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Subscribe to RSSMuch of the focus was on Romney and his performance. The New Hampshire Union Leader: “After reestablishing himself as the frontrunner in the polls, Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney resumed attacks on President Barack Obama and, for the most part, avoided direct confrontations with his rivals at Tuesday night's debate at Dartmouth College.”
The Washington Post: “A comfortable and confident Mitt Romney solidified his front-runner status on Tuesday night in the battle for the Republican presidential nomination, navigating 90 minutes of tough questions on the economy from his rivals and debate moderators.”
So does the New York Times. “Mitt Romney offered a robust defense of the health care plan he signed as governor of Massachusetts and sought to look beyond his Republican presidential rivals at a debate here Tuesday night by presenting himself as the leader who is best prepared to take on President Obama.”
More: “With a fresh air of confidence in his candidacy, Mr. Romney set out to diminish Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and all but ignored him, a different approach from the last three debates, where he repeatedly tangled with Mr. Perry. Given a chance to question a fellow candidate, Mr. Romney selected Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.”
Politico: “Hours after Chris Christie signaled he believes Mitt Romney is the Republican party’s inevitable nominee, Romney and the rest of the GOP field went about proving him right. Romney again outclassed the opposition in Tuesday’s Bloomberg/Washington Post debate. Again, none of the other GOP contenders laid a glove on him. And in a telling move that seemed to acknowledge the limits of Rick Perry’s candidacy, the Texas governor effectively tried to survive the debate by not losing it.”
But other news organizations focus on Cain. The Hill’s lead: “Former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain was the center of attention at Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry faded into the background.”
The New York Post adds, “Republican presidential contenders turned up the heat on former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 tax plan at a televised debate last night, ganging up on the surging candidate who has vaulted from obscurity to near the top of the polls.”
BACHMANN: NBC’s Jamie Novogrod and Jo Ling Kent report from the Spin Room at the debate: Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart picked up where her boss left off during the debate and was critical of the Cain 9-9-9 plan: “There are some problems,” she said of it, adding that Bloomberg economists say it doesn’t add up. State tax will be necessary too, so it will eventually become “15-15-15.”
Politico on last night’s debate: “The Michele Bachmann conservatives fell in love with during the campaign’s early debates returned Tuesday night."
Yesterday, Bachmann introduced her economic plan. The AP: Her "American Jobs, Right Now" framework calls for tax accommodations that would give companies incentive to re-invest at home money that presently is earned abroad. She also would decrease government worker salaries, eliminate an inheritance tax and roll back a slate of federal regulations. That includes repeal of President Barack Obama's signature health law.” Bachmann said in a press release: "My solutions are simple. We need to cut government spending, legalize America's God-given natural resources and stop taxing investment and productivity."
Bachmann will address the New Hampshire state legislature at 11:30 am today. She begins a three-day Iowa tour Thursday.
CAIN: Gingrich had praise for the way Cain handled the debate last night: “You know, Herman has been seeing a lot of fastball pitching. This is the first time someone threw it at his head. He did a pretty good job dealing with it.”
After the debate new Romney supporter Chris Christie was on FOX and hit Cain, per GOP 12: "I think he's certainly a credible candidate, but I don't think he brings the breadth of experience that Gov. Romney has, and I do think there is something different about running a private business and being an executive in government. That's what is so good about Mitt Romney's experience."
NBC’s Andrew Rafferty caught up with Cain after the debate. On why he’s keeping his economic advisers secret for the most part: "The voters are just going to have to wait until my secret advisers want me to put their name out."
On taking a lot of incoming from opponents: "So I expected to be the target; I just didn’t realize that I was going to be that big a target, but I take it as a compliment.”
On his newfound “top tier” status: "I’ve noticed that since I’ve moved up into what they call the top tier, (turns around) I’ve got a lot of arrows stuck in my back, back here. But you know what? It’s to be expected."
GINGRICH: Roll Call has this headline for the former Speaker of the House: “Newt Gingrich Suggests Prison for Barney Frank, Chris Dodd Over Wall Street Crisis.”
GIULIANI: He announced yesterday he’s also not running for president, Politico reports.
PERRY: Here’s quite the admission from Perry, per Politico, which caught up with him at a post-debate party: "I just try to get up every day and do my job, and debates are not my strong suit." (Hat tip: Political Wire.)
