The Republican candidates are improving; they are answering questions (hostile questions!) crisply and smoothly. And, in the face of CNBC’s sometimes loaded questions, they support one another and attack the president’s actions more than they posture or attack one another. Interesting trend. For example, when Michele Bachmann was asked, “Why is Governor Romney wrong?” she retorted, “President Obama is wrong.”
The big winners in the debate tonight were probably Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney. Romney was poised and methodical on health care, Social Security, and the China trade. Always he focused on the failed economic ideas of President Obama, and Romney was thus was a rallying point for the audience and the other candidates.
Newt Gingrich was cerebral and wide-ranging. When CNBC tried to trip him up, he fired back with specifics that delighted the crowd. His breadth of learning was refreshing and dominating. When he was asked about the Social Security crisis, he traced its roots to LBJ and a budget switch in 1968; when supporting tax cuts, he cited Reagan’s success and his own Contract with America — which grew the economy and balanced the budget; when asked about the high costs of college, he rejected the Obama model and trotted out work-study and learning at College of the Ozarks. Think in new patterns, Newt urges.
Debate watchers heard a steady chorus of Let’s Shrink Government and a refrain of Deregulate, Cut Spending, and Increase Freedom.
— Burton Folsom is professor of history at Hillsdale College and, with Anita Folsom, co-author of FDR Goes to War (Simon & Schuster, 2011).
> The Republican candidates are improving; they are answering questions (hostile questions!) crisply and smoothly.
You wrote that lead before you saw the debate, didn't you?
Oops.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI just have to disagree with this assertion. My biggest issue with debates in the political arena are that the participants NEVER answer the question; this season of debates has proven very refreshing.
I feel that the candidates have been great at answering the question that is actually being asked. The 2 most divergent are Huntsman and Bachmann, but that is only because they are working a little too hard at getting in that inspirational line that will get some excitement behind their ailing campaigns.
Last night may not have been as direct in regards to responses, but it is still, by far, better than debates I've seen in the past.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI think this is the point at which we have to lower our sights from "electable" to "plausible".
Mitt Romney, come on down.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@gbh.. I think this is the point at which we have to lower our sights from "electable" to "plausible".
Yes. Reality settles in, and Republicans must now begin to accept that they can't be with the one they love, which probably would have been Sarah Palin for half of them, and Paul Ryan for the other half. The huge question is... will they ever be able to fall in love with the one they're with?
After years and years of watching campaigns, I have no answer. This is uncharted territory. I really can't remember a nominee with so little emotional connection to in his own party. Is there anybody at all who loves Mitt?
Perhaps the lack of passion for the actual nominee will be adequately offset by the level of passion for ousting Obama.... but hatred, generally speaking, is a weaker motivator than love.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I really can't remember a nominee with so little emotional connection to in his own party."
Really? Look no further than 2008.
It is precisely consideration of the fact that Romney appears to get the base excited even less than McCain that makes me despair at times for 2012.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHey, Prof. Folsom, my son and I both read your last FDR book and loved it. I know it made a lasting impression on my son, who made use of it for a research paper on the economic effects of the New Deal. I'm happy to see you have a new book out, which should round out our knowledge of that rascal. Thanks.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo the CWA. Contributed to economic growth.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNewt is still hanging in there, he doesn't make mistakes, he's always the smartest guy in the room, and he's , per ANIMAL HOUSE, "letting the unsuitable candidates weed themselves out". But at the end of the day, he's, well, still Newt Gingrich -- looks great on stage; a ton of baggage waiting just off-stage.
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