GOP Florida debate: Show us the conservatism; Update: Icky public displays of affection; Grade: Zzzzzzz
Update 11:25pm Eastern. In response to my Huckabee-McCain PDA Alerts, commenter BlameAmericaLast renames the Huckster: Suckupabee.
It fits.
Update 10:37pm Eastern. This debate is over. It never began. I give it a D for dull. Dud. Dumb. Droning. Devoid.
No, wait. A D is too generous.
I give it a Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Romney scored in his answers on Iraq and defense of his campaign spending. And his quip on Billary: “I frankly can’t wait because the idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House with nothing to do is something I can’t imagine.”
Rudy lost because he failed to demonstrate the magnetic, head-turning charisma of a front-runner. He had the hang-dog, laid-back presence of a guy on his way out.
McCain managed not to snarl or curse at anyone. He won because he got away without having to answer a single question about immigration.
Huck left a puddle of drool at McCain’s feet.
Paul squeezed in his Down With Empire talking points.
Conservative voters in Florida are the big losers. This debate gave them nothing.
Video highlights, what little there were, are up at Hot Air.
Michael Graham wants his 90 minutes back. Seriously. I could have been crocheting.
Update 10:36pm Eastern. Ron Paul: “The Republican Party has a problem because we don’t act like Republicans.” I agree with what he’s saying…until he starts foaming at the mouth about empire.
Update 10:29pm Eastern. Williams quotes NYTimes attacks on Giuliani. Rudy attacks NYT credibility.
Rudy, 1. Williams, 0.
Audience applause.
I still don’t think he’s got enough mojo.
Williams brings up the NYT (again!) and its hit piece on Romney. Romney smiles: “I’m not going to Washington to make friends with politicians. I’m going to Wasington to change things.”
Romney defends himself against flip-flopping.
Williams cites LATimes saying McCain’s temper is an issue. “Do you see that as a problem?”
“I don’t.”
Laughter.
McCain stops answering the question to say nice things about Rudy.
It’s like a Swan Song for Rudy.
ALERT: MCCAIN/RUDY PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION.
Huck gets question on religion: “It doesn’t give me a queasy feeling, it gives me a solid core.”
Update 10:27pm Eastern. Question for Huck about Chuck Norris attacking McCain’s age. I didn’t disagree with him because I was standing next to him (laughter).
RED ALERT: SECOND HUCK/MCCAIN PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION.
Ick. Needs a PG-13 rating.
McCain: Now that Sylvester Stallone and Norman Schwarzkopf have endorsed me, I’ll send them to Chuck Norris.
Ho-ho-ho. Ha-ha-ha.
Blech.
Update 10:23pm Eastern. FINALLY. A St. Pete reader asks why Rudy is airing Spanish language ads when he says he supports English as an official language? Laughter. Yeah. Ditto that.
He says it’s “outreach” and changes subject to his immigration plan.
Grade for that answer: F.
Russert follows up with wet-foot/dry-foot Cuba policy. Why a special policy for Cuba? Rudy reviews history. Weird. He just made a grimace-y, weird face.
Update 10:19pm Eastern. We’re an hour and nineteen minutes into this debate and not a single immigration question.
Russert asks an entitlement question. Huck squeezes in an inheritance tax reform pitch directed at Romney’s sons. Whatever.
Update 10:11pm Eastern. Romney asked about how he would run against Billary. “I can’t wait. I think the idea of Bill Clinton in the White House with nothing to do” is something people won’t want. (Audience laughter.) “She is exactly what’s wrong with Washington. She’s been there too long. The last thing people need is sending the Clintons back to Washington.”
Easy question. Red meat.
Russert asks Romney how much of his own money he’s spent. We’ll report on Jan. 31 and not a minute earlier. Why not tell people how much own wealth? It’s competitive information. I’ve raised more than any other Republican in this race…not as much as Corzine, Forbes, Bloomberg. But I’ve made a substantial contribution. Couldn’t ask friends to contribute without contributing myself. Not beholden to special interests. Doesn’t owe anyone.
Effectively bats down accusation of “buying Florida.” He cares about the country, wants strong and vibrant nation.
Getting a lot of time to defend himself. “I’m giving it my all.”
Williams gets in a Mormon question. “I don’t think for a minute that people will say they won’t vote for a secular position based on candidate’s church.”
Romney’s being treated like the front-runner and he’s acting like it. Regained his confidence after that shaky Second Amendment answer. Extols individual freedom in America.
Update 10:09pm Eastern. Williams goes to McCain. Refers to statements his mom made on C-SPAN that the base will have to “hold its nose” and vote for McCain. I got the transcript on this earlier today and alerted Hot Air. Allah blogs the exchange with Roberta McCain here. Her exact quote: “Yes, I think holding their nose they’re going to have to take him.”
McCain refers to supporting conservative judges, says he’s proud to be conservative.
No mention of border security.
Update 10:07pm Eastern. Back from another commercial break. Brian Williams goes to Rudy on his abysmal campaign crack-up. Ouch. “This has always been a competitive race. I have the faith the Giants had last week. We’re going to come from behind, win from Florida, lull people into a false sense of security…” Notes Romney asking him a nice question.
Boy, what a dud. He doesn’t believe his own spin. How will anyone else?
Update 10:01pm Eastern. New topic - environment. Rudy is talking biofuels. McCain is talking cap and trade. See my prior comments about the enviro-nitwit-ization of the GOP.
You know what I said a few minutes ago about grabbing the popcorn? Never mind. That segment was a d-u-d. How could Romney not question McCain about immigration?
Update 9:53pm Eastern. Huck asks Romney about the Second Amendment and ban on assault weapons/Brady. The first frontal attack question. Was wondering if there would be one. Huck: “That’s not consistent…Do you support Brady? Do you support the assault weapons ban and restrictions you support?”
Romney: Says he would have signed it like the president said he would. Says he supports individual right to bear arms. Says he doesn’t support any new legislation.
Romney seemed tentative and nervous.
Rudy directs his question to Romney, too. But it’s really an attack on McCain. Romney mentions that McCain doesn’t support national catastrophic insurance fund as a backstop. Big parochial issue in Florida. McCain cracks: “Who’s answering this question?” Romney supports it. Looks like a Rudy-Romney pander tag team. States in high-risk areas should organize on national basis actuarially. So, I guess he does and he doesn’t support national catastrophic government fund. He’s talking about a “free-market solution.” Rudy wants to know if he supports a mandate. I’m not sure what he’s saying.
McCain gets to answer. “We have to address the issue. Regionally. Increase the risk pool. Reform insurance. The bill in the House was $200 billion, no way to pay for it.”
Update 9:40pm Eastern. Commercial break. Next portion will feature candidates asking each other questions. Get out the popcorn.
Here we go. Romney goes first. He raises the specter of China. “How will we have trade with China that protects America, on a level playing field?” Question goes to Rudy, though it’s really more of a question and answer session with himself. Sorry, I didn’t really pay attention to Rudy’s answer.
I was thinking about how Romney’s question/statement may have been a way to defend himself from a Huck attack on his ties to Bain Capital.(which Duncan Hunter alluded to and is the primary reason he opposes Romney)
Anyway…
McCain asks Huck about Fair Tax. How do you answer criticism that flat tax would cause more pain to low-income Americans…how do you account for resonance? Softball for sweethearts. “And when you’re done, Governor, could you also comment on how many Republicans would like to see you as my vice president…”
Kissy-kissy.
Huck: “We’re penalized for productivity in this country. Republicans ought to embrace the fair tax…”
Russert follows up: 93 percent sales tax. How does this help those paying 15 percent?
Update 9:34pm Eastern. Excellent Romney answer on Iraq. Strong, tough, focused on the surrendercrats. He takes on Dems for their withdrawalmania…cites debate in SC when Hillary refused to say she wanted to win and recycled Code Pink line.
Romney excoriates Dems and says “how dare they” take credit for surge.
Applause.
Romney just out-McCained McCain on the war.
Russert: Was the war a good idea and worth the blood and treasure?
McCain: It was worth it. Our men will return and return with honor, having fought al Qaeda over there.
Rudy: I’m for it when 6 out of 10 were for it and when 6 out of 10 were against it. Also very strong objecting to conducting war by polls.
Paul: It was a very bad idea and it wasn’t worth it. Falsely claims that al Qaeda wasn’t there and is now. Blames America for starting the war.
Huck: I supported the president when he went into this. He deserves our thanks, not scorn.
Update 9:27pm Eastern. We’re not breaking any new ground here. Romney’s repeating his “Washington is broken” line for the thousandth time. “Change has to begin with us. We are the party of change.”
Really? The Republicans are the Party of Change? When did that happen?
St Pete Times editor reads some question. First for McCain: How can we sustain Iraq with bad economy? McCain: If we do what Hillary wants, the expenses of surrender will be paid in blood and treasure. McCain repeats his pride for advocating surge first. Proud of our troops for not waving the White Flag of Surrender.
Update 9:20pm Eastern. Hey, did ya know that Rudy rejected Saudi prince’s money? If you missed it the last 1,000 times he mentioned in past debates and TV appearance, he just told the whole story again.
Russert talks deficits. “Why should Republicans be re-elected?” McCain says Democrats would spend more, make entitlement crisis worse, increase taxes. McCain lambastes Bush-aspproved earmarks/pork/Bridge to Nowhere projects. “I’ll veto them…we will clean up our act, fix this problem of having to borrow money from China, balance our budget.”
Huck gets a question. I forgot he was there. “I wasn’t in Washington messing things up. That’s why I should get a chance.” Refuses to blame Bush. Huck pats himself on the back for saying the economy was bad before any of his GOP challengers recognized it.
Update 9:14pm Eastern. Romney defends his Mass. tax record. Criticizes McCain for not supporting Bush tax cuts the first time around.
Russert invites McCain to attack Romney’s fee hikes. He defends his opposition to Bush tax cuts and asserts his fiscal conservative bona fides.
Ron Paul objects to appropriating more money for stimulus…immediately segues to war spending on Empire. Natch.
Update 9:04pm Eastern. Ok, here we go. Stimulus-palooza is the first topic. Romney supports the Bush plan, but wish it went further…more tax cuts, “grow jobs.”
“We have a housing crisis…that has spilled out into the economy…helping to reverse the crisis…is crucial.”
No words at all about fiscal responsibility, thrift, prudence, or the need for borrowers who made bad decisions to suck it up, let the market correct, and let housing prices fall.
No beef.
McCain worries about pork barrel projects. Likes expense write-offs. “The rate cuts by Bernanke are a good beginning, but we need to continue to cut tax rates.” We need to encourage saving (YES!) and cut spending.
Giuliani: The package is ok, but doesn’t go far enough. Make the Bush tax cuts permanent. (Good.) We need a permanent package. Regulatory reform. Comprehensive tax reform. (All good.)
Russert to McCain: You said you weren’t well-versed on economy. Is it a problem for your campaign? Maverick says he doesn’t know where the quote came from. Drops names of economic advisers - Martin Feldstein, Jack Kemp, etc., etc. “I have been a consistent fighter to restrain spending and cut taxes.” (See: “I’ve always been for tax cuts, except for the ones I vote against.”)
Huckabee attacks stimulus for putting money into people’s pockets so consumers can buy Chinese products. Ok. Wants infrastructure spending for highways from Bangor to Florida. Sounds like he’s on board with the Schumer plan.
6:42 PM. The GOP presidential candidates meet again for a Florida debate on MSNBC. The show begins at 9pm Eastern. I’ll be here. No bull–red or otherwise–tonight. Just me, you, and a batch of White House contenders who will be appealing for the first time to Republican primary voters first and foremost. Not independents. Not Democrats.
So: Show us the beef.
Sanctuary Rudy’s slipping. Big Nanny Huck’s fading. McCain’s still channeling Geraldo. And Romney’s running Spanish language ads.
Yes, this is the Republican field.
***
AP:
The Florida primary offers 57 Republican National Convention delegates to the winner. It is the first big state to vote in the nominating campaign, the first winner-take-all contest in terms of delegates, and the final election before a virtual national primary on Feb. 5.
The five contenders shared a stage as polls suggested Romney and McCain were co-frontrunners in the state. Both the former Massachusetts governor and the Arizona senator are campaigning aggressively and have sparred periodically over the economy and tax cuts.
Giuliani and Huckabee were well behind in the same surveys, and struggling.