After the debate, during a stop at a fraternity that has a reputation for recruiting Christian athletes and “professional personalities,” Perry made a historical gaffe. In answering a young woman's question about states’ rights, Perry said that one of the "reasons we fought the revolution in the 16th Century was to get away from that kind of onerous crown." The Revolutionary War was fought in the 18th century.
At the beginning of his remarks, Perry told NBC News that the debate was "awesome." "It was an awesome debate," he said.
ROMNEY: “Mitt Romney, who has proven to be a consistent presence at the top of the polls, did little to damage the momentum his campaign has gotten in recent weeks, bolstered yesterday with the prized endorsement of New Jersey’s governor, Chris Christie,” the Boston Globe reports, adding, “When they got a chance to question one another, most chose to lob their queries at Romney, allowing him to show the debate skills he has honed over several campaigns.”
S.E. Cupp praised Romney in her column in the New York Daily News: “After months of treading water as the play-it-safe candidate who has neither enjoyed nor suffered any big campaign moments, Mitt Romney is finally having the best week ever.”
Still, will this be acceptable to GOP primary voters? A DNC YouTube channel laying out all of Romney’s flip flops.
Scott Lehigh, of the Boston Globe, who has praised Romney recently, wasn’t impressed with his debate performance, but also noted the comparatively lackluster performances from the other candidates: “Last night’s debate was on Mitt Romney’s geographic and thematic home turf. That is, New Hampshire and the economy. And yet, the debate highlighted the gap between the real problems Washington decision-makers face and Romney’s rhetorical nostrums.”
Christie on Romney: “I know Mitt Romney believes the American pie can be grown bigger,’’ he said. “That it can be an infinite size because of the infinite nature of American ingenuity and effort and character.”
Responding to NBC’s Michael Isikoff’s reporting that President Obama met with Romney advisers to formulate its health-care plan, in particular Obama meeting with MIT professor John Gruber, Romney adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said after the debate that Gruber was "someone we hired to run a model" and "not an adviser." He added that Romney’s team consulted with "hundreds" of people.
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Pitiful! That's the best word I can find to describe last night's Republican "debate". In a political party run by rational people, not one of the candidates would have been treated with anything but outright derision and contempt. But the Republican right wing is anything BUT rational.
Gingrich knows he's out of it and sucks up to the others with obsequiousness that would embarrass Uriah Heep. He'll settle for VP. The contrived John Huntsman pretends to be studied and moderate. John is the job creator and he has very creative methods to do that. OK, he has one answer - cut taxes. For Santorum, the jobs problem tracks to the family. Dammit, if men and women would just get married, that would solve everything.
Ron Paul was his usual earnest self. In his world of perfect purity, no one threatens liberty - the most valuable right we have. People don't commit crimes, they don't prey on others, there is no excuse for not being prepared for disasters. The government has no business in your life. You have the liberty to starve, be beaten and robbed by criminals, and to have the widest choice of health insurance plans you cannot afford.
Yesterday, I jokingly wrote about Cain's 9-9-9 plan and suggested that if one looked at it right side up it was all about 6-6-6. The insane Bachmann actually pointed that out. Cain was roundly attacked by the others, proving that you should stick to nebulous talking points and NEVER offer a concrete solution to a problem in the GOPTP. Republicans may not understand arithmetic, but they know how to say NO. His attackers were right about the plan not working, but for all the wrong reasons. The truth is that regardless of his plans, he will never be chosen as the party's candidate. He is way too dark.
Perry? Perry has to be one of the dumbest politicians on the planet. He simply was not going to answer questions. He was going to tout his job creation ability, his love for his country and that was that. You could have asked him about baseball's Texas Rangers, and he would have pointed out his success as a job creator. That is hardly his biggest problem. He was Romney's best friend. He attacked Romney's health care plan - the one on which the President's plan is based. Jeez Rick, why don't you just gut yourself in front of the audience?
Slick Mitt babbled a bit about the enormous differences between his plan and the President's - not much different actually, but Republicans don't know any better. In any case, that was Mitt's chance to point out that the number of children not covered by health care actually increased on Perry's watch. In fact, Mitt took the opportunity to let Perry know that Texas was the worst in the nation on that front.
