Best show in town
Who cares about the Hollywood writer's strike when there's sparkling entertainment available like the CNN-YouTube Republican Debate?
They were all up on stage in Florida last night--former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, former Sen. Fred Thompson, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Congressman Ron Paul, Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Sen. John McCain, Congressman Duncan Hunter, and Congressman Tom Tancredo--fighting to be the candidate to lose to Hillary Clinton or whichever Democrat wins the nomination. The questions were sent in by average folks across the country and definitely outside the Beltway.
You just never knew what was coming. My favorite moment was when Giuliani was asked if he believes every word in "this Bible" (it was a King James Version) to be literally true. As a Catholic, he's going to say no, and he did, but then Huckabee, an ordained Baptist minister, jumped in and said how it's more important to focus on the big stuff in the Bible. He started into the "Thou shalts" and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see if he would say, "Thou shalt not commit adultery." He didn't, but probably made his point anyway, especially on a day when Giuliani was trying to explain away spending New York City taxpayer dollars to bring his security detachment along when he went to see his mistress, Judith Nathan, on Long Island. And then tried to hide the expenditures. Only French presidents can get away with that.
There was little respect for the sainted President Reagan's 11th commandment about not speaking ill of fellow Republicans.
Giuliani and Romney clashed early on over immigration. Romney accused Giuliani of operating New York as a so-called "sanctuary city" for illegal immigrants when he was mayor. Giuliani shot back that Romney had allowed six "sanctuary cities" in Massachusetts and a "sanctuary mansion," meaning he had employed illegal aliens at the Governor's mansion. Romney retorted that you don't demand to see someone's papers just because they're "speaking in a funny accent." Thompson ran an ad attacking Romney for flip-flopping on abortion and Huckabee for pushing for tax increases as governor of Arkansas. At least Huckabee can be glad Thompson didn't bring up the furniture Big Mike allegedly tried to "steal" from his own governor's mansion, another issue kicking around.
Ron Paul, an OB-GYN, and probably the wackiest major candidate to come along in a generation, even more than Ross Perot in 1992, managed to mention nutritional supplements at least once. Asked if he believes that sinister forces are pushing for a union of Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, Paul gave a dodgy answer but allowed as how he does believe there is a plan for a "NAFTA superhighway" from Mexico through the U.S. to Canada. Like Perot, Paul says enough attractive things--he is the only Republican calling for immediate withdrawal from Iraq--to keep attention away from what he says about nutritional supplements, evil U.N. agencies, and various other non-mainstream issues. The president of Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, from which Paul graduated, was probably praying he wouldn't mention that.
On the scary side, Fred Thompson said he wants to substitute individual retirement accounts for Social Security, only Ron Paul gave anything close to a defense of woman's right to choose an abortion, and none of the candidates would allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. A retired former Special Forces general who is now openly gay posed the question, and was also in the audience at the debate. On the good side, Romney, after much uncomfortable stammering, condemned the Confederate battle flag as a "divisive symbol." McCain gave an outright condemnation of waterboarding as torture, which other candidates, notably Romney, were not willing to do.