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Trackbacks
- The Florida Dates - Reactions at Traction Control
- Right Wing Rebel » Blog Archive » My Thoughts On The Florida Debate
- Don Surber » Blog Archive » Issues vs. tissues
- WHAT THEY’RE REALLY SAYING ABOUT GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY AT THE BOCA RATON, FL, GOP DEBATE « Killbuck Creek Politics
- Radio Left
- Devoid of inspiration, so here’s Genesis « Bookworm Room
- » WHAT THEY’RE REALLY SAYING: About Governor Mitt Romney At The Boca Raton, FL, GOP Debate NoisyRoom.net: Courage is the price that Life exacts for granting peace. Amelia Earhart
- Jack
- America needs a better economic stimulus « Zbigniew Mazurak’s Blog
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Categories: 2008 campaign, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Rudy Giuliani
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Huck and Paul are a waste of airtime.
MSNBC is lame. They probably discussed not being bigots and discussing immigration.
mngirl,
The libs will never bring up the issue of illegals because the dems have no answers, so the idea is to bury the issue.
Completely.
Huck spent a good ten minutes on that line. It was better in your head, dude.
Again with the fair tax, it’d be fine it he could get the details right, but he can’t.
oops russert.
You’re just hearing the voices in his head.
Timmy Russert, you patsy, get a haircut.
What the heck? What was that whisper to raise taxes??? Weird. Was Ron Paul whispering?
huck is trying to charm his way back into this race. uh uh. too late.
No McCain or Rudy talk this segment. Thanks for attending fellas.
I think that was Brian Williams whispering, undersatnding that no one new what the heck they were talking about.
Finaly an imagration question
here’s you’re immigration question gayle
Romney is also running commercials in Spanish.
Did Tim Russert just acknowledge that Chavez is a dictator?!?!?!
Nahhh, Taylork, he just misspoke.
HUCKABEE - DON’T SEEL MCCAIN! SHEESH!
Huck is afraird of Chuck
Huck is, at least,funny and does not make me gag except on his McCain stuff.
Why does McCain’s mother matter?
hardeharhar. Snore.
Please, God, someone cream McCain on immigration. Three minutes.
McCain named drop wayyyyy too much tonight.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!
RUDY DID IT!!!!!!!!!
HOME RUN!!!!!!!!!!!!
Great answer Rudy attack NYT rarr
Huckleberry sure did NOT preach on “RULES TO REGULATE WHO GETS TO HAVE MEDICAL ATTENTION or who JESUS said gets to have MIRACLE HEALING” in all those CHURCHES he has been campaigning in, for the last several years - SURELY!
I cannot find any JESUS Scriptures for ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMINAL SANCTUARIES, EITHER! Especially NOT out of unrepresentative, mandated TAXPAYER FUNDING!
In the Constitution, it is not even legal for the Government to billet SOLDIERS at the Citizens expense in their own homes like the British used to do - but Huckleberry thinks we owe ILLEGAL ALIEN CRIMINALS the world on a silver platter just because they BROKE ALL RULES of being a GOOD NEIGHBOR and TRESPASSED and MOVED THE BOUNDARIES of the property lines???
He ain’t a Brother of MY Church, I gar-own-TEE. And no churches in our neighborhood get Socialist tenets confused with Scriptures or with Baptist doctrines, either one!
Isn’t that pathetic?! Had Fred not dropped out, this would be an entirely different ballgame. His leaving has created a huge void. Many picked on Fred’s style, etc., but NO ONE could accuse him of being a liberal. And because it seems more people were more concerned with style rather than substance, we’re left with… well… the ones we have left.
Michelle malkin said
LOL!!!
Can someone please explain this to Rudy
Actually, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, applicants who wish to become naturalized U.S. citizens already “must be able to read, write, speak, and understand words in ordinary usage in the English language.” The only exceptions are for those with physical or mental impairments, those who have been legal residents for 15 years and have reached age 55, or who have been legal residents for 20 years and have reached age 50.
Link
Softball questions to McCain.
He is the liberal media’s sweetheart.
McCain shows love to Rudy? Where’s my tums?
Brian Williams is an absolute mouth piece for the Clinton’s and the DNC. His question of Rommney on Mormonism was way out of bounds. I am afraid that if he becomes the candidate the Clintons through their surrogates will pound his religion. He will be on the defensive constantly. They will not care if they alienate the 2% of the population in doing so.
One last change to name drop McCain…
Hucks jokes aren’t cutting it anymore.
RP shut up you are not a republican go home
Truthmatters,
Rudy’s explaination as in context to his hispanic-language ads; it’s perfectly appropriate in context.
Get used to it. Whoever we nominate will get hammered by the media on something.
