Liveblogging Presidential GOP Debates

If you are like me and have no TV, LIVESTREAM IT HERE.

The Facebook  debates has a salon on all of it here.

Liveblogging: Huckabee bashing Rumsfeld. What an asshat. Sheesh. He's bashing "we don't got to war with the army that we want we go in with the army that we have."

A great quote if you ask me! I love Rumsfeld.
Instead he suggests "we go to war with the army we need" - well sure, in a perfect world, huckster.

Thompson takes him out. "our policy was not arrogant." Radical Islam must be beaten

Giuliani. "you run on your own foreign policy" Bush got the big decision right against Islamic terrorism. We went off the defense and on the defense. Clinton cut the military drastically "the peace dividend" "We must increase our military."

Mike Huckabee  and Mitt Romney battling one another over their  records and past public statements

Gibson: Do you believe in the Bush doctrine? This should be good - I love the Bush doctrine

McCain: Give Bush credit. America is safer. "I was the only one here that was against Rumsfeld's strategy"

Paul: On doctrine: We shouldn't be the policemen of the world. The Bush doctrine was a huge chane. All options are on the table to go after Iran? These are third world nations? They dont attack because we are free and prosperous .... but if we don't understand that because we invade these countries and have bases in these countries."     This guy is a marooon.

Romney: "Paul he doesn't have an undertanding of Islam. We owe Bush a debt a gratitude for keeping us safe for the past 6 years. We have to move the world of Islam into modernity - education (not thru madrassas), help muslims become so strong as to reject the extreme."

But the Koran is extreme IMAO.

Giuliani: "Ron's anaylsis is severely flawed. They have perverted their religion. It's why I gave back that 10 million dollar check to the Saudis. Blaming America for 9/11."

Rmney: "Ron you are reading their propaganda. This has to do with a battle going on in Islam.

Thompson: "Who were we invading before 9/11."

Huckabee: "This is not a problem with Islam. This is a problem of extremism."

Romney and Huckabee going at it! Huckabee making a joke about Romney's positions, "which one? Huckabee claims he supported the surge first.

One Year Ago, Gov. Huckabee Did Not Offer His Support For The Surge:

Gov. Huckabee, January 2007: "Well, I'm Not Sure That I Support The Troop Surge." MSNBC's NORAH O'DONNELL: "We have a Rudy Giuliani, who supports the president's plan on Iraq. We have Governor Mitt Romney, who also supports a troop surge. How are you different from any of those candidates." HUCKABEE: "Well, I'm not sure that I support the troop surge, if that surge has to come from our Guard and Reserve troops, which have really been overly stretched." (MSNBC's "Live," 1/24/07)

Ron Paul: "Why do they attack America?" They don't attack anyone else........ Ron Paul blames America: “They don’t attack us because we’re free and prosperous. It’s because we invade their countries.” The Paulistinians must be cheering. Hard to take such foolishness seriously. You can't debate stupidity.

Giuliani: Not so ...........Giuliani rattling off all the terror attacks since the 70s ....... excellent. Thinks we should be closer to the Arab world. Huh?

Healthcare: I am a free market girl. I agree with Thompsom, Romney and Giuliani ...........Huckabee says we have to move from a disease driven healthcare system (huh?) to prevention. What malarky. Ok, no one smoke, drink, eat fatty foods and we will be good.

As soon as we nationalized healthcare, our healthcare system will go straight into the toilet like Canada's and Europe's. Yes, healthcare is expensive but our healthcare is the best in the world.

McCain is demonizing the drug companies. Give me a break.

Romney takes McCain out on the drug company remark. Good man

BREAK: Return to immigration

Giuliani: He says you can't throw out 12 million people. Go after the illegals that have committed crimes.

McCain going after Romney saying he supported McCain's amnesty. McCain says "you can spend your whole fortune" depicting it as amnesty in your ads but its not amnesty.

Romney: These people should not be given a special right to stay here. Pay $5,000 to stay. They should have to get in line like everyone else.

Fur flying over illegal immigration

Giuliani: Reagan gave amnesty. He would be in Mitt's negative commercials (laughter). Reagan gave amnesty. They had to pay a fine, get in the back of the line.

