GOP Debate Summary
by Hal and Shelly McCabe
1. Herman Cain: Still a clown. 'I would look at the facts and talk to people' is not an answer. Calling the 4th independant analsys of your horrible 9-9-9 plan 'apples and oranges and only deal with the oranges' is pitiful. His poll numbers will plummet and by New Hampshire he will be under 7%.
2. Newt Gingrich: I predicted before the debate that Newt would take a shot at Anderson Cooper, and he waited until the last possible second before firing off that volley. He's prone to major mistakes, but he is composed, and smarter than anyone else on the stage, so he might be a serious VP possibility. I want him there until the bitter end because he is endlessly entertaining, lobbing grenades around like the Green Goblin.
3. Ron Paul: Shelly nailed this one when she said "So, from what I gather, Ron Paul wants the world to function like it did in The Road. " Last night I shuddered thinking about the free market controlling flight paths and frequency at National Airport here in DC. "Shit yeah we can land two wide!" Paul did the single funniest thing of the night when he brought up the fact that while the GOP says they will NEVER negotiate with terrorists, Reagan did with his Arms for Hostages deal with Iran. He then said "what?" and sat there with a fantastic grin on his face, which rememided me of when my grandfather would say something he knew was inflammitory just to see what happened.
4. Michelle Bachmann: Shelly again nailed this one so perfectly nothing else needs to be said: "She looks like a Furbee, sitting there with her eyes closed until someone says the wake-up word, which apparently for her is 'Obamacare.'"
5. Rick Santorum: I hate this guy, but he crushed it last night (except for the parts where his face was all crinkled up like someone just told him he needed to go clean up some dogshit on the carpet). He was ruthless in his attacks at times and his "You're out of time" line had me rewinding over and over. I'm also a little ashamed to admit that I really like all of his ideas to get American manufacturing going again, including his plans for the offshore tax holiday money. That said, he is a crazy bastard and I would never vote for him.
6. Mitt: At least 5 times he caused incredible douche-chill moments, most notably when he put his hand on Perry. Shelly's analysis was that his loud and obnoxious way of fighting with Perry made you feel the way you might if your dad was making a scene in a resteraunt yelling at one of your siblings. At one point after saying something he must have found particularly satisfying, he got this smirk on his face which I found rage inducing. The highlight was when Perry and Santorum were hitting him from both sides at once. He got VERY rattled in this debate, and despite all the pundants who say he won (winning one of these is a pretty light lift) and the croud was with him (as he pointed out to groans and boos) Romney did not do nearly well enough to solidify his place. With several weeks to practice, share opposition research and focus test messages, the others will be back and swinging away at him now that they see how easy it is to knock him off balance. If you hear his handlers talking about how he did fantastic and they were thrilled with his performance, they are simply lying. Last night he was creepy enough that even the "I guess Mitt Romney?" voters are taking pause today.
7. Perry: First, he is awesome. I'm not sure what his wide stance thing was all about last night, but at no point in the debate was there less than 30 inches between his feet, like he was doing the debate on a ship perhaps. He took some swings at Cain and Romney, some landed, some missed. Some were pretty low, but naturally Romney went just as low. Flashes of perfection, long sections of confusion. When I see Rick Perry debate, my thought is: yeah, that is about how well I would do. I know you'd see in my eyes what I often see in his... a man who keeps losing his train of thought and is struggling to remember the point he was trying to make, but keeps talking, just saying words, until he remembers. He has some seriously large chinks in his armor and Mitt has been focused on them with tight grouping. Last night was his best debate performance by far, but unfortunately for him, that is not saying much. At least he looked like he was more prepared, and not like some guy you just shook awake from a nap on the couch and put on stage. A little more training and a 5 Hour Energy, and he will start to really pummel Mitt.
Predictions for the Nomination (Ever Changing):
1. Perry in a squeaker.
2. Mitt bitter, and his campaign will be in debt to him for at least 4 million.
3. Paul. The only guy other than the two above who will compete to the end.
4. Gingrich. (DISTANT 4th)
5. Bachmann (Even more distant)
6. Cain (He has no idea what he is doing, I bet there are many states where he fails to make the ballot)
7. Santorum (Might not make it to then next debate)
8. Huntsman (Doneion)
"Get your finger out of my face." "Don't you touch my finger."