Mark Wagner - Yet Another Blog

After sleeping off the frustration and anger cause by watching the GOP CNN/YouTube debate because of its obvious bias, I thought I’d give my personal breakdown of last nights events.

Let me start off by saying that regardless if you like Ron Paul or you hate Ron Paul, you cannot deny that CNN intentionally stacked the cards up against Ron Paul in an attempt (a poor one at that) to make Ron Paul look bad. Here is a breakdown of the debate last night and the time alloted to the candidates.

Total Talk Time:
Rudy Giuliani - 16:45
Mitt Romney - 13:39
John McCain - 11:39
Fred Thompson - 10:26
Mike Huckabee - 9:37
Ron Paul - 7:21
Duncan Hunter - 4:46
Tom Tancredo - 3:50

The questions he was given were absolutely ridiculous. One implied that he believes in the “conspiracy theory” for the NAFTA super highway which Paul was easily able to defend. Another question stated that “since he won’t win the nomination” will he run as a 3rd party candidate. Imagine if they gave him fair and honest questions. He would have blown that debate out of the water if people were actually able to hear some his positions.

Below is a video giving you a better idea about how CNN went after Ron Paul. Unless you want to hear Rudy say 9/11 a bunch of times, or McCain saying “my friends” and bring up how he stopped unnecessary funding for a bridge 10 times, or Ritt and Rudy fighting over who is less of a liberal, here is a video highlighting only Ron Paul.

Rudy Giuliani: The impression that I got during the whole debate was that CNN picked questions that allowed him to defend himself against his opponents. It was less of a debate for Giuliani and more of a time for him to defend himself over several issues. Several times during his response, he seemed nervous. His voice was a little shaky. He really didn’t say anything that we haven’t heard before. His argument with Mitt caused some booing from the audience.

Mitt Romney: I almost feel embarrassed for him. He dodged questions left and right saying that he won’t answer until he has talked to advisers. Even on the questions regarding water-boarding as being torture he wasn’t able to say if he thought it was or wasn’t torture. When he was asked about gay and lesbians in the military, again he dodged the question saying that he will talk to his military council. He is also the guy who said he’d check with his lawyers before going to war with another country. He’s flip-flopped on almost every single issue over the last 10 years. I know people have the right to change their opinion, but it seems like he is changing his opinion to cater to the republican base. So, why do people like him again?

John McCain: Nothing new here. I’ll sum up McCain’s performance with a paraphrased snippet from the debate.

My friends, we didn’t lose in Vietnam, we will win in Iraq because the surge is working. If we follow Ron Paul’s foreign policy we’ll have another Hitler since it was our isolationism that caused Hitler to become powerful. My friends, we will win. My friends. My friends. My friends.

He obviously doesn’t know his WWII history. Oh well, not like he has a chance anyway. Ron Paul was interviewed after the debate and talked about his exchange with McCain. He stated how McCain has based his whole platform and career on this war and because of that he has dug his heels into the ground and will do everything he can to make it sound like we have to win or Al-Qaeda will call us names and follow us home. When he loses in New Hampshire, he will drop out. When 70%+ of Americans want us out of Iraq, you cannot win with a pro-war position.

Fred Thompson: He didn’t do well last night, nor did he do poorly. He is just his normal slow-talking self with a twist of humor. He is probably one of the most boring guys on stage. His campaign has been failing since he came into the race late. Not much more I can say about him regarding last night. While I don’t like his foreign policy views, he is more of a small government conservative than most on that stage.

Mike Huckabee: Out of all the candiates, Mike probably was given some of the easiest questions. What would Jesus do? How is that a question? While I don’t like Huckabee, what I do like is that he is sincere. But like all the debates before, each one of his answers seemed scripted. “Let me tell you what.” “Let’s he straight to the point.” He talks in this soft tone and mainly campaigns on his anti-abortion stance. He is doing much better in the past though and has a chance at taking Iowa. However he is probably one of the more liberal candiates on the stage (in terms of spending and taxes). He seems like a good guy, but not Presidential material in the slightest.

Ron Paul: Ron had a rougher night than usual. He isn’t the best public speaker in general and stumbled on a few words and ideas. Overall, despite the questions that were intended to make him look bad, he was able to get through those pretty well. He got his fair share of boos and cheers. He defended himself well against McCain’s “attack” regarding pulling out of Iraq. Also I loved how he looked at McCain when he was going on about WWII and isolationism. It allowed Ron Paul to defend his position of non-interventionism.

I also loved how McCain used his normal “we went to change Washington, and Washington changed us” line and how Ron Paul said “Washington didn’t change me.” Loved it.

Duncan Hunter: Not much to say about Duncan. He seems sincere, but short of dealing with immigrants and building up a large military, he doesn’t seem to offer anything more.

Tom Tancredo: A one position candidate doesn’t interest me.