Redstate

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"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

I agree he won't do well in the polls in New Hampshire, but that wasn't his audience tonight. His audience was South Carolina and those voters who may have to pick a new candidate it Mitt goes down in defeat on Tuesday.

here
scroll down to comment at 7:39 on alternative energy, and take care you don't spill liquid on your keyboard.

Now there's no more oak oppression,
For they passed a noble law,
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet, axe, and saw.

I know he hasn't committed a lot to the race, but I figured he'd be pushing fairly hard here. He's almost as well-known a commodity as Romney and McCain here and his general reticence was unexpected.

I agree that the format works very well, both for the candidates and to keep the audience interest.

Will it affect the vote? Very little. Thompson might have shaken a few traditional conservatives loose from Romney had he been less low key. Huckabee did his bit quite well, but NH isn't particularly looking for it. McCain had a sharper edge than generally, but I'm not sure if that will help or not. Romney seemed either comfortable or smug, depending on what you feel about him. Most voters who have made up their mind are likely to feel that they haven't made a mistake up to this point.

(I was last post on open thread so I pasted- hope nobody is offended but I wanted to chime in.)

I avoided the internet before the PT broadcast.

Now that we are almost through, I would say this.

I think Fred had the best answers, but when he gets cut off, he does not fight back in enough. They are all hitting Romney hard, rightfully so.

If Fred was not in, because hard to hide my bias, I always like McCain in these debates. He's such a great American.

I'm not a Rudy fan, but I've never thought he looked bad in a debate, he was fine tonight, but it really seemed as if he is suddenly much less significant. Might just be through my eyes.

Huckabee had his weakest debate, he has to stop with the preachor attitude. I'm starting to feel talked down on.

Fred has hands down the best policies, he's stronger on health care than he showed tonight. He's great on eliminating waste on healthcare.

This is a good debate... everyone should be like this.

C'mon Fred, interupt back!

Romney sounds like a whiny little b word. He's getting absolutely clobbered, and Romney fans, I don't want that to happen. I wanted to see Huckabee get demolished tonight.

Fred calling Romney on the disagreement with Bush issue.

Holy Crap is Romney getting massacred. I'm waiting for Don Corleone to call the undertaker to do his favor.

When Romney commented in the last debate to Fred "takes one to know one" about him becoming a good actor, he officially lost me from every considering him unless I had to. If Romney's best comeback is "takes one to know one" he needs to go back where he belongs, the elementary school playground. We need real men running this country and should it not be Fred hands down the toughese SOB in this race, I pray its McCain. Rudy is 3rd, don't agree with much, but he's a tough fellow Italian Catholic.

One other thing... Huckabee about a 100 mp gallon car. I'm certainly not against, just remember, once we start making car companies make smaller cars, we totally kill the saftey of our vehicles.

Volunteer for Fred- Email me- Donate below!

McCain didn't offer much in substance on what he would do. All I really remember were jabs at Romney and defending his position on immigration (not a winning move for me). Oh, and global warming. What?!?!

Rudy sometimes has trouble with "principles". He listed off goals not principles. In fact I was relieved when Huck and Fred finally answered the President's question. Everyone else was kind of empty on that. Rudy's immigration stand sounded like he agreed with McCain (again not a winning point with me).

Huck, great soundbites. A couple of jabs. You want to overhaul the healthcare industry?!? Preventive care?!? Don't you think that sounds more like a cultural change? Or at least something that the states should do instead of the feds? Ouch. Lost me there.

Ron Paul.

Mitt, you look like the second coming of GW. Don't get me wrong, I love GW. But you sound like compassionate conservatism when you talk about giving free stuff to those who "can't afford" it. I don't think you'll break it, but I don't think you'll make it the best it could be. Nice job taking the brunt of the attacks.

Fred, you crack me the heck up. I have to admit I'm learning to like you more and more. When you sat forward in your chair to answer a question I couldn't help but be reminded of my highschool days sitting bored in class until the teacher finally called on me. You answered everything tonight with the frankness a Rush baby like me can really enjoy. Simple answers like "No." to stupid questions on whether we should punish big corporations just warms my heart to know someone out there has some sense. Excellent answers on immigration, healthcare and principles.

With the caveat that I'm on death's door with flu and was flipping back and forth between the debate, the playoff football, and the coverage of the Ipswich/Portsmouth (metric football) match on Fox Soccer Channel...

