The evening began with questions about Rick Perry’s ability to fend off attacks on his frontrunner status. Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann both had strong performances as did Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. But it’s still not clear whether Perry’s faltering debating style will hurt him in the polls or give a boost to either Romney or Bachmann.
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The debate is over with a silly question about additions to the White House.
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Perry tries to have it both ways on Afghanistan. Says he’s for bringing the boys home while keeping a presence. This was an opportunity for him to demonstrate a strong command of foreign policy issues. Instead, a weak response. This is not his night.
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Isolationist Huntsman is asked by an Afghan immigrant what he would do to help Afghan women from the Taliban. His answer: you’re on your own. Disgraceful.
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Give credit to the Tampa Tea Party. For the first time, Paul is booed rather than cheered for his disgusting attacks on America.
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Paul off on his leftist rant again about American militarism. It’s ironic that this despicable rhetoric is being heard at a Republican debate. Santorum calls him out for rationalizing 9/11 as being caused by American actions. This is his Santorum’s finest moment.
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Perry’s position on immigration makes sense, especially if the GOP is going to try to appeal to Hispanics. But his defense of his position was weak. He came across as defensive, even laconic.
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Huntsman finally gets into the debate and says Santorum’s charge that the border can’t be secured is treasonous. So much for civility but I guess he needed to do something to get attention. But at least that means Perry isn’t alone in using that term.
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Perry gets his chance to talk about border security. Says it’s the federal government’s responsibility to secure the border. Santorum then bashes him for Texas giving illegals some benefits. Perry gets booed for standing up for treating immigrants fairly. Then Bachmann piles on. She’s fired up now.
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Now we’re back in Bachmann’s wheelhouse on the need to repeal Obamacare. She says 2012 is the election when we’ll decide whether we’ll have socialized medicine. Passionately declares that she’s the one who’s committed to fighting it. This is her finest moment.
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Finally we get back to Romney and health care. Perry scores by remind us that Romney’s plan was the model for Obamacare. Romney is glib in defense but as long as this is the topic, Romney is losing.
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Santorum plays to his right-to-life base claiming that the vaccinations were wrong in principle. I said it last week but it’s still true. If the worst thing you can say about Perry is that he was over-zealous in fighting cancer, that is, as they say in Texas, a dog that won’t hunt.
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Bachmann finally fires at Perry on the vaccination issue and then segues to abortion and Obamacare. That plays to her right-to-life base but Perry fires back by saying he will always err on the side of life. Bachmann then hits him with the charge that it was motivated by donations from a drug company. Perry then replies he can’t be bought for $5,000.
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Perry says he was wrong on his vaccination executive order, but again makes the point about fighting cancer. Then promises to use an executive order to get rid of Obamacare.
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Romney won’t bite on a “fair tax” but promises to get rid of taxes on investment.
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Newt gets laughs and applause for mentioning GE’s tax breaks. He’s right that green tax credits are loopholes too. No, this debate isn’t on MSNBC.
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Romney gives a responsible answer about the Fed and the need for a strong currency. Rightly says that Congress couldn’t be trusted with the responsibility.
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Bachmann’s agnostic about Bernanke treason charge. Perry says that using the Fed for political purposes would be treasonous. Won’t apologize for nasty quip.
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Mention of Perry’s line about Bernanke being tried for treason gets applause. Bachmann rightly notes that the Fed has unlimited power given to it by Congress.
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Uh oh. A question about the Fed. Please Wolf, don’t turn to Ron Paul.
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While Newt, Caine and Huntsman fillibuster, Michele Bachmann is still way behind in face time. It’s got to be killing her.
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Ron Paul’s vendetta against Perry is an interesting sideshow but it doesn’t hurt the Texas governor or help Romney.
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Romney says Obama is jamming quarters into the pay phone. Then says Rick Perry was dealt four aces in running the Texas economy. He’s not short on sound bytes. But the whole discussion about whether Perry deserves credit for job creation in Texas only works to make Perry look good. Point to Perry.
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Bachmann gets applause for bragging about opposing raising the debt ceiling. Then tells us that it would be “easy” to turn around the economy by cutting spending and entitlements. The Tea Party loves it. But it reminds us how tenuous her grasp of economics is.
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Perry’s not a good debater but he’s got soundbytes that win applause: “People are tired of spending money we don’t have for programs we don’t want.”
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While Perry speaks, Romney looks at him and smiles. Bachmann looks away.
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Perry goes after Obama and the second stimulus.
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At the first commercial break. Romney is clearly sounding like the best debater. Bachmann coming across as well as she did in New Hampshire, albeit with less face time. Perry just okay. The question is, does he have to do any better than that?
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Bachmann goes back to basics, opposing government promising people free stuff. That’s what fired up the base about her in the first place.
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Perry promises not to repeal the Medicare prescription benefits for seniors.
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Santorum invokes Paul Ryan on Medicare and drug benefits but claims he thought of it all first.
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Rick Santorum is still bragging about winning elections in Pennsylvania. I guess his landslide loss in 2006 was a mulligan.
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Jon Huntsman says Romney’s line could have been written by Kurt Cobain. How many there got it? He’s still trying to play the moderate. Wrong crowd. Wrong party.
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Perry gets applause for saying that government has made mistakes. And then is later applauded for saying that Romney is trying to scare seniors. Romney is making a strong attack but Perry is shrugging it off. Then fires back with a quote from Romney’s book. Slight edge to Romney in the argument but Perry isn’t shaken.
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Romney opens fire on Pery on Social Security quoting his book on it being unconstitutional.
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Rick Perry sticks to his guns on social security while guaranteeing that seniors will get their money.
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Michele Bachmann was given the first opportunity to attack Perry on Social Security. Instead she sticks to the Tea Party line about the need for entitlement reform.
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Rick Perry’s line about making Washington inconsequential in our lives is still a perfect slogan for Republicans.
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It’s pretty clear that Michele Bachmann is determined to exploit her home court advantage with the Tea Party. Let’s see if she can hold it through the evening.
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Let’s hope a badly sung anthem is the low point of the debate.
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The way CNN has partnered with the Tea Party makes at least one thing clear: the group isn’t the band of lunatics that the liberal press and their Democratic allies have been claiming.
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The opening to the debate tonight made it seem as if the network knows they are competing with football tonight.
