May 5th GOP Primary Debate

[Edmaster]

Post reactions and thoughts from tonight's debate.

Personally, I thought everyone came across in a very positive light, but I suppose that's to be expected when FOX is the only one responsible for orchestrating this whole affair (not to mention their prime target being Obama... it's pretty hard to look bad when you compare yourself to that guy).

The more I hear from Herman Cain, the more I like him. He comes across as a businessman, and a SANE businessman (not like that whore Trump), someone who can balance a budget and run an administration properly.

Santorum would be viable if he cooled his jets a bit on some of his social/religious issues. Being a PA resident, I'm familiar with the guy, but I don't know if he can capture the GOP primary as is.

Paul and Johnson came across as fringe, which is true considering their libertarian ideals. It's tough to come across as sane when you advocate legal heroin usage, but I gotta give Paul credit for sticking to his guns.

Pawlenty looks interesting. I don't know enough about him, but I will definitely keep my eyes on him through the campaign.

If anything, this debate was a great chance for some lesser-known candidates to make their mark, in the absence of some of the more well-known candidates.

[Reserv*ir]

Was not a debate.
That was a Q&A session... and I would have loved if they could have gone around and asked each candidate the same questions (just so I could get their positions at the least).

I also felt that the last round of questions was a terrible idea (OH, JA, SHORE, LET'S GO AFTER TEH GUYZ THAT AREN'T HERE ATM. CUASE DEY SULD HAVE BEEN HURR). I'm pleased most of them decided to speak in relatively good terms about their potential opponents (like T-Paw did about Huckabee).

But anyways, my impressions from what I saw:
Liked Cain a lot. My folks were watching, too, and they definitely liked what they heard from him (so did America, I notice). I'm hoping to learn more about him as time goes by.
Ron Paul was decent. He definitely had a large number of supporters in SC that day.
T-Paw was pretty repetitive... I heard about his meat packaging town a few too many times (and Ed, it's not at all surprising you haven't heard much from him yet, Midwestern governors like him rarely get noticed outside of the state, especially when they're so unremarkably 'meh'). He is pretty well known for being dangerously close to centrist (but that was pretty good for him in a previously blue Minnesota). Even so, today he did well in the spotlight (pretty sure he hasn't before...).
I was somewhat unimpressed by the New Mexico Governor, and I had mixed feelings about Santorum.

I'm anxious to hear from the other candidates (well, really just Bachmann, Romney, and Huckabee), so I hope they'll be on board for future get-togethers, because I'm pretty certain they'll get good attention when they join in.

[Edmaster]

Was not a debate.
That was a Q&A session... and I would have loved if they could have gone around and asked each candidate the same questions (just so I could get their positions at the least).

For the record, I agree completely.

[Grunthos]

I decided not to watch it, as to me it's still a bit early to be holding debates, when have the poll front runners haven't even declared yet.

I haven't heard a great deal from or of Herman Cain yet, but the little I have heard I have liked. A Cain presidency would have a lot of interesting socio-political by-blows, almost all positive.


As a strictly humorous side note, could you imagine a campaign centered around an intentionally ambiguous message something like, "This time, let's elect a REAL One!"

/chuckling

[falconclaw]

I don't get the fuss about Cain, his answers were generic and he didn't propose any actual, concrete solutions.

I thought Ron Paul won that debate, although the format was certainly lacking.

Santorum came across as a the right's version of leftist style identity politics.

For those of you who don't know I'm gunning for Mitch Daniels, although Gary Johnson would be my ideal choice, although he didn't come across too well in the debate, I'd attribute that largely to the format. Keep in mind that he was the only candidate present who is actually running for President.

[MFD]

Pawlenty ran a clinic on back tracking.