411's Republican Debate Wrap Up: Manchester, NH

Posted by Jason Easley on 06.05.2007

Once again, the ten contenders for the 2008 Republican nomination squared off. This time they took their show to Manchester, NH. I'll tell you what happened, and who I think won and lost in this edition of the debate wrap up.

GOP debate preview show

Before the debate last night George and I did a debate preview show with special guest Ryan Latimer. You can give it a listen with the player below.



The GOP debate wrap up from Manchester, NH

The 2008 candidates for the Republican nomination once again took to the stage to try and set themselves on what they hope will be the path to the White House. After watching each of the first three GOP debates, I have come to a couple of conclusions. First, two hours is way too long for a debate. It is not necessary to have both traditional and town hall format in the same debate. Please pick one format and stick with it. Secondly, ten candidates on the same stage are too many. Let's thin the herd a little. This debate covered many topics, but most of the time was spent on the issues of immigration reform and the war in Iraq. Other issues discussed included Iran, evolution, abortion, global warming, health care, prescription drug costs, don't ask don't tell, Bush's role in a future administration, and why the GOP is struggling.

As for the debate itself, the all the Republican candidates, except for Ron Paul, danced around the first question of the debate, "Knowing what you know now, was it a mistake to invade Iraq in 2003?" Giuliani mouthed the Bush position almost word for word. Romney, as he often does, avoided the question. He called the question "non-sequitur." and said that it was "unreasonable" and "hypothetical." He added, "You can say if we knew then what we know now, by virtue of inspectors being let in and giving us that information, by virtue of Saddam Hussein following the resolutions, we wouldn't be having this conversation." McCain drew the most applause for defending the Iraq war and attacking Hillary Clinton for calling Iraq, Bush's war." McCain said, "What Sen. Clinton doesn't understand is that presidents don't lose wars," McCain said. "Political parties don't lose wars. Nations lose wars and nations have the consequences of failure. We must succeed in this conflict."

The other big news out of this part of the debate was that Sen. Sam Brownback, and McCain both admitted that they did not read the National Intelligence Estimate before they voted to authorize the war in Iraq. "I had a number of briefings and I held a number of committee hearings. I was chairing the Middle East subcommittee on foreign relations and we held hearings on this topic and what was taking place and what Saddam was doing," Brownback said. McCain said, "I did not read that particular document. I received hundreds of briefings, tens and hundreds of hours of study and background and information on it. The fact is Saddam Hussein used weapons of mass destruction before on his own people and on his own enemies and if he had gotten them again, he would use them again." These confessions led former VA governor Jim Gilmore to point out that, members of Congress, "ought to read at least that kind of material."

On the issue of don't ask, don't tell the top three GOP contenders all supported the current policy and said that they wouldn't change it. "At a time of war, you don't make fundamental changes like this," Giuliani said. Romney suggested that, "we can look at it down the road." McCain said, "It would be a terrific mistake to even reopen the issue." Ron Paul said, "We don't get our rights because we're gays or women or minorities. We get our rights from our creator as individuals. So every individual should be treated the same way. If there is homosexual behavior in the military that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. But if there's heterosexual sexual behavior that is disruptive, it should be dealt with. So it isn't the issue of homosexuality. It's the concept and the understanding of individual rights," he said. None of the candidates on the stage thought that gays should be allowed to serve openly in the military.

None of the candidates offered real solutions to the problems of health care and prescription drug costs. They preferred to place their faith in the market, and in Giuliani's case, criticize the Democrats. "What the Democrats suggested on this stage two nights ago was socialized medicine," Giuliani said. "There's a man in California who said to me when we make health insurance free, just wait and see how expensive it will become. Socialized medicine will ruin medicine in the United States," he said. Rudy wants all health insurance to be like car and home insurance, which probably would make the current crisis even worse.

McCain used the opportunity when asked if his campaign would advertise in Spanish to talk about why he supports the immigration reform bill, "So let's from time to time remember that these are God's children," McCain said. "They must come into our country legally, but they have enriched our culture and our nation, as every generation of immigrants before them." McCain is the only GOP candidate for president that supports the immigration reform bill. At one point he said, "We cannot have 12 million people washing around America illegally, my friends." This drew criticism from everybody else on stage. "It's a typical Washington mess," Giuliani said. "It's everybody compromises, four or five compromises. The litmus test you should have for legislation is, is it going to make things better?" he said. "And when you look at these compromises it is quite possible it will make things worse."