Thanks to DVR I don’t have to here Ron Paul….and the two guys that clapped vigorously for him.
RED ALERT: SECOND HUCK/MCCAIN PUBLIC DISPLAY OF AFFECTION.
Yeah, I caught that too…Suckupabee.
No final statements?!! BOO!
Rudy’s explaination as in context to his hispanic-language ads; it’s perfectly appropriate in context.
What??? He said the fundamental focus needs to be on learning English..You already have to do that to become a citizen (in theory). So if these people are here and aren’t currently learning English, then what are they doing???
Mitt Won Big
this whole fiasco was blah….I have still have not changed my opinion.
Mitt - it is for me.
Scarb says this was Mitts’s best performance…it was good, but I think his last Fox debate was better.
Hery Flenser, didn;t you say you’d vote for Hillary over cCain?! What’s this “we” business?
It’s good to see you again, by the way 4 onths ago you let me on a merry chase with the promise that you’d answer a single question. This you have tie for, but you still haven’t kept your promise.
YYou’re a lib shill as your Hillary-for-president stance demonstrated.
Paul just accurately summed up this steaming pile of crap debate and primary contest between Liberal Republicans.
Winners:
1) Mitt Romney
2) Rudy Giuliani
Nobody else helped themselves tonight.
Ok, that was Pa-freakin’-thetic!!!
Can we someday, someway, PLEASE get an actual CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN to moderate these debates instead of these retarded liberals like Russert Potatohead and Brian Williams??? They avoided immigration to protect McVain, they let McVain and Huckabee do their impression of Britney and Madonna kissing at the MTV music awards, Russert tried nothing but class warfare and gotcha’s against Mitt … AWFUL debate.
Gag me with a school bus.
Looks like Mitt’s got this one in the bag.
He sounded pretty good tonight.
What did you expect? No FRED!
truthmatters:
IN CONTEXT TO HIS HISPANIC LANGUAGE AD. SHEESH!
Mitt and Rudy were good. McC was so so. Huckabee and Paul were ummhh, just there.
Thanks for putting in the hard time, Michelle.
Debate? Debate? We don’t need no stinkin’ debate!
What a waste of time.
Everyone was afraid to miss, so no punches were thrown.
I think Romney is the guy.
He was more than ready for the Mormon question—no doubt he had it in his run for governor.
Chris Matthews! Time to change channels.
‘Night
“IN CONTEXT TO HIS HISPANIC LANGUAGE AD. SHEESH!”
Ok, seriously, what the f are you talking about?? In context to his ad. He is clearly running the ad to try to get Spanish speaking people to vote for him. How in the hell does that encourage them to learn English?
One last one on Russert; when Romney said “I can’t even think about Bill Clinton back in the Whitehouse with nothing to do. I don’t think the American people can think about that…..”
Russert asks: What does that mean?
What do you think it means you big oaf? Did you sleep through 1998?
Disregarding message, Huck is the best communicator.
I’m leaning toward Romney at this time. The spouse says that he talks to fast for her. He sounds like thousands of other business leaders to me. He stays on message fairly well, but he has to get comfortable with emotion. He does need to slow down. He could learn from Huck’s speaking style.
I’m with you MM on Ron Paul. He makes cogent statements and then sends them careening through a body-clenching wilderness of weirdness. This is the primary problem with libertarians and their message.
Johnny Mac got to sit this one out for the most part.
Rudy fought well, but didn’t sparkle on many of the questions. But you have to like a guy who is comfortable trading slugs with the NYT.
Ain’t that the truth…
I am very, very worried, but I agree with that statement. I miss Fred. I can’t help it.
Truth, nice of you to come in at the very end of the debate:
He was asked how (logistically, one supposes) he could run a spanish language ad and still demand so much emphasis on learning english. he said rightly because many still can’t speak english, and so he wanted to reach them now, but as president he’d put much further stress and more emphasis on that criteria. Whats your problem? It’s ridiculously simple. What about that do you not understand?
Pro or con?
No, seriously. He’s the GOP king of class warfare and identity politics, so it could go either way here.
Romney is not a Southerner like Huckabee. I am from New Jersey - I can empathize. I love my friends and have deep passion for ideological issues, but our mannerisms often come across as less heart-felt than those from the South. Don’t hate us for it.
That was pretty lame, but all of the candidates scored points with me tonight. I remembered how much more I prefer any of them to any of the democrats.
