Subscribe by RSSIt’s about 9:20 pm and I apologize for the abysmal speed of the site. It’s being worked on and should be hammered out permanently in a day or two.
However, the debate has begun and it honestly appears as though all the candidates just look plain tired.
Fred Thompson just went on a tirade against Huckabee and drew a very large applause.
More clips and analysis once it finishes.
Update @ 9:43 pm
Ron Paul taking a bit of a beating over Iran. Romney told him to stop reading Iranian press releases, to which Paul responded “make fun buddy”.
Update @ 12:07am
Here’s a playlist of clips and the Luntz focus group at the end:
As far as debates go, this one was enthralling. Finally candidates were not afraid to point out differences and actually try to change some people’s minds instead of complement each other for an hour.
Fred Thompson did exceptionally well, especially considering his past debates. Romney, McCain, Huckabee all did about average mainly because Thompson did so well. Ron Paul got beat up a bit but made some good points that American cannot afford a lot of the foreign policy we’re engaged in.
All in all, this could be the make-or-break for Thompson and he may have secured a decent showing in South Carolina if he makes enough headlines. We shall see for Thompson on the 19th if he made an inroads in South Carolina.
Here’s a report from My Way:
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) - Republican presidential rivals backed a blend of tax and spending cuts Thursday night to head off an election-year recession they generally agreed is avoidable. “We should reduce taxes on middle-income Americans immediately,” former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said in a debate in the run-up to presidential primaries in Michigan and South Carolina, two states where unemployment exceeds the national average.
“The first thing is not to raise taxes,” said former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. “Cut the marginal tax rate, if anything, and eventually go to a fair tax,” he added, referring to his plan for a national sales tax to replace the income tax.
Arizona Sen. John McCain stressed spending cuts to get the budget deficit under control, although he also said it was important not to let Bush administration-era tax cuts expire. He pledged to “wield the veto pen” and block all pork barrel spending bills that Congress sends him.
While the debate was held in South Carolina, the Michigan primary is next on the campaign calendar, a contest in which Romney, Huckabee and McCain are the principal antagonists. It’s unlikely all of them can survive a defeat there, particularly a third-place finish.
True, Michigan came up about as much as South Carolina did, if not more at some points. The big topic in Michigan is the economy and jobs and that part of the debate seemed to directed more toward that primary coming up shortly on the 15th, four days before South Carolina.
We’ll have the entire video uploaded in a bit, check back later tonight or tomorrow to watch. This one is worth it by far, it was very entertaining. Looking forward to the Democrats on MSNBC coming up on 15th as well.
Update
Here is the entire video:
Video: FOX News Republican Debate from Myrtle Beach, SC
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...Visit the You Decide 2008 Store »
Loading ...
Did I watch the same debate? To be honest I am a Huckabee supporter but I try to stay unbiased and personally I thought McCain and Huckabee were the winners of the debate while Thompson did about as well as he usually does except for the fact that he was surprisingly negative toward Huckabee (not surprising he was negative, just surprising as to the extent). I also thought it was unfair that Huckabee was only officially given 30 seconds to respond to a whole range of attacks brought forth by Thompson. I thought Huckabee did quite well responding to the numerous attacks and slanted questions such as the religious question he received (an obvious trap question such as the one about evolution in the CNN debate previously) which has nothing to do with being Presidential policy or decision making. I think Romney was a loser in that he took it a little too far with that one jab at Ron Paul. Yeah, Paul is everyone’s favorite punching bag but I thought it was uncalled for. I honestly expected better from Foxnews, makes one wonder if the so called focus group was slanted as well. Is it just me or is there something to what I’m saying?
Well I guess it’s an example of how people watch the same thing and get different impressions. However, I’ll agree that Huckabee should have been allotted more time to respond. Hukcbaee was also right to point out that nobody else got religion questions.