When asked about what role George W. Bush would have in his administration Tom Tancredo said, "Some time ago, 2003, I think it was, I got a call from Karl Rove who told me that because of my criticism of the president, I should never darken the doorstep of the White House. As president, I would have to tell George Bush exactly the same thing that Karl Rove told me." Overall we saw the continuing evolution of Rudy Giuliani as Mr. 9/11, Mitt Romney is now trying to sell himself as a Reagan like optimist for the future, John McCain is sticking to his guns, Ron Paul is still the only true conservative, and the other candidates are an indistinguishable lump. Now let's look at my choices for winners and losers.

Winners and Losers

Winners:

John McCain - With each debate McCain keeps getting better. Tonight we saw more of the circa-2000 McCain. His answer to the audience member who had lost a family member in Iraq was amazing. It was real and genuine. These are two qualities that the 2008 McCain campaign has lacked. The question for McCain is can his better campaign performance make up for the fact that he is on the unpopular side of the Iraq and immigration issues? I don't think so, but tonight he looked really good.

Ron Paul- Once again Dr. Paul laid waste to all the conservative pretenders in this debate. Paul's answers have a certain earnestness and conviction that is sorely lacking in today's politics. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but I really liked his answer about the biggest moral problem in America today.

Mike Huckabee- Huckabee had a good night. He had a really good answer about the relationship between faith and science. He also summed up why the GOP has lost their way really well. Unfortunately for the earnest Huckabee, it is looking like he has no chance at the nomination. He loses points though for confusing Ronald Reagan's birthday and date of death.

Tom Tancredo - Tancredo makes it to the winner's circle because he is not afraid to be critical of the Bush administration. His stance on the Iraq war, and his passionate feelings about immigration helped him stand out tonight. There is only room for one anti-immigration candidate in this field, and Tancredo has leaped ahead of Duncan Hunter in this area.

Losers:

Rudy Giuliani- Rudy caught a break with the lightning induced microphone short out while he was answering a question about abortion, but he developing a bad habit of either parsing, or all together avoiding questions that he doesn't want to answer. Giuliani has yet to be at one of these events and look or sound like a frontrunner. I still don't know where he stands on most of the issues, as when he is asked a question he turns into criticism of someone else. Rudy reminded of Mr. Burns when he stood to address audience members during the town hall part of the debate. Rudy doesn't do warm and connecting, and he looked awkward trying. I am getting more convinced that this man won't be the Republican nominee.

Mitt Romney- First of all, is anyone buying this week's Romney persona as the Reaganesque optimistic leader for the future? Romney also spent the night avoiding questions, and getting his facts wrong. His claim that Saddam wouldn't allow U.N. weapons inspectors into Iraq was completely off base. (The inspectors were there, but were ordered out). This was another sloppy performance from a political shape shifter, who really has nothing to offer and no reason to be running.

Sam Brownback- Surely, you must know that your Iraq three state solution will lead to genocide? This is probably the worst thing we could do in Iraq. Yet, there was Brownback naively assuming that all parties would stay in respective states, and be happy. The only idea for Iraq that he has is one that has been floating around for the last few years. This is not the mark of a future president.

Jim Gilmore - He is still riding the Rudy McRomney thing, and still talking about his time as governor of Virginia. Has this man suggested one single policy idea during any of the debates?

Duncan Hunter - Hunter is still sticking to his two issues, trade and immigration. The problem is that Tom Tancredo is becoming the darling of the anti-immigrant crowd, which leaves Hunter the boring issue of trade, and trade policy doesn't get a person elected president.

Tommy Thompson - Thompson recycled everything he had said in the previous two debates. Tommy has nothing to add to the discussion, so he really should just pack it up and go home.

Do you agree, or disagree with me? Send me your thoughts, and we'll talk about it. I'll see you again on Friday with the news.