There have to be penalties.  “None of us has a perfect record on immigration”

Thompson: "Are you rewarded for you illegal behavior in any way? Then its amnesty. Enforcement by attrition. If we started securing the border like we're supposed to do so people couldnt go back and forth .......assisted employers, a verification system and we stop sanctuary cities as Mayor Giuliani did when he was Mayor..........."

Thompson taking on Giuliani’s sanctuary policies

Giuliani: NYC was not a sanctuary city. We turned in the names except children that were in the schools. It would have been inhumane. If you went into a hospital, we would not report you. It would have been inhumane."

Thompson: Rudy took us to court.

Giuliani: My exceptions were for humane reasons.

Thompson: We were not inhumane.

Huckaboo coming in to chill everyone out. People should return to their home country for a period of time........ they have to get on the back of the line.

Questioner: You vs Obama

Will anyone bring up Kenya?

Romeny: Claiming to be the real agent of change -- at the Olympics, Massachussets, ....... if you want to see how expensive healthcare will get it is make it free

McCain making jokes at Romney's expense "yes, you are the candidate of change" ........... what a schmuck. I don't like McCain, he has been behind some of the worst legislation imaginable. This is the man of McCain Feingold (empowering all those 517s), the architect of the gang of 14, the champion of amnesty.

Thompson: Obama is a liberal. He talks generalities. He will have to have positions at some point.

Funny to me that Gibson is positing that Obama will be the candidate -- the media wants this man. bad.

WaPos take on the first half here

* Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani must be happy that Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) was included in this debate. Paul's opposition to President Bush's foreign policy and war strategy allowed Giuliani to condemn Paul's views and remind viewers of his work to go on offense against terrorists in the aftermath of the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. "The president got the big decision of his presidency right," said Giuliani.

Gas Prices: Paul goes nuts on oil. Waiting for his big oil conspiracy theory.

Huckabee is right on untax everything. But how is he going to pay for his idea of big government.

Romney talking about the untold cost of lawsuits to American corporations.

Debate over.

I like Thompson, Giuliani and Romney. I'll take any one of them but I will say I like Fred Thompson more and more. I think Thompson can beat Obama.

I am outta here. The Democrat's debates are a joke ............ not hanging around

Over at Gateway:

Rudy talked about Barak Obama and Change:

That about said it all.
Great answer.

UPDATE: Romney Wins Wyoming Caucuses —  CASPER, Wyo. (AP) - Mitt Romney captured his first win of the Republican presidential race, gaining most of Wyoming's delegates at stake in GOP caucuses on Saturday.  —  The former Massachusetts governor won six of the first eight delegates to be selected.

FULL TRANSCRIPT HERE

 

Comments

[clyde]

NO TV? Hmm. How do you keep up with Katie Couric's latest hair color? And what about all the vital Britney Spears drunken episodes? It must be awful going through life uninformed on the important stuff. LOL

[prairiemain]

Huckabee would be a disaster, imho. He is a big government and nanny advocate. He'll force you to be healthy whether you like it or not.

But Huckabee is fast on his feet -- and seems to be landing punches on Romney. I suspect Romney is done after the upcoming vote.

But would we be better off with McCain? Hardly. He likes to pal around with Ted Kennedy just a little too much.

So that leaves Thompson and Giuliani. Maybe after Florida one of those two will emerge as a strong contender going into Super Tuesday.

I sure hope so.

Great updates, Atlas.

[jpm100]

When Reagan gave amnesty the immigration issue was a fledgling problem on a much smaller scale (~3 million). Even so, Reagan's amnesty was suppose to be coupled with enforcement measures including criminalizing the employment of illegal aliens.

Its from Reagan's attempt, that we know Amnesty doesn't work and bundled enforcement measures can easily be undermined after amnesty is granted.

[Indigo Red]

Geez, Pamela! You've ruined the whole debate for me. On the west coast, we're just getting to the immigration part of the debate.

[dbl action]

Thompson is the 400 lb gorilla in the room; he's calm, sure of himself but not postering or willing to get into 'slap fights' and he has the right answers, simple and straightforward. I like him but I gotta say it, with the exception of Paul, these are a credible group of candidates, I'm impressed. Thompson has my nod so far.