Mitt could also point to his record as a businessman. The fact that he buys businesses, cannibalizes them, sell them, and throws people out of work is not important. Critical thinking is not a desirable quality in the GOPTP.
The takeaway? It seems almost impossible that the chosen candidate can ever get back to the center without offending the base. Unfortunately, Republicans take this batch of terrifyingly ignorant shills and lackeys seriously. That means that we had better take them seriously too; not because they are smart - to the contrary. They are outright dangerous and will destroy this nation, and they can do it in less than one year. They must be stopped now, and destroyed.
Amazing that Republican voters have any respect for these candidates.
The Cain 9-9-9 plan is a horrible idea. It is extremely regressive -- the poor and middle class will pay a much higher percentage of their income than the wealthy.
Adam Smith said that the wealthy should pay more than others, because their businesses benefit from federal infrastructure.
Of course we all know, the Cain plan is just aimed at angry voters who want "that man" out of the whitehouse. Angry Tea Party people will support anything that is contrary to the logic of progressives. They don't read much or care about history or science, so who cares.
As for Bachmann, what a joke:
"When you take the '9-9-9' plan and turn it upside-down, the devil's in the details," she said, referencing the Satanic sequence of numbers, "6-6-6."
Once again appealing to the radical Christians. Another dog whistle for the bible belt.
Who the heck are these idiots? Martians?
But just think how well a 'value-added' tax like Cain's will help increase DEMAND right now, when we need it most!
Oh, wait......
Good synopsis. I wish people wouldn't blindly follow an ideology. Ideological zealots got us into two wars and the brink of financial disaster...
Romney will run the country like a business. Hallelujah. That's exactly what Perot wanted in 1992 and what we do indeed now need. Please see this new site: www.nccp.us for a refreshing view
wow,david walker echos my sentiment exactly.the only difference is that he can write it much better than i can. logical people had better get out and start working their bum s off to stop this nascent faschist movement.
heard nothing new, learnt nothing new.
I couldn't agree with you more.
RECAPPING LAST NIGHT'S DEBATE...
...yawn...blink blink...
The worst moment for me was when the New Hampshire farm owner (small business owner) asked how small businesses could get credit -- it sounded like a simple plea for where to go.... what she got in response was a bunch of canned statements about repealing Dodd-Frank, about how regulations were killing small banks....in other words, she couldn't expect to get any help unless one of these people were elected and got measures passed through Congress, and let it filter down to banks......let's say three years down the road, assuming that their estimation was correct in the first place. Clearly none of them think the government should do anything to encourage investment in small business. One of them might have listened to her and just said, "The best thing to do is to go to a large bank,.... or to investigate mergers or cooperative financing... but nope, they didn't really care about her and her problem.
They probably didn't have the foggiest notion of how a small business owner could get credit... They had only been trained to leap on "small business credit" with a highly culled and manicured selection of talking points.
M. Fisher -- that was my impression -- that when faced with a real person, with a real small business and a real question...banks won't give us credit, what can we do... not ONE person answered her personally. Instead those that answered leapt to the too much regulation, blah, blah, blah. Gov. Romney said that big banks are okay under Dodd-Frank because they have lawyers, but small banks will go under. Does that bother him? Who knows? Would he suggest keeping banks big? Who knows? Rep. Bachmann threw out her "I am a small business owner too" line, without saying how her small business gets credit.
Community banks are really the answer for small businesses under $25M in annual revenues, but your right, these people don't have a clue, just bash Obama. My plan won't work either, but it's better than his some how. People have a short memory. To end the 2008 crisis, Paulson ordered the eight largest financial institutions to take the Tarp money to free up capital to lend, none of them did it, they sat on the money collected the interest and paid the money back to the fed without reopening credit lines. What makes you think they will change now?
I agree with PAUL-2342735
Why don't people look at the facts wether u agree or not, or destroy the economy to win.
We may not be able to recover this time.
Because people are blinded by ideology not common sense or their own best interests.
The Republican debates have been more fun than a Barnum and Bailey Circus, with the clowns bumping into each other.
You are entering the Republican Kingdom of Boredom
Ok, we've seen the clowns, now bring on the lions, tigers and bears.