Romney did go out on a line jabbing Paul that hard, it seemed snarky but it makes for a much more entertaining debate. I would say that Romney probably thought most mainstream Republicans would want to hear Paul get bashed so he took it a little far.
It just seemed to me that Thompson finally woke up and became meaningful in the debate. The others did well but compared to watching Thompson actually become a factor, I though he was more pertinent in this one.
I was shocked when I saw that focus group. How in the world could they call Fred Thompson the winner? Oh that’s right, he made that statement about the terrorists and virgins. HIllarious Fred, how about we stick to the issues. I was disturbed when they showed the most popular statements during the debate happend when Thompson and Huckabee made those stupid macho comments “you’ll be looking at the gates of hell”… wow that decided it for me right there, that’s my guy… sad and classles.
I’m a big McCain fan but I thought McCain looked very nerveous at the begining of the debate, Rudy was non existent, Romney was a robot as usual.
As for Ron Pual, I was impressed with the guy. I’ve heard alot about the guy but never actually heard him speak. It seemed like they were on him like a starving dog on a Tbone, yet the guy kept coming back time after time. The dude came accross as a very smart guy, to bad he won’t appeal to the mainstream voeters because he didn’t make enough empty threats.
I would honestly give the debate to Paul just based on the fact that he was the only candidate to get reemed all night but kept his cool and came back with great answers.
Yeah its interesting that Ron Paul won the text-in viewer poll for the 4th straight Fox debate, but its never given analysis other than that loudmouth Sean Hannity blasting in denial. And you won’t find the result posted anywhere on the Fox site - in fact they had a McCain poll ready to roll since their viewer poll didn’t bear out a result they liked. If the poll was really bogus, why do they keep doing it and scuttling the result?
It was also amazing to me personally how much material Fox devoted post-debate to de-legitimizing Ron, by putting up graphs and screens of Huckabee and Thompson speaking, showing how “real” Republicans absolutely LOVE this war. Well guess what : I ain’t buying it. Fox is a shill for the war profiteers, and Rupert Murdoch has editorialized all 170+ of his news publications, including Fox, to support this war, and its absolutely imperative that they squelch Ron Paul. I hope the voters come around and realize the only bombs being dropped right now are on the American taxpayer - we’ve been conscripted into a never-ending reconstruction project thats likely to expand.
RON PAUL WAS GREAT ! WHY ARE WE PAYING TO POLICE THE WORLD WHEN WE CANNOT POLICE AMERICA? WHAY ARE WE STRUGGLING WHEN OUR GOVERNMENT SEND TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS TO OTHER COUNTRIES ! WHAT’S GOING ON! WE WERE FOR McCAIN BUT AFTER LISTENING TO RON PAUL< HE SOUNDS LIKE THE MAN TO HELP US
Report Comment
FOX totally manipulated the whole debate to give the other candidates other than RON PAUL the upper hand. I thought Ron Paul did great! He was attacked because everyone is trying to take him down because they are scared of what he has to say — why — cause he speaks the truth. All the other candidates sound the same! they dont back up there answers with facts or what is actually going on.. just a bunch of empty promises.
Did you see that FOCUS GROUP???? Looked like a bunch of PAID actors to me — if not just a bunch of pre-Fred Thompson supporters. What an inaccurate focus group to have just about 95% in favor of the same candidate. No network representatives should have ANY say on who WON the debate, just an opinion about who did well and who did not, cause when they do — stupid people listen and are too lazy to do their own research.
Sean Hannity clearly has no right to deny the text voting poll… that represents a more accurate focus group — people voted on there own time — they werent hand picked up by FOX.
Ron Paul clearly stood out in this debate and I believe he took the lead, but it is obvious that he did not get any recognition from it — he was rarely spoke about after the debate and when he was mentioned it was nothing but bashing.
People are catching on to these network tricks, i just hope its not too late.
Is this the paid actor you’re talking about? I mean, c’mon Fox. The very least you can do is make sure your plants are different between debates.
http://www.roguegovernmen.....sgroup.jpg