Republican debate 3

Got in a little late, but will run with a stream of consciousness type thing here.

Gays in the military? All of them pretty much dodged the question, even Ron Paul. I agree with Rudy and Romney in that right now might not be the best time to toy with the rules.

What to do with Bushitler after his term is through? Ask him, first. Note to Tommy Thompson--ex-presidents usually go on the lecture circuit anyway, but I doubt he'll be seen as the pinnacle of ethics and service. The fact that Tancredo's comment about "darkening the door of the Oval office" won some applause says a lot about his prospects for success.

On a Scooter Libby pardon? Duncan Hunter swung it over to the border guards--nice move but he lost a chance to weigh in. The others refused to give Wolf his attorney-like yes or no response, with Rudy talking way too much. Give points to Thompson for bringing up the comparison to Bubba only losing his law license, but he still can't win.

Q&A with the crowd..

War in Iraq question.. Duncan Hunter got first crack (and has the moral authority with his son in the service) but reminded the audience member it was a noble cause.
John McCain just stepped out of the box to make the point Bush has mismanaged the war, but his answer is absolutely correct--we can't just close our eyes and make it go away because it we mess it up more, we'll be going back.

Next Iraq question..
Ron Paul wants to give them an incentive by getting off the streets. Problem is, we've already done that and Baghdad fell into the hands of terrorists and the Shia-based government could control them. He provided no solution, however. Not to be one-upped, Rudy copied Johnny Mac and also stood up but he correctly pointed out the war has been going since the 70s. He got good vibes for essentially calling CNN on their negative reporting.

On Conservation..
Gilmore popped up. But he has no chance. Tancredo held his seat--good move. But he's also got no chance. And I've no idea what either of them said.

Prescription drugs and health care..
Rudy wants to have people "own" their health insurance through tax deductions where people are rewarded, etc, etc. Largely boilerplate. Hunter wanted to federalize the health care. Interesting. Tommy Thompson just popped out of his seat like a jack-in-the box. He's railing and pointing too much, but maybe he'd be interested in some kind of health insurance czar in the next admin.

Romney is talking about getting everyone insured and made the obligatory jab at Hillary Care while wanting personal responsibility. Yeah! This cannot be left out of the equation if one is really conservative.

Moral issue question..
Huckabee vocalized the "celebrating life" bumper sticker but my problem with his point about being concerned more about fetuses but not enough about the kid living under the bridge was fine, but goes against a limited government concept. It's the kind of thing Bush espoused with compassionate conservatism but true compassion can only be achieved by individuals, not through confiscatory taxing.

Ron Paul just said Iran was not direct threat to America, despite the fact we've been attacked by their Hizballah proxy numerous times. Isolationism won't work, Ron.

Why is Mitt Romney airing ads in Espanol?
Good one! He's way too dang slick for me.

Tancredo.. would you advertise as such? No. And no surprise he was most passionate on it, scouring McCain for leaving Clinton's language Exec Order in place. "Muchas gracias" was his reply.. he said Spanish was spoken in Arizona before English. Not true Senator--it was some form of Indian. He got a lot of applause, though.

Why should we expect a victory after 2006 dovetailed with Bush's screw-ups..
McCain's area. Spending and earmarks. Will veto all earmarked bills. Powerful stuff. Rudy wants to establish accountability like in New York City. OK. Brownback wants to win the war on cancer. They are all dodging, except Tom Tan, who questioned Bush's republicanism. Then RonPaul called us an empire and advocated isolationism again. They are all bashing Bush's lack of conservatism, good ploy.

Duncan Hunter answered by talking about the military again. Huckabee said Bush's problem was a lack of communication, can't argue there.

What does it mean to be an American regards immigration?
Tancredo has passion but gives the impression he's got too much then confirmed by saying we need a time-out. Voice quavering. But he's right about pressing buttons for English. I hate that. Huckabee answered well. Rudy jumped through the open door left by Tom Tan and put the puck through the top left corner by going with Honest Abe.

McCain, sharing common goals. Will not erect a fence. Good answer, but we've got to stop the flood somehow. He's not providing anything of substance of how we'll do it, on the contrary--by talking about common goals blah, blah, he's suggesting the back door will be swinging wide for years.

On bringing in moderates like Ahnold..
Hunter .. "No". Oohrah! And he just slapped the big three for being suck-ups to Ted Kennedy. Awesome. Romney's response was unintelligible politico-speak. Rudy went back to the GWoT and McCain did likewise.

End of track.

Post-debate... only a few memorable moments. All in pretty lackadaisical and predictable. McCain won because he was the first one to stand up and walk away from his seat and the others then followed. This is about leadership. But I still like Duncan Hunter for SecDef.

INTERVIEWS

Arianna HuffPo just said McCain won--I agree. It wasn't through a ninth inning grand slam, more like a 2-1 victory using small ball. By the way, McCain just gave a good reply to Anderson Cooper regards the Immigration bill by pointing out that doing nothing is de facto amnesty. The hard-core would surely counter with we should be doing something--rounding them up and deporting them, which is what Romney went with in the debate. Good, but we've let too damn many in for that to work.

In his session with Larry King Romney just mentioned "Oh Brother Where Art Thou", one of my favorite flicks. Dang, I was so wanting to hate him. By the way, Larry is starting to look a bit like Yoda these days.