Rep. Bachmann showed her craziness in many ways -- for one thing, she described herself as being a current federal tax lawyer, a small business owner, a parent of 28 children.....but never actually said that her current job was as a representative in Congress for her Minnesota district. Never does she talk about what she does for the people in her district, who they are, what issues that they have concern her now. For a second thing, read this quote:
My solutions are simple. We need to cut government spending, legalize America's God-given natural resources and stop taxing investment and productivity.
It sounds as if she could be talking about legalizing marijuana... which God-given natural resources that we have are currently illegal?
Hopefully she will have the graciousness to withdraw before she embarasses herself any further.
Bachman: "My solutions are simple: We simply need to cut spending...unless we need to increase it and the lord Jesus will tell us when to do so and where via yours truly. And remember, write "satan on the bottom of your shoe so you can walk on the devil and 999 upside down equals the mark of the beast. Besides, Cain killed Able. I would also like to add that boys have a penis and girls have a vagina...Just a little something I learned from raising 28 foster children."
Again where is the mention of Ron Paul? Or how Dr Paul called out Cain for his federal reserve employment?
If you think Cain will stop the bankers control of the country think again.
Romney and perry are just neocons like bush. They are part of the problem!
Ron Paul cannot win the Presidency of the United States, he has too many kookie ideas. The American Public will never elect a professorial know it all who thinks he can tell Americans how to live even if he knows it all.
Dr. Paul has no chance of ever being President. You have to put your money on a horse that at least has a chance of winning.
Paul is just another of the RETHUG collective idiocy. For some reason they keep mumbling "Resistance is futile - you will be assimilated!" and expecting it to HAPPEN
Hope Sinks, I was thinking the same thing. Not one mention of Ron Paul? And to the others who are saying Ron has too many "kookie" ideas, I just want to point out that that is exactly what the establishment wants us to believe. If you listen to the media and only get your information from the mainstream, then yes, you'll believe everything they say about him. Paul's so-called kookie ideas are the same ideas this country was founded on. Believing that Ron Paul will not win and to choose someone else is ludicrous, and it's a flaw in the public's way of thinking. If you actually read Ron Paul's books and find other resources to find out what he truly stands for, you might be surprised what you find out. Also, if you look at the polls, Ron Paul is consistently a front runner. I urge people to educate themselves on this man, he really does have a chance at winning the GOP nomination and saving America, but only if we the people take the accountability back into our own hands.
Mrs Scarpino, Please madam I do think for myself, America is not going to return to the world Ron Paul envisions, 19th Century America. He wants to reverse progress. For instance, we have an agency like FEMA for a reason, a damn good reason. It may not always work the way we would like but that is not a reason to put an end to it. Ron Paul lives in a fanatasy world of the so-called "rugged individualist", he does not seem to realize that those characters never existed except in Hollywood. He wants to decentralize federal power and turn it over to the states, there are reasons why that doesn't work, again damn good reasons. The Federal Government plays a huge role in our lives because thats what we the people have determined we want, and it is we the people who will change it. if it needs changing.
James 316346 - I am a person in this "we the people" and I do not want the federal government to play such a big role in my life, and there are many, many others who feel the same. We are taking those necessary steps to make that change. Just planting the seed that unless you've researched him yourselves and most importantly read his books, you do not understand his message.
Ron Paul is an Ayn Rand disciple and that's scary... However, I do agree with his assessment of the wars.
James thinks that responsible "rugged individualists" only live in hollywood! LOL!
OMG where would i be without the federal government telling me how to run my life? I am too stupid to know how to live!!
Dont be a sheep. Dont think that everyone is as stupid as the dumbest person YOU know. Most Americans DONT want the government taking care of them from cradle to the grave.
The policies of the left and the right during the coarse of that last 50 years has given us a 15 trillion dollar debt. Ron Paul represents doing something different than the same failed policies.
I encourage all independents and those sick of the GOP to research Dr Paul and the Campaign for Liberty's philosophy. Libertarian philosophy is the only way to save the country!
Hope Sinking,
Unfortunately, the "rugged individualist" is one of the classic American feel good myths. These people never really existed, like the Marlboro man they are a figment of our propaganda about ourselves. Much of the west was settled by hardy souls who were given land by the US Government, a government that later provided water to it, who later gave the settlers loans etc etc etc,---- and on and on. Our "rugged individualist" were tough hardy people alright but they could not have survived, much less prospered without the help of the government by the people and for the people. You don't build a Grand Coulee Dam on your own because you think the project will someday turn a profit!
