UPDATE: Full video here. UPDATE 2: Is it just me, or was the subject of Iran conspicuously absent last night?
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My random thoughts as I watch:
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It seems Fox News is running a far-less scattered debate than the first one: Down-the-line questions focusing on the distinctions between each candidate.
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Iraq: Tommy completely dodged the question on how he could force the democratically-elected government to adopt his proposals, instead going into his preprogrammed speech; Hunter is an impressive candidate, but his shot at the others’ lack of military experience was a low blow; Brownback’s “togetherness” angle was lame.
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Good lines: McCain’s “I never met a drunken sailor with the imagination of the spenders in Congress,” and Huckabee’s “spending like John Edwards at a beauty salon.”
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“Which programs would you cut?” Tommy: Incoherent.
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Uncle Ron Paul: he’d get us all killed, but I can’t really fault his sweeping approach to cutting bureaucracy.
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Tancredo: plenty of the Republicans we hear have themselves moved to expand government. Correct.
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Rudy: “First of all, ‘Rudy McRomney’ wouldn’t be a bad ticket.” OK, not a bad line. Still doesn’t change the lameness of his (also-preprogrammed) list of talking points.
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McCain: “Bipartisanship…blah blah blah…”
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Romney: Good line about Massachusettes being “so blue you can’t tell if it’s black.”
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I’d have to hear his answer again (got distracted by another blog), but did Tommy try to play both ends of the road on embryonic stem cells?
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Huckabee: “We value one life as we value all,” as opposed to Islamofascist “culture of death.” Bravo, Governor. Props to Brownback as well, for his answer on rape abortions.
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Mitt didn’t really answer the abortion question directly. Come on, you can do better. Mitt on immigration: liked the sentiment, but more specific, please.
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McCain: in rebuttal to Romney, ignored the critique of his legislation & instead played the flip-flop card. Smarmy.
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Giuliani on immigration: does this man even know how to speak in anything other than soundbytes?
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Ron Paul talking up conservatism’s non-interventionist history we’re supposed to return to. Guess what, Ron? Something happened. It’s called world war. And now 9/11 is our fault?
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Credit where credit is due: Rudy blasting Ron Paul for his 9/11 line. Bravo, Mayor. But asking for another 30 seconds seemed just a bit much.
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Romney: great answer about preventing terroism, Gitmo & keeping terrorists from US lawyers, but I’d like to know what he thinks the difference between “enhanced interrogation” and “torture” is.
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Duncan Hunter: Simply “get the information.” I agree.
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My reaction to McCain on torture: you think terrorists are gonna be nicer to American captives if we’re nicer to jihadis prisoners? What planet are you on?
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Tancredo: If a nuke goes off in America, I’m lookin’ for Jack Bauer. Indeed.
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Best performances: Huckabee & Hunter. Mitt comes in third (not as strong as the first time around), and everyone else has generally been kinda “eh,” save the highlights I’ve noted. Having all these guys on together is kind of an interesting contrast, but come on: next time, just have Giuliani, McCain & Romney on. That’s the only real choice we have.
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Conservative Standards 