[Davod]

Thompsom will go nowhere unless the MSM including Fox give him airtime.

[Davod]

PS:

I should say that the reason Huckabee did so well in Iowa is that he spent the last year preaching in churches across Iowa.

The Evangelicals did not believe the true comments about his Arkansas record.

We know from Hubby Clinton's race that people will believe almost any lie coming out of the mouth of a candidate, if they like him.

[HenryB]

Hey, Pamela, I like Rumsfeld, too. He is a complete straight shooter, one always knows where he stands. On the other hand, he was simply wrong about half the time, especially about how to conduct post-invasion ops in Iraq (although in truth this mistake was ultimately GWBs). I thought he should have been replaced long before he was -- but I still like the guy.

[Underzog]

I like Guiliani and Romney. I'm afraid Romeny is getting knocked out of the race by McCain and Schumkabee.

McCain's attack on free speech with the McCain/Feingold act has allowed George Soros to buy the Democrat party at bargain basement prices. I think with McCain's temper, McCain doesn't have the mental stability to be President.

Ann Coulter correctly described Schmuckabee as the Republican Jimmy Carter. I didn't like Carter when if reluctantly voted for Ford and I don't like Jimmy Carter as a Republican either.

[syn]

I suppose I could trust Huckabee's 'fiscal conservatism' had he not governed as a tax-imposing pprogressive.

I suppose I can trust Romney when he says that government-mandated health insurance is not really forcing Americans to have government-mandated health insurance.

I suppose I can trust McCain when said he did not support amnesty since it really wasn't amnesty because we're all God's children.

I suppose I can trust Guiliani to be strong on border security had he not fought the INS while ignoring Mohammed Atta's cell in Brooklyn throughout his time as mayor.

I suppost I can trust Ron Paul on something if he were not so paranoid about everything.

Thompson is the only candidate not running as a chain-yanking politician but as a leader with clear, definitive principles.

I am sick and tired of politicains yanking my chain to get my vote. I'll support Rudy with some hesitation however, ever since he campaigned for Bloomberg's deceptive candidacy(a life-long Democrat who changed to the Republican ticket in order to get noticed) I'm not so trusting anymore. For my trust I ended up with a snotty-nosed Nanny who, on the one hand, tells me 'terrorism is no big deal and I should get a life' then heads on down to Washington DC to tell Congress that 'NYC is Islamic terrorist #1 target' and he's come to collect his federal money!

Thompson treats me like an adult, not a hapless child and for this he has my respect.

[syn]

As for Rumsfeld, he wasn't responsible for descimating the size of the military which Reagan had rebuilt.

We are at war now, not five years from now; we go with the military we have not the one we think we have.

There was no way to send 350,000 troops into Iraq because we didn't have that size to send.

Further, even if we did have the size what good would come from sending 350,000 troops into Iraq with the stupid Rules of Engagement used prior to General Petreaus changing the Pentagon's out-dated Rules of Engagement.

Rumsfeld did the best he could under the worst possible situation, fighting a war with a descimated military and a progressive-infested Pentagon

[EJO]

Dear Pamela;
Giuliani: He says you can't throw out 12 million people. Go after the illegals that have committed crimes.

Every time I hear, or read words like this, it drives me crazy.
Why can't we throw out these bastards? Or at least try?
We can't arrest all the murderers, rapers, bank robbers, or child molesters either. Should we stop going after these people too?
Also.
I think the estimate of 12 million is too low. It's probably more like 20 mill.
Another also.
Aren't these illegal bastards already committing a crime just by being here? Does Giuliani want to wait until one of these guys kills some one, or drunkenly drives their car into somebodies living room, before we even try to capture them?
Giuliani should know better. All of these pols should know better.
Sincerely;
EJO

P.S. NO TV?!?!
Back in the 90's I worked with a guy who didn't have a TV. But he was nuts. What's your excuse?

[Shy Guy]

For those seriously considerring Giuliani, have a look at these comments on the Israel Matsav blog, referencing Giuliani quotes from the debate and a WSJ article about Giuliani's business ties.