Ron Paul is asked about making decisions in a crisis – talks about working in medicine. “All of our decisions we make in politics are critical.”
Matthews is an absolute stickler for the time limits, not letting the candidates finish the sentence they’re in the middle of.
Gilmore says he was governor of Virginia during 9/11 attack.
Matthews goes down the line, asking expansion of embryonic stem cell. Romney gives a good, detailed answer, cites wife, but says he will not create new embryos through cloning or farming.
Brownback: It will not. Cites use of adult stem cells.
Goes down the line, everybody’s a no.
Thompson doesn’t like yes or no, cites research in adult stem cells that are pluripotent.
McCain: Thanks Mrs. Reagan for kindness she showed when he was a returning POW. We need to fund this.
Paul: This is not authorized under the constitution. Market and states should deal with it.
Giuliani: As long as it’s not cloning. Support, with limitations.
Tancredo: Does not require federal funding.
The questioner from Politico asks a snide question about Romney running away from his health care question.
Romney: I love it, it’s a fabulous program. We worked across the aisle. Tells funny line about Kennedy attending the bill signing, saying “when you have Ted Kennedy and Mitt Romney supporting the same bill, it means one of us didn’t read it.”
Skipping ahead a bit…
Tommy Thompson hates the alternative minimum tax. McCain doesn’t like it, and wants a $3k tax credit to buy health insurance.
Ron Paul would get rid of income tax in his first week, and get rid of the “inflation tax” the second week.
Giuliani doesn’t like the death tax, says when it gets to 0 in 2010, it will create an incentive… and then he stops, because it would seem that he’s saying it would create an incentive to die.
Tancredo calls for going after mandatory spending.
McCain is asked what Democrats he would name – says, “Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman, Joe Lieberman…” mentions John Chambers, Silicon Valley billionaire.
Duncan Hunter asked to give one thing government does well and one thing does poorly. Well: Precision munitions on Mr. Zarqawi’s safe house. Poorly: Secure the border.
McCain: “Do you believe in evolution?” “Yes.” “I believe in evolution, but when I hike the Grand Canyon and see the sunset, I believe I see the hand of God in that beauty.”
Asked about any cabinet members he would hold over, Romney suggests it would be an entirely new team.
Giuliani: What is the difference between Sunni and Shia? Oh, crap, he’s botching it. Oh, man. Painful answer. Oh, damn. It’s like watching Theismann get his leg broken by Lawrence Taylor.
It’s not clear if anyone else would have handled the question better, but man, you know that one’s going to be on YouTube.
Huckabee: Don’t want to see jobs shipped overseas, see workers in 50s as CEO takes bonus to move jobs somewhere else. Very populist. “If Republicans don’t stop it, we don’t deserve to win in 2008.”
The Politico questioner asks Tommy Thompson for the exact number of casualties in armed forces in Iraq to today. What is this, a quiz show? Where the hell was this question during the Democrats’ debate?
Rudy and Romney want a tamper proof ID card… Romney talks about running Olympics in winter 2002…
Brownback opposes it. Says need to secure the border, and needs SS# to “mean something.”
Romney says ID card is for aliens, not for citizens. Rudy clarifies only for those coming into country.
Asked on Scooter Libby pardon, Romney says too early to say, but suggests prosecutorial indescretion since he knew Libby wasn’t the source of the leak.
“Would it be good to have Bill Clinton back living in the White House?” Romney: “You have got to be kidding.”
Huckabee: Nobody knows Hillary better than I do, and it’s not a good idea to have her in the White House.