Here's a copy of my blog post. Post your rankings:
OK, some highlights from the debate (without any YouTube links because I couldn’t find them).
Giuliani’s smackdown on Mitt Romney about the unconstitutionality of President Clinton’s use of the line item veto.
Giuliani went an hour and 37 minutes without mentioning that he lowerd crime in NYC.
Chris Matthews failed attempt at a joke against Fred Thompson (I think it was Thompson).
Romney’s joke at Fred Thompson, and Fred Thompson’s knock out comeback.
Giuliani’s failed attempt at a dig against Ron Paul about 9/11 and Paul’s comeback.
Here’s the ratings, best to worst:
Giuliani - Close to first, but he resorted to making his usual argument, and got beaten in a mini-dispute with Ron Paul.
Hunter - General feel-good debate.
Brownback - Same as Hunter.
Ron Paul - overall good, strong job, but he said he wouldn’t support the nominee, and even the Paul people I was with cringed at this. Had he not have done that, I’d have awarded him 1st place.
Romney - got beaten up early by Giuliani. Came back slowly, and tried to make a joke about Thompson, but it backfired. But a very good speaker.
McCain - he did an average job debating, but the hearing problem seriously accentuated the fact that he’s old and not in the best of health.
Thompson - Generally, not a great speaker - a LOT of “um”s.
Huckabee - Generally just wasn’t that good in this one. He went on and on too much.
Tom Tancredo - his stuttering problem was quite bad in this debate, and it hurt him pretty bad.
Well, I found a video, so here’s the link, and my favorite quotes:
http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-us&brand=msnbc&tab=m5&rf=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/&fg=&from=00&vid=fbe846f5-8580-47f5-9c44-3e8317dd8be9&playlist=videoByTag:mk:us:vs:0:tag:News_Editors%20Picks:ns:MSNVideo_Top_Cat:ps:10:sd:-1:ind:1:ff:8A“I was frankly a little nervous about being here tonight. I was afraid she was going to put a tax on the debate before the end of the night.” Mitt Romney (4:06)
Romney/Giuliani Smackdown (19:20)
“There are also some bad unions. I’m probably not gonna name the bad unions, but…” Mitt Romney (83:00)
Are unions good for America? “Sure.” Sam Brownback (85:20)
Tancredo: “Sam, I don’t, your mom, if she was a postal worker, believe me, she didn’t need a union on top of civil service benefits”
Brownback: “Don’t pick on my mother”
Tancredo: “I’m sure she was a sweetheart.”
Brownback: “Leave my mother out of this.”
Tancredo: “Especially with regard to, need I say it, illegal immigration…”
Brownback: “My mother is not an illegal immigrant.”
Chris Matthews: “Took a long time, he said, ‘No,’ he shoulda stopped there.”
Thompson: “Well that’s your opinion Christopher.”
[Awkward Pause]
Matthews: “OK”
Romney: “And this is a lot like Law & Order, Senator. It has a huge cast, the series seems to go on forever, and Fred Thompson shows up at the end.”
Thompson: “And to think I was gonna be the best actor on the stage.”
Done with my commentary,
Ranting Republican