I’d say it was close to a tie between Rmitt and Rudy, but Mitt had a huge advantage in round 3, about 11 minutes uninterrupted more less by my count.
No doubt…If you tuned in during that time, you would have thought it was a subdued Mitt rally.
WINNERS:
(1) Mitt Romney
(2) John McCain
(3) Rudy Giuliani (tie) Mike Huckabee
(4) Ron Paul
oh god, listen to the MSNBC talking heads try to sell McCain to the masses as the true conservative republican. This is serious - the MSM is really trying to get the sure-fire general election loser in a head-to-head with Hillary. This isn’t analysis, this is a conspiratorial con-job!!! No joke. For real!
I’m convinced you could have taken McCain clips from the previous debates and spliced them over his comments from this debates and not noticed a differece.
Oh good, we can text MSNBC who we think one, that way we can spend money and lose anyway to a bunch Paulians who have nothing better to do but repeatedly text at 11 at night.
Taylork,
So true! You nailed it.
LOL
McCain did name far more conservative friends, trusted colleagues, close comrades, brothers-in-arms, etc., than all of the other candidates combined.
I listened on-line, so thankfully, I am missing the “analysis”.
Does MSNBC use Olberman for these things? Might as well go all the way and make a mockery of the debate, too, if they’re going to ignore it when they do the analysis.
Well, I still loved Rudy saying the reason the NY Times attacked him is because he’s a true conservative and the NY times hates that (essentially correct). Funny, because you get the impression that russert wanted to trip him up, and instead gave him a Christmas present in that question.
I’m waiting for the poll results to see how busy the RP bees are tonight.
The networks must have figured out that they can make easy money from the Paulians. Otherwise, they wouldn’t bother, as everyone knows the results are more than meaningless.
LMAO……..
You really are some sort of unhinged nutcase.
A few facts on Rudy Giuliani.
In the 1960’s and early 1970’s, Rudy Giulaini was pretty far left in his politics. In fact. he voted for George McGovern in 1972.
He only changed his registration form Democrat to independent in 1975, when he got a job in Gerald Fords administration arranged by his mentor, judge Lloyd MacMahon.
He remained an independent for the next few years. In December 1980, one month after Reagan was elected in a landslide, Giuliani changed his registration from independent to Republican. A few months later he was appointed to a job in the Reagan justice dept, again based on judge MacMahons recommendation. He remained in this job foe two years before being appointed US Attorney for the Southern District of New York.
His next political appearance was when he ran for mayor of NY in 1988. He was defeated that year but four years later defeated Dinkens.
His time as Mayor of New York was not a happy one for conservatives. In 1994 he campaigned alongside Bill and Hillary Clinton to help them pass a crime bill which included an”assault weapons” ban, one opposed by the GOP Congress.
He also endorsed Democrat Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki, on the grounds that Pataki might cut taxes.
In his first term as mayor he opposed school choice, a position he reversed in his second term.
He opposed the landmark welfare reform bill passed by the GOP Congress in 1996.
He also opposed the immigration reform act passed in the same year, feeling it was too harsh on both legal and illegal immigrants.
He opposed the line item veto, one of the key provisions of the Contract With America, because it threatened pork for NYC. Bill Clinton was threatening to cut Federal spending to New York, so Giulaini took him to court and was successful in getting the line item veto thrown out.
Later in his time in office, Giuliani filed a lawsuit against the Clinton administration to try to get thrown out a Federal requirement that local official must cooperate with Federal immigration officers. This suit was unsuccessful, but he made a minor tweak in NYC practice and continued with the sanctuary city practice.
Having opposed tougher Federal immigration enforcement, he was later to assert that the only reason he was lax on illegal immigrants was because the Feds were not doing their jobs.
He finished his time as mayor by opposing a tax cutting bill the GOP House was trying to pass in 20o0.
In many respects Giuliani, during his time as mayor, was somewhat to the left of Bill Clinton.
Head Turning Charazma
McCain steals Ron Paul’s “we’re borrowing money from China” line? Talk about idiotic! Perhaps Joe Biden helped Mccain prepare for the debate tonight….
“On January 24th, 2008 at 7:17 pm, et said: I have a novel idea. How about having Republicans question Republicans about Republican issues in a Republican primary election?”
Good idea……But where would you ever find any MSM media talking heads to act as moderators who are not lib/dems?
