Okay, some random thoughts from watching most of the CNN/YouTube debate tonight:Rudy Giuliani: Starting to have more problems. He may have hit a ceiling among voters who won't get beyond his pro-choice, socially liberal positions (at least he has the conviction to stick to these instead of pandering to the right wing). But as he goes along and has to face the issues from his personal life, his responses will get more brittle and angry and his support will bleed away.
Mike Huckabee: Very charming and folksy, and I'm not surprised to read that he's rising quickly in the polls. He also seems to be a legitimately decent guy with a talent for relatively straight talk and a good sense of humor. Too bad he doesn't believe in evolution and is generally on the wrong side of every substantive issue, but I'd have a hamburger with him.Duncan Hunter: Why is he still around? He's just trying to avoid embarrassment at this point and waiting for an excuse to drop out.
John McCain: I kind of feel sorry for the guy. He's had a long and honorable career serving his country, got smeared by Bush and Rove in 2000, and his face is lumpy. If you put a gun to my head and made me vote for a Republican I'd probably choose him because I think he's probably the most authentically principled of the bunch, and I have a lot of respect for his steadfast stand against torture. But his positions are increasingly unpopular with his party and he doesn't have a lot longer to go.
Ron Paul: The zealot. Like Ross Perot or Ralph Nader he's fun to listen to for the sake of outrage and catharsis, but he has no business pretending to be a viable candidate for leader of the free world. He sounded borderline-insane when he was given a question about the New World Order. The kids seem to like him.
Mitt Romney: This man seems to have no core convictions beyond the unshakeable certainty of his own self-importance. He's an empty suit who will apparently say anything to please any audience, as was made clear again from his statement from a decade ago that he looked forward to the day when gays could serve openly in the military, but "that was a different time." His total misunderstanding of John Edwards' "two Americas" theme and his refusal to agree that waterboarding is illegal under the Geneva Convention were frustrating as well.Tom Tancredo: Didn't get a lot of time, which is no great loss.
Fred Thompson: Lacked energy and looked like he would rather be somewhere else. I expect him to drop out pretty early in January so that he can start collecting residuals from Law & Order reruns again.
For the record, my favorite candidate currently is John Edwards, but I'll vote for any of the four leading Democrats.
10 comments:
mike huckabee has the support of the nature boy ric flair. woo hoo.....
maybe they had a hamburger together ??? republicans eat hamburgers ??? ;)
ron paul...borderline insane ??
would that be any worse than what we have now ?????
and hey it's about time someone did it for the kids !!!! ;)
Bush is arrogant, lazy, callous, and unimaginative, but he's not crazy.
Huckabee and Paul were quite amusing on Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me, along with Dems like Obama and Elizabeth Edwards (but not John). I probably shouldn't be basing my views on candidates based on appearances (or associated appearances) on WWDTM, but hey. Oh yeah, and I don't care for Hillary at all, I'm just not a big fan of an oligarchy. Right now, I like Obama because he seems to do the things I wish candidates would do, like admit they're not infallible.
Thanks for that report, Jeff. Not only did you spare me having to watch the debate, but you managed to distill each Republican candidate far more efficiently than I've seen any of the rabid political bloggers do. Maybe the fact that you're not a zealot has something to do with it.
I could never vote Republican - at least as long as I'm making less than $50,000 a year - but if the past is any indication, Huckabee has a good shot at winning the nomination. A lot of people still want a president they can have a beer with. Ugh.
Not that you asked me, but I support Clinton, Obama and Richardson in that order, and could have told you six months ago who I'm going to vote for November 4, 2008. Good stuff, Jeff. More political posts in the future, please.
Jeff,
Nice work here. I'm somewhat of a fan of Ron Paul and by the way I'm no kid. And I would argue that Bush's arrogance has made him a bit crazy. How do you explain Harriet Miers?
I'll admit it gets a bit dicey when he starts to talk about the elimination of the IRS, but it is refreshing to hear someone honor the constitution. He seems to have simplified politics a bit and that's something that has interested me, but I can't really see the guy being our next President.
I too feel bad for McCain and am very surprised that he is running again as a Republican after the beating he took from the party in 2000.
I wonder if we will ever see the emergence of a strong third party in my lifetime.
President Huckabee. How silly does that sound? Will there be I Heart Huckabee stickers?
Seriously, as much as I love movies, this political angle is right up your alley.
You managed to be reasonable even about the other side. I especially liked what you said about Giuliani and Huckabee and agree.
You do got to love far left liberals who comment on the other side. Always funny to read. then again this is a guy who said he'd vote for Edwards. So apparently he is far lefty moonbat wacko.
Well, 'this guy' owns this blog, and if you're going to post here I would politely ask you to actually provide some substance and not just throw around insults. Trolls are not wanted here.
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