You're right Adam, this was the best debate of the bunch - kudos to Gibson for keeping control. The fact that there were "only" 6 of them on stage helped a lot, methinks.

Both McCain and Romney looked tired - of each other and just tired - and probably didn't change any minds in any case.

It's pretty clear everyone in the race sees this as a golden opportunity to try to kick Romney to the curb for good - it may work, but if it doesn't they may regret having not finished Mitt off when he was "down".

Fred was as good as I've ever seen and even the ABC folks thought his performance tonight was (quoting now) "Super".

Ron Paul could crack 10% again, but I thought he was beyond bad tonight - but that could just be the DayQuil talking.

Were Rudy and Huck even there? I might have missed any of their bigger moments when I flipped back to watch Ipswich getting shafted with a ludicrous send-off in the 25th minute...

Sorry, that was the NyQuil talking.

Finally, and this is slightly off topic but I've been meaning to say this for weeks - given that every other campaign has been screaming "FLIP FLOP!!! FLIP FLOP!!! FLIP FLOP!!! FLIP FLOP!!!" about Romney to anyone and everyone who will listen since about March it seems a little freaking late in the game to be whining continually about "The Negative Tone Of The Romney Campaign"™ - but again, that just might be the NyQuil talking.

Lastly, can we just have the damn vote already?

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

He stayed silent throughout the lengthy discussion on immigration until Charlie Gibson called him on it. Then he proceeded to sound like his stance on immigration was similar to everyone's but McCain's.

No one called him on his stance supporting using our tax dollars to fund scholarships for children of illegal immigrants, because to do otherwise would be to punish them for their parents' mistake.

He got to pretend he held conservative views on immigration.

McCain knows he is in the lead in NH. He didn't try to take over the debate, just even the score with Romney a bit. That line about Romney being able "to spend his entire fortune on attack adds" and it not making a difference cracked me up.

McCain's biggest advantage in the debate, and probably in the race in general, is the tremendous esteem in which the other candidates (Romney excluded) hold him in. I think nearly every other candidate praised McCain for either his foresight on the winning strategy in Iraq or some other tough stand he's taken.

McCain remains one of the biggest stars in the our party.

-- Jonathan

I thought Charles Gibson did a professional job.

Interesting, as much as we rip the networks, he was much better than anyone on the cable stations.

Volunteer for Fred- Email me- Donate below!

I think Hillary got destroyed... her performance was simply lousy. I think she needed to impress coming off her 3rd place finish in Iowa, and she didn't do it. Obama did really well, which is unfortunate, since he will be a lot tougher to beat in the general.

Unfortunately i missed the Republicans but tuned in time for the Democrats.
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Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself. - Milton Friedman

I loved the format. I hate the 2 minutes to respond, 30 seconds to butt into an issue format.

Now on to who did well...
Obviously I am a McCainiac, I think he did well, but I'm not going to rank him because I'm pretty biased.

I'd say Fred was probably the best of the rest, followed by Rudy. Next was Huckabee. I think Romney came across like an upset child who had his candy stolen from him. Ron Paul is the crazy nut who was fun to listen to but of course i don't take him too seriously.

That kind of dominating victory would just destroy Romney.

I think he and Fred compliment each other well, but I'm worried what will happen if he doesn't win NH. Just like Fred and SC.

Volunteer for Fred- Email me- Donate below!

On Iraq, he was showing that they would have been wrong to pull out troops.

Funny, Obama and Richardson kept trying to shut him up... Yes, they didn't want the truth out.

Volunteer for Fred- Email me- Donate below!

Before tonight I was trying to decide between Hunter and Romney. I had gained respect for McCain also.

BUT: McCain totally lost me. It was apparent why he cannot get along with others and we do not need that in the world we are living in today.

Romney's attacks have been issue based, which is alright in my book, but McCain's were personal and below the belt and his incessant laughing and rudeness were unbecoming an American hero, which we all consider him. I will not vote for McCain now or in November. He lied about his immigration plan and what it would do.

Huckabee started the nastiness by turning to Romney and attacking him. And, then he quoted from our founding documents about all being equal. I would like to ask him if that includes Mormons? It scares me to death to think about him in the White House. I will not vote for him now or in November.

Ron Paul did not even belong on the same stage with the others.

Guiliani also was in the personal attack mode per Romney. It made Romney look so much better. He was a gentleman and was a little wordy, but he needed to get his points across, which he did. He was his weakest on the health care issues, though he ended that on a high note by saying it should be free enterprise doing it.

