Thursday 1-28-2016 DebatesDonald Trump has stated he will not appear at Thursday’s Fox News GOP debate due to perceived slights by Megyn Kelly.

This stems from the first Republican debate on August 6th of last year, co-moderated by Megyn Kelly.

She asked Trump at that time, “One of the things people love about you is you speak your mind and you don’t use a politician’s filter.  However, that is not without its downside, in particular when it comes to women.  You have called women you don’t like ‘fat pigs,’ ‘dogs,’ ‘slobs’ and ‘disgusting animals.’  Your Twitter account.  .  .”

Trump: “Only Rosie O’Donnell.”

Kelly: “No it wasn’t.  Your Twitter account.  .  .for the record, it was well beyond Rosie O’Donnell.

Trump: “Yes, I’m sure it was.”

Kelly: “Your Twitter account has several disparaging comments about women’s looks.  You once told a contestant on Celebrity Apprentice it would be a pretty picture to see her on her knees.  Does that sound to you like the temperament of a man we should elect as president?  And how will you answer the charge with Hillary Clinton who is likely to be the Democratic nominee that you are part of the war on women?”

Mr Trump believes that question evidenced bias on the part of Megyn Kelly.  He said that Roger Ailes (Chairman and CEO of Fox News) should have Megyn Kelly banned from Thursday’s debate staff.

In my opinion, Trump has made a serious mistake by showing his skirt, so to speak.  If Megyn Kelly offended him then and offends him during the debate, then he needs to stand there and defend himself, and to dish back as he sees fit.

It’s what he does and what people expect to see.

The retort “if he can’t handle Kelly then how would he handle Putin” is trite but has a semblance of accuracy.  For history, at one point early in her McCain/VP campaign I was in support of Sarah Palin.  However, once she resigned as Alaska governor in 2009, I knew she couldn’t take the heat.  At least she did the right thing and got out of the kitchen.  Since then I’ve known that Palin is a poseur.  And no, she never said she could see Russia from her house.

With that in mind, Trump takes the easy or cowardly way out.  Yes, you can readily reply that Trump is a bit in Hillary’s position where any further exposure can be deleterious to his campaign.  But that would be wrong, because Trump absolutely thrives in a clashing and adversarial environment.  He enjoys it.  What he doesn’t enjoy is being faced with his own statements.

If Trump made various statements he should either own them or refute them.

But stepping away from a debate because he doesn’t like someone who asked him a tough question smacks of “taking his toys and going home.”

The Iowa caucus is next Monday, February 1st.  (Go here to see how the Iowa caucuses work.)

Because of that I’ll be watching the debates anyway, as I want to see how Cruz, Rubio and Christie conduct themselves tonight, and how the interplay goes between them.

Bret Baier, Chris Wallace and Megyn Kelly will moderate the Thursday debate, whose big table cast will include Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Rand Paul.

The small table debate, held first, will be moderated by Bill Hemmer and Martha MacCallum and will consist of Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, and Jim Gilmore.  I’ll believe that Jim Gilmore thingie when I see it.

I’ll be watching the debates and then posting about them later tonight.

BZ

 

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Tuesday night’s GOP debate

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Hugh Hewitt & Donald TrumpCNN hosted the final Republican debate of 2015, Tuesday, December 15th.  Once again Hugh Hewitt was one of the questioners, and Wolf Blitzer was the moderator.

GOP Debate 12-15-2015First Debate:

Consisting of George Pataki, Rick Santorum, Lindsay Graham and Mike Huckabee, Huckabee appeared the most relaxed and easily spoken, whilst Graham was the most contentious but most emotive and passionate of the bunch, making some points as well.  In my mind, Graham was the winner though I certainly did not agree on all of his points.  The bottom line is this: the GOP could do without all of those persons clotting the ranks.  They should all move on.  They are yesterday’s news.

Second Debate:

The “prime” debate consisted of John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and Ron Paul.

Rand Paul was obnoxious, Trump neither won nor lost and, to my mind, it was a toss-up between Cruz and Rubio.  Though, I must say, Christie did in fact score some serious points.

Ben Carson was massively unimpressive; a manikin could have been substituted with equal efficacy.  Carson isn’t ready for much of anything political.  Yes, no argument, Carson is the quintessential nice and good man.  He is not a politician and not ready for a position like this at all.  I should submit he’d best stick with his day job and, at most, local politics.

Kasich was also obnoxious.  He always has been.  There is a certain “something” about Kasich that simply rubs me the wrong way.

Fiorina spoke well but no one seems interested in listening to her. Her campaign appears to be, however, run by morons who have no idea how to market her.

Bush tried massively to be what he is not: overbearing, pushy, contentious — and it doesn’t play well with him because that’s not his nature.  Most everyone can tell it’s a FALSE persona, apparently shoved onto him by his handlers.  It’s fallacious and duplicitous and even 5-year-olds can see through it.  Bush is done, stick a fork in him.  He’s not the future of the GOP.  This proves Bush will do anything to win the presidency.  Things that are so incredibly removed from his comfort factor.

We see you, Jeb.  We know who you are and who you aren’t.

Since writing this a few hours ago, I have some further input.

Upon further consideration, Cruz and Rubio disappoint.

It is Christie who, frankly, appears more presidential and not so navel-gazing.

BZ

 

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