It seemed, from what I saw of it, a bad night for both Bachmann and Perry. Bachmann was unrelenting and unpleasant — like commercials in the back seat of a taxi that you can’t turn off. Perry looked both slick and uncertain — a bad combo.
Romney, by contrast, was relaxed and real (how weird was that!). I still don’t see how he slips the millstone of Romneycare off his neck. His justification — right for Massachusetts, wrong for America — has parallels in the past: the 21st Amendment allows dry and wet states, and the Constitution, until the 13th Amendment, allowed slave and free states. Many politicians defended these arrangements as necessary acknowledgments of faits accomplis, but it’s hard to sound good staking out such a position on new ground.
Cain and Santorum were friendly animals in an old Disney movie. It is inconceivable to imagine them in the White House. The wicked idiots in the audience were tireless in their cheers — one of the field markings of their idiocy.
Romney was "Real" and the Tea Partiers in the audience were "wicked idiots"?
LOL
Newsflash to Brookhiser: This is not 2007 anymore. The country and the GOP has changed. For the better imho.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseyou mean we've become the kind of country where a mob squeals for an uninsured person to die?
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuseyou mean like when your fellow Democrats squeal with joy whenever a candidate expresses support for abortions or when a labor leader promises to "take those sons-of b*tches 'out'" ?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFreedom is worthy of a cheer or three.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI don't know if the audience was pro-death or just pro-personal responsibility. The hypothetical was about a person with a good job who just didn't want to pay for insurance. It was nice to hear a politician not say we have to pay any price and bear any burden to protect everyone from their own bad choices.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr. Brookhiser: I've been a big fan of yours for a long time, but it seems to me this is the second time I've read a sneering post from you with reference to some folks on the right about whom you seem to hold a very low opinion.
I probably would have overlooked your calling Herman Caine and Rick Santorum cartoon animals (cute though that may imply they are - and really, they are NOT that cute); but describing the audience as wicked idiots seems a little over the top.
And it's not clear from your post who or what they were cheering. I know those "idiots" as you call them booed Ron Paul, who no doubt deserved it.
So, you are both insulting and obscure. At least with Richard Trumka he makes himself plain.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRon Paul deserved to be booed for telling the truth. It never ceases to amaze me how many so called conservatives have never heard or don't know what blow back is.
“On no other foreign policy issue since the Cold War’s end has the truth been so easy to establish on the basis of hard facts but so hard for Americans to see … that Muslim hatred is motivated by U.S. interventionism more than any other factor… Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home.”-----Michael Scheuer. Just the guy the CIA put in charge of fighting Osama bin Laden.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI would like to know more about your point, because I don't understand it. Please restate it if you care to.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy point. In last nights debate Rick Santorum attacked Ron Paul again and said that the reason we were attacked on 9/11 is because radical muslims hate us for our freedoms. We are infidels.
Michael Scheuer the guy the CIA put in charge of fighting Osama bin Laden says that's ridiculous and absurd.
"“On no other foreign policy issue since the Cold War’s end has the truth been so easy to establish on the basis of hard facts but so hard for Americans to see … that Muslim hatred is motivated by U.S. interventionism more than any other factor… Our growing number of Islamist enemies are motivated to attack us because of what the U.S. government does in the Muslim world and not because of how Americans live and think here at home.”
Ron Paul is only repeating what our CIA says.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe CIA is infallible? Yikes.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse1. I don't care what Santorum or Paul say or do. Great guys both, but immaterial.
2. I don't care why anybody hates my country. Most of them judge us by the standards of their own contries and are motivated by ethnic and cultural issues that can be found in our ancient past.
3. I happen to agree that the actions of my country have led to more harm than good, but not for the same reason as that idiot Scheuer. In our pragmatism and our desire not to morally judge other countries, we have cut opportune deals with dictators and totalitarians. If 9/11 taught us anything, it should have taught us this: NO MORE DEALS. We abhor you all equally and you all can go straight to hell. I know that the third world has been poisoned by our past actions of dealing with these totalitarians, and it may take a generation, two, five for them to come around. But I am confident that come around they shall, and I am willing to be patient.
4. If you haven't gathered by now, I am pretty sure that you are an idiot.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou're not the sharpest knife in the drawer that's for sure.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseExcuse me sir, but I think you're prejudice against Governor Perry is showing. I generally agree with your assessment of Bachmann, Cain, and Santorum, but Perry looked great. He was not perfect and we could pick nits but he was very good and stood out. Romney, on the other hand, looked peevish and catty. His opportunistic attacks on Perry re Social Security sound like they came from Chuck Schumer's staff and tell us everything we need to know about Romney. He is scripted and unprincipled - except when it comes to defending Romneycare. There he will fight to the last man.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseRomney has no choice but to defend Romneycare, it is pure politics. I happen to admire his ability to win in a liberal state, but some people consider him a RINO for his efforts. Both views are correct and people have to decide which is more important to them. Such a choice is important but doesn't make us enemies.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAgreed, linearheights. This is the same crowd whooping it up for executions without even a smidgen of self-doubt (and I am PRO-death penalty), cheering for declarations that the Fed Chairman is a traitor, the same neanderthals who think the world is 6,000 years old and that climate change is a left-wing conspiracy. Shameful what's become of the GOP.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDid you even bother to read the article you are posting on?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNaw, they just rip the talking points off the fax machine, go to the keyboard and start typing. Payday's Friday, thank you, see you Monday.
Astroturfing: It's A Green Job!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseShorter Brookhiser: Last night's debate showed the GOP frontrunners to be "unrelenting & unpleasant" (Bachmann) or "slick & uncertain" (Perry); those who are otherwise (Romney) don't stand a chance of being elected by the "wicked idiots" at the core of the GOP base. To quote klubkleb, "Shameful what's become of the GOP."
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's our problem-free philosophy--Hakuna Matata!
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm baffled as to what people think Perry brings to the table. He's incoherent and just plain stupid...you really think this will sell in a general where people aren't bending over backward to give him the benefit of the doubt? Not hardly.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse