Ok for starters this isn’t my constituency, not even close. For all its faults I believe the federal government, or any government indeed, gets it right sometimes. Sadly Tea Party Republicans just do not agree.
Two things that devalued this event. 1) Wolf Blitzer; shouty, verbose, lacks facial expressions, doesn’t ad-lib or tell jokes well. 2) interaction via twitter. Typical question flashed up on screen (but not asked) “which is your favourite amendment to the bill of rights”, never good to encourage this.
Here is my candidate summary:
Rick Perry (the Chin)
Didn’t seem comfortable talking in full sentences. His ploy on jobs doesn’t work; simply because most of those are second jobs or low wage, also as Ron Paul pointed out 750k of them were government jobs. Got a shellacking about calling social security a Ponzi scheme, saying Fed Chair should be tried for treason and forcing girls in Texas to take a vaccination (oopps). The last of these caused him the most pain of the evening, as he apologised for the process but not the decision.
Mitt Romney (The Mormon)
Was on the offensive from the start, realising his front runner status has gone, he attacked Perry from all angles. Sadly, despite landing several punches it wasn’t his crowd either, and so he didn’t get much appreciation from an audience that only wanted Obama bashing.
Michelle Bachmann (Sound bite queen)
Delivered several big sound bites and red meat for the crowd. Wanted to rise above the other candidates, by not engaging with them, but instead focusing her ire on Obama. Declined attacks on Perry and Romney, increasing my beliefs around her withdrawing soon.
Jon Huntsman (Worked for the bad guy)
On the fringes in terms of the stage and also the Republican field. Pivoted to his Wall Street Journal approved jobs plan, once too often.
Ron Paul (Wants to get rid of the government completely)
Like the dotty old uncle at xmas, he has some kooky ideas, but you invite him anyways as he would have no-where else to go.
However he got an interesting round of applause for getting America out of foreign wars; interesting because it was 9/12 and because the armed forces command respect in Americana
Rick Santorum (Courage)
Courage, I had courage, I did a courageous thing, I fought the law and the law won. Bit tough to chew when you consider he has been part of the Washington establishment that he so easily derides.
Herman Cain (Pizza mogul)
What an earth is this man still doing here? CEO of Godfathers Pizza, talked about letting business fix problems- question is what would he do as POTUS?
Newt Gingrich (stupid name, stupid face)
Fell off my chair because he said something insightful. Talked about saving $500m from government waste, and $150m from fraud in medicare. Although tied himself in knots when talking about taxes, a one point suggesting more tax was needed.
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