I was out and about during last night’s debates so here’s a roundup of takes from the blogosphere and beyond. You can watch both the Democratic and Republican debates courtesy of the New York Times if you missed them too.
Right Wing News
Ron Paul (Loser): Sounded horrendous, as always, on foreign policy and perhaps more surprisingly, couldn’t even come across well on illegal immigration, where he probably has the best record of anyone on the stage. There wasn’t a single point during the whole night where I’d genuinely say he gave a good answer.
Michelle Malkin
Gibson follows up with a question on possibility of nuke attack on American soil. Scary thought: John Edwards as president the day after a nuke attack on American soil.
Power Line
Romney: I thought Romney was the clear winner, most of all in demeanor and general impact. I’ve been critical of Mitt’s television communication skills in the past, but last night he was Presidential and effective. A viewer who knew nothing about the status of the race would have assumed, I think, that Romney was the front-runner and perhaps the candidate with the most stature. Headlines suggest that the other candidates were ganging up on Romney. I think that is overblown; it happened on only a couple of occasions. On those occasions, I thought Romney came across as the candidate who is trying to rise above pettiness and focus on policy. McCain’s anger toward Romney backfired, I thought. On a number of issues–health care and energy, and even national defense–Romney showed impressive command.
Hugh Hewitt
John McCain seems incapable of not making politics personal and bitter. He also seems unwilling to take responsibility for the immigration fiasco, saying that “the people lost faith in government,” when in fact they overwhelmingly rejected his plan with his name on it. Thus McCain worked himself into a doubly negative corner: an off-putting defensiveness manifesting itself in bitter snideness while refusing to deal with the overwhelming unpopularity of his plan among Republicans.
Dan Riehl
Several media pundits felt multiple attacks on Mitt Romney in last night’s debate were very effective. The Politico’s Jonathan Martin was particularly vocal, forcefully carrying his personal observations over onto Fox News. The edited video below contradicts that interpretation by displaying real time measurements of live viewer reactions to attacks on Romney by both McCain and Huckabee and Romney’s response.
Mary Katharine Ham
McCain: “You can spend your entire fortune on those attack ads, but that still won’t make it true.” Press room: “Oooooh!” Mitt claims he was misquoted by the AP. “That happens from time to time.” McCain: “When you choose different positions from time to time, you’ll get misquoted.” Press room: “Oooooooooooooh!”
Patterico’s Pontifications
John McCain just claimed — again! — that he has never supported amnesty. And he cites Joementum’s recent endorsement of that falsehood as authority for that statement. Gibson is too clueless to confront him with the quote that proves him wrong.
Outside the Beltway
“Change” was the theme of both of last night’s presidential debates in New Hampshire. On the Republican side, it gave John McCain the line of the evening with his rejoinder to Mitt Romney, “We disagree on a lot of issues, but I agree you are the candidate of change.”
Pejman Yousefzadeh
Barack Obama didn’t make any serious mistakes, which means that he won the debate. John Edwards was his usual populist-with-a-smile self; one wonders whether it has finally dawned on him that his candidacy is going nowhere. Hillary Clinton went on about “making change” so much that I was tempted to ask if she could break a $20. Bill Richardson got off a good line about being in hostage negotiations that were more congenial but it was clear from the beginning that he was there just to run for Vice President. He should have just given copies of his resume to Clinton and Obama and then he should have left the stage.
Sister Toldjah
This is the second time in three months that the public has gotten a glimpse into how Hillary reacts when her veneer cracks. Would that they understand that the alternatives to Hillary on the Dem side - Obama and Edwards - are no better and, frankly, have no business trying to lead this country, and via extension the rest of the free world, at a time when it needs continued strength and determination in the face of a vicious enemy, rather than hollow promises about “hope” and “change.”
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January 6th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
New Hampshire Debates Roundup…
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