Thompson was the best I have ever seen him. He is good on the issues, but he is stodgy and does not come across well. He laughed and chuckled at Ron Paul a couple times, which was not necessary. Paul killed himself and should have just been ignored by the other candidates.

That leaves Romney. I will now pretty enthusiastically support him, as there is no better candidate and he has stood up and been a man. Answered the hard questions, the attacks, the rudeness of the other candidates, and has admitted he made mistakes in the past and changed his position.

Good Lord, I would hate to have a person as President like McCain or Huckabee who think they know everything and like McCain who does not think, since he was 17, that he has ever needed to change any of his positions. A person who will not or cannot change with new data, scares me to death.

Romney is a big man for standing up and saying he has made mistakes. God bless him, and actually, God bless all of our candidates, Republican and Democrat. Whoever wins will need our prayers and the Lord's help to get us through the road ahead.

I thought he did an excellent job ... particularly after the TERRIBLE moderators in other debates. I thought he asked quality questions, and let the candidates do the talking. Good for him. I was really shocked ... I expected much less of ABC News.

I thought Rudy was very good. He was informed and articulate. Overall, a strong performance.

Fred was a little quiet, but did very well in my opinion. I really like this guy, and I think he would be a very good president or attorney general. I just wish he loved to campaign ... it is the only thing missing.

I thought that Mitt did a decent job, given that he has irritated all of the other candidates and got hit time and again. I could swallow my pride and vote for this guy in the general, but I don't see him defeating any of the Dems. Well, maybe Richardson. I still think his immigration policy is extremely cynical, and designed to catch voters who really care about it, only to jettison them if he ever got in office.

McCain did a good job on his policy answers. He is in a tough spot on immigration because the base wants to hear what it wants to hear, even if it is divorced from reality. I wasn't a fan of his zingers at Romney, but Romney deserves everything he gets. I wish we could see more of the Townhall McCain at the debates ... his townhalls are absolutely superb. Overall, it was a wash for him, so he comes out just fine. I doubt many minds were changed.

Ron Paul was Ron Paul. Love it or hate it. I'm not buying, but he deserved to be heard.

MOlsen6
Proud supporter of McCain '00 and McCain '08

I don't watch TV, but last night I watched the debate live feed on my laptop. This is the FIRST time I've seen the candidates in action. I found Romney as phony, and Paul as annoying, as many of you have been describing them. I was surprised (negatively) by Giuliani. I very much doubt that many people in flyover country (where I live) will vote for a man who speaks from the side of his mouth with a thick NY accent. Sorry, all you Fredheads, I really wanted to like Thompson, but found him highly uninspiring in "person."

Interesting comments, I too thought that Fred did the best overall. I would have liked it very much if he had just a little more fire.

Initially, I had thought and I mean early on before too many had announced their candidacy that I would be in support of Giuliani, but I have since decided that like McCain, Huckabee, and Romney there is a serious problem for all of these candidates for me, because of their views on immigration. McCain showed the same meanness I have seen with him before, and the rest just seemed to be too busy trying to do in Romney than to share their ideas. And Paul is just not even in the same league with the rest of these men. He really needs to be a third Party candidate.

Fred is the only one that seems to be in agreement with my point of view. Every other single one of them had the whole idea wrong, like it would be ok somehow for these law breakers to pay some sort of fines and get a pass and go to the end of the line. From my perspective, with the exception of Fred, they all hemhawed around. They should be more afraid of losing my vote, than future Hispanic votes. Illegal aliens are just exactly that. Fred is correct when he says closing the borders and no sanctuary cities, no fines and short cuts to citizenship, stringent enforcement of current laws will begin the process of attrition.

Amnesty is exactly what all the illegals got with the first immigration bill and I really don’t care if Reagan was President or not. We need for this not to happen again, look at the result twenty years later, county hospitals across this great nation are in financial crisis as a result of treating illegal aliens, our jails are filled with illegals, and several states offer instate tuition, while giving out of state rates to neighboring states US citizens higher tuitions. This is crazy. That bill was supposed to stop the practices of hiring illegals, and did not. So we have anarchy.

Immigration is the one true Achilles heel of the Democratic Party, and I can not say enough times how important it is that Republicans get it right.

After watching the Democrats I think that they all need to polish up their style. None of these guys exhibited any charisma.