Best line of the night: "The federal government is spending more money than John Edwards in a beauty shop". Governor Huckabee
The debate started with Emcee Brian Wilson of Fox News coming out onto the stage in Koger Center to warm up the audience and get us ready for the candidates about to enter the stage. We marveled at Brian's dark green shirt, matching tie and tan suit, which seemed like a throw back to the disco era. After the panelists were ensconced in their chairs, the debate director and camera crew signaled us to begin clapping for the candidates just like we were a game show audience. One could not help but imagine this is the political version of, well American Idol, but with no phone voting at the end of the show.
Overall, the debate questions and format seemed superior to the MSNBC's first televised debate where the underlying theme appeared to be making Chris Mathews look good at the expense of the candidates. All the candidates made it clear that Ronald Reagan remains the gold standard in terms of describing how they would act and what they would do if president. It is also clear that a debate format featuring ten candidates does not test the mettle of the candidates nor give the viewers enough of a feel for any of the candidates.
The general consensus of many of the debate watchers afterward seemed to be that Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee helped themselves the most, while Jim Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, Sam Brownback and Ron Paul lost ground. John McCain, Mitt Romney and Duncan Hunter had solid performances and Tom Tancredo's line on, "I'm looking for Jack Bauer at that time", in explaining what he would do if we were under attack and were agonizing over using waterboarding on detainees, was a close second to Governor Huckabee's line on John Edwards.
Ron Paul's statement inferring that America was somehow responsible for 911 through our own actions and interventions in the middle east cost him and was the only significant gaff of the night. Rudy Giuliani led the rebuttal and demanded Ron Paul withdraw his comment. Ron Paul tried to clarify what he meant, but the damage was done.
More from South Carolina tomorrow.
Randy Pullen
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