Once again the clear winner of these republican debates is the only rational and capable candidate running, Barack Obama!
true - there's not ANY of the RETHUGs worth a TINKER'S DAMN
I never thought of it that way James. but it's true, every time the tea people GOP republicans have a debate President Obama wins. And think goodness they have many more to come.
I was watching the debate last night in our family room - my husband had disappeared to his "man cave" to watch Detroit beat Texas - when our college-age son came home from his nearby campus after a late class. It was during one of the breaks and when he asked what I was watching I said "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs."
Of course Michelle was Snow White - she was even dressed in an off-white ecru suit.
Doc Paul was there. This will sound very superficial but he needs to do something with his eyebrows - the drooping right one in particular looks like it is going to fall off.
Grumpy Newt wanted to send Barney Frank and Chris Dodd to jail.
Sleepy Rick P. must have guzzled decaf by mistake before the debate.
Happy Herman was tickled pink to be the center of attention, repeating his 999 mantra 999 times.
Bashful Rick S. was not bashful by choice but appeared that way because we saw him for only a nanosecond.
Dopey Huntsman keeps showing up at these GOP debates - when will he realize he is a Democrat?
And Sneezy Mitt didn't sneeze - but he had a squinting look in his eyes most of the night that made me think he was going to at any moment. Plus Sneezy was the only name left.
As a Democrat I feel great. Romney is definitely the front runner - but his base is still not excited. If you listened to any of the post-debate analysis, the Tea Party commentators on CNN, etc. are extremely unenthused by the prospect of a Romney run. And if he doesn't have the base then I see a 1996 or 2008 election where the GOP "settled" - and lost.
"As a Democrat I feel great. Romney is definitely the front runner"
If you drink thekoolaid, and ignore the polls, you will always feel great about the failure Obama's chances.
You moonbats were braying a few weeks ago how the supposedly extremist Perry would be easy to beat, and Romney was not. Romney was too centrist for the GOP blah blah blah.
Now you switch the talking point to "Romney doesnt excite the GOP base" .
Bob, Its not us, its the repooplican party, they are LOOKING for reasons to throw their candidates under the bus instead of looking for ways to get them elected! A RePOOPlican candidate has a shorter shelf life than a piece of raw meat left out on a July day. Within the next two weeks the following will happen: Bachmann will finally quit, Cain will be in disfavor for god only knows what, Santorum will drop out, Perry will have zero prospects, Paul will hang in there but get zero coverage, or recognition, and have dwindling support, Romney will still be the front runner BUT ONLY BY DEFAULT. The evangelicals do not want a Mormon in the White House period, they truly believe that Mormonism is a dark cult.
RePOOPlican = those who keep spouting the same old crap and it still stinks!
Looked to me like Sleepy Rick was fixated on the hemorrhoid suppository he forgot to have inserted prior to the debate. The pained look on his face made me actually feel sorry for him. Guess no one told him it was a sit down affair.
Loyal, After the dismal performance in the fisrt debate his excuse was that he was tired from standing up so long!
A recap of the Republican debate:
LOL - so true! You would have thought GWB was Lord Voldemort - the one who's name we cannot speak...
progressive policies crashed the economy. Repubs and demos. It can be argued that bush just followed suit with the clinton policies that brought us down. Housing and redevelopment act?
GWB was a bad president - but obama is no different. He is carrying bush's torch of fail down the crapper and bringing America with him!
So pessimistic? Really? Bush put the economy on steriods for his own political gain and because he was too stupid to understand that the government needs to operate in counter cyclical fashion to the private economy. He dishonored both the role of government and the capitalist foundation of this country. He let the madmen run the show while declaring that the asylum keeper was the problem. When the private economy is in difficulty the government needs to dig into its reserves and spend, when the private economy is doing well the government needs to downsize and bolester its reserves. We have been doing the exact opposite for at least a decade, throwing trillions away on two futile wars, falsely reporting real inflation, reducing wages and salaries in real terms, offering cheap and easy credit, and under collecting on taxes. Is it any wonder we are in deep $hit?