GOP Debate: They All Lose (Except Romney… and maybe Bachmann…)

Read Time:6 Minute, 35 Second

The GOP Debate in Florida

GOP hopefuls battle it out—Romney pulls ahead

Romney topped the other GOP candidates in the September 12, 2011, debates. Pawlenty, who ended his run in Iowa, endorses Romney. According to many political commentators, Romney won four out of the four debates held thus far, and is primed to win the GOP New Hampshire vote. He leads with what many call a solid performance and managed to downplay his liabilities on health care, instead focusing on his strengths relating to the jobs and the economy (Corporations are people, too!!!)

GOP all look the same to me

GOP candidates… who trumped who?

Most pundits feel Romney has lead in all four debates—perhaps because he’s now ignoring the hard-right, GOP tea party—many of whom occasionally booed him. He focused his talking points on a broader audience during the CNN broadcasts.

Prior to the debate, Dean Spiliotis, a political science professor at Dartmouth and Saint Anselm colleges, focused on what he called the three critical issues in the GOP debate.

  • Would the debate essentially continue to prove like a Romney vs. Perry match-up? The dynamic hasn’t really changed any. Romney’s doing well… and Perry, he’s going to be one of those candidates who’s going to be fairly divisive. Like it or not, he is the way he is. There’s a certain level of generality. That’s just his style. Some people like that, others are really irritated by it. It’s amazing to me the extent to which the die is cast.
  • Is Michele Bachmann going to be able to do regain her success in Iowa? Bachmann has… kind of hit her ceiling. She had a really nice ride. It wasn’t until about an hour into the debate that she “really let it rip”—about vaccines. It’s an important issue to anybody who has a daughter, but it’s not going to make or break who the nominee is. She was trying real hard to kind of come up with something… trying to get traction.
  • Does it even matter what any of the other five candidates say? I’m happy to have lots of voices in the discussion. It just doesn’t matter how they do. Santorum, Gingrich, Cain&mdashthey’ll never be the nominee.

GOP candidate platforms

Romney, who is now gaining much GOP support, is going for Perry’s jugular on Social Security, with Bachmann and Santorum in the background as cheerleaders. The Massachusetts governor attacked the Texas governor: The term ‘Ponzi scheme is over the top and unnecessary and frightful to many people.

Wolf Blitzer brought up Perry’s executive order requiring Texas residents to have an HPV (Human Papillomavirus) vaccine in 2007. Paul, Bachmann, and Santorum flared. Surprisingly, Bachmann was partially right this time.

I’m a mom of three children, and to have innocent little 12-year-olds being forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just wrong, said Bachmann. There is no word about how she would feel if mandated to give her 20 foster children an HPV shot. Santorum chimed in. There is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. This is big government run amok.

Bachmann claimed a conflict of interest in Perry’s decision because his former chief of staff, Mike Toomey, now runs the pro-Perry SuperPAC “Make Us Great Again,” and was a lobbyist for Merck, which manufactures the HPV vaccine, Gardasil.

Bachman stated, We cannot forget that in the midst of this executive order there was a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate we can’t deny that. What I’m saying is that it’s wrong for a drug company because the governor’s former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company. The drug company gave thousands of dollars in political donations to the governor and this is just flat out wrong. The question is—is it about life or was it about millions of dollars and potentially billions for a drug company?

Oh, yes, and Santorum was offended. He objects that, as a father of seven children the government would tell me—and by an executive order without even going through the process of letting the people have any kind of input. I would expect this from President Obama. I would not expect this from someone who calls themselves a conservative governor.

Although The CDC recommends HVP vaccinations, GOP hopefuls Bachmann and Santorum know far more. They would probably eradicate the agency if they get the chance.

Romney wisely remained neutral. When he did comment on the HPV issue and on the debate in general, he was beautifully even-handed. The governor said although Perry might have gone about the legislation the wrong way, he implied that they shouldn’t be tearing each other down, and that they all had the same goal in common, stating: This president’s a nice guy, but he doesn’t have a clue as to how to get this country working again. (Even if I don’t agree, nicely done, Gov. Romney.)

The only silver lining Perry had in this debate was his willingness to retract his self-created messes on both Social Security and retract his Bernanke is treasonous remark.

GOP candiates think government is too intrusive

Some more “highlights” from the peevish GOPers:

  • A pro-wrestling fan who paid any attention to the debate would probably find themselves familiar with the beginning of the debate: it was more like a pay-per-view event. Wolf Blitzer addressed Romney as “The Businessman” and Paul as “The Libertarian.” Some publications insinuated the GOP debate was a mammoth theatrical production where the candidates were trying to lay the smack down on each other. (That’s usually the case with political debates during the primaries.)
  • Former Utah governor Huntsman began with a Kurt Cobain joke, then continued to vacillate between GOP candidate and the invisible man. He did well in the California GOP debates, but fumbled in Florida with his snarks. When he did appear, he seemed more interested in entertaining the audience rather debating salient points.
  • Gingrich’s one-liners captured audience approval. Although GOP insiders expected him to become a big player, the newt lacks much campaign organization in early states. He had trouble capi­tal­izing on what turned out to be a good night for him in the debates.
  • Bachmann was more vocal in this debate—presumably because she never showed up for the one in California.
  • Santorum and Gingrich engaged in a mutual admiration volley for each others’ work on various issues.
  • Forever GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul who, as Slate notes, said nothing he couldn’t have said in 1971, with the names of some wars changed Some pundits felt he would turn out to be a tea party favorite. Not so. The audience loudly booed the Quasi-GOP candidate Paul on his foreign policy stance. Even Santorum got a shot in at Paul.

Paul:I’m tired of all the militarism we’re involved in and wasting this money. There’s a lot of room to cut on the military, but not on defense.

Santorum retorted, On your Web site on 9/11, you had a blog post that basically blamed the United States for 9/11. On your Web site, yesterday, you said that it was our actions that brought about the actions of 9/11. That is irresponsible. Someone who is running for the president of the United States in the Republican Party should not be parroting what Osama bin Laden said on 9/11. We are not being attacked because of our actions.

That’s as much recap about the latest in a series of GOP debates that space and civility will allow. Here’s hoping the oddsmakers are right.


Mad Mike’s America thanks The Washington Post, the Merrimack Patch, The Los Angeles Times, The Seattle Times, and Slate.


If you watched the GOP debates—or even if you didn’t— have any snarks of your own?

About Post Author

Dorothy Anderson

I want to know what you think and why, especially if we disagree. Civil discourse is free speech: practice daily. Always question your perspective.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

1 Comment
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
12 years ago

No sure who won last night’s debate, but I know who lost. We did.

french nuclear Previous post French nuclear waste site explodes
life sustaining earth like planets discovered madmikesamerica Next post Life sustaining earth like planets discovered
1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x