FLENSER!
My old pal. Well, aren’t you cute, coming back with a lengthy response 1 1/2 hours later when the room is empty. Too typical.
Everything you wrote about Rudy relevent to the race is BS. You can’t substantiate a word of it and I know because I was in NYC during his terms as Mayor. You also left out that he closely worked with Reagan, reduced taxes and never raised them, turned a deficit into a surplus, stood up and beat organized crime (huge), fought against abortion in NYC(!) by promoting adoption (his only legal recourse as Mayor, duh!) and a host of other entirely conservative views and more importantly, accomplishments. Oh yeah, he led the largest city in the US out of it’s worst attack on US soil brilliantly.
But A, you have time for this but still haven’t kept your word by answering a single question 10 weeks ago, here’s the link everyone
http://michellemalkin.com/2007/11/08/the-kerik-indictment-giuliani-and-the-gop/
and
B. You said only a few days ago that you would vote for Hillary Clinton over McCain. Let me repeat that for eveyone: Flenser said he would pro-actively vote for Hillary to put her in the White House.
You’d like to call me unhinged, but the truth is you’d like to breeze in here as a liberal shill undermining enthuisiasm among the conservative faithful without anyone pointing you out. Frustrating isn’t it?
I’ll be here every day between now and November, Flenser, just for the occasional newbie who might show up and take your garbage as truth, and show you up for what you are.
Anyway, say Hi to Hillary for me when you cast your vote for her in Nov, as you indicated you would.
And I’m still waiting for you to keep your word on that thread.
Here’s the most damning quote from the already-notorious NY Times McCain endorsement:
This especially
CONSERVATIVE TRANSLATION: you can depend on him to sell out.
CONSERVATIVE TRANSLATION: That, boys and girls, mean us. Doesn’t it just make you all tingly inside to be acknowledged like that?
CONSERVATIVE TRANSLATION: you can depend on him to sell out - again.
I don’t know about you, but I find this to be a stunning lack of political understanding and savvy on the part of the NY Times, unless they believe that McCain would be the strongest candidate to beat Hillary, which seems nearly impossible.
Think of it: on the eve of a huge winner-take-all primary when only the Republican faithful are allowed to vote, McCain, already on terrible footing with all conservatives, gets nails absolutely powerdrilled into the coffin of his Florida ambitions by getting an endorsement from the one source more than any other that conservatives truly despise.
I’ll bet that famous penchant he has for 4-letter words is running on all cylinders right now.
It’s always possible that they believed that Florida’s more centerist Republican transplants from NYC will go for the centerist endoresment, but they’ve gone way astray: this makes Florida’s harder conservatives hate McCain more and gains him nothing because the NYC transplants are Rudy’s most secure demographic because they saw what he could do first hand and love him for it.
Winner? Rudy of course, by having their anti-endorsement. He gets a much-deserved shot in the arm by having it proved to the skeptics that his actual record is far more conservative than his negative publicity makes him out to be. And thanks to bumbling Chris Matthews (who really looked shocking old) Rudy got to address that anti-endorsement directly, and he did it in so relaxed a fashion I think most conservatives can immediately feel better about how he really sees the world as a Republican.
I’ll go way out on a limb and predict that at worst Rudy comes in a very close second to Mitt and McCain goes a more distant third. Rudy will play this up and McCain can’t run from it because it’s only a few days from the vote and McCain just isn’t that fast. When this settles Rudy is going to get alot more well-earned mileage out of this than it appears at first blush.
Second-place winner from the editorial effect: Romney, of course, who only needs to worry about Rudy for the next few days.McCain is no longer a threat.
I hope Mitt and Rudy’s ad people are fast: Announcer: “Senator McCain has long been an outsider to the republican party, and this endorsement from the extremely liberal, pro-democrat NY Times editorial board proves it.” You can imagine the rest.
Thank you, New York Times. From now on I’ll save the editorial pages for the really stinky fish, just to show my appreciation. I mean it. For real.
Hey MM, sorry yet about the slurs you uttered on Fred?
I’m giving you a big ol Rush Limbaugh SITYS.
All in all, debate was long on wind and short on substance, just like the remaining candidates.
Romney “won”, but the bar was set pretty lowe.
Well you all did a pretty good job of covering the debate, thanks, I have that channel blocked I won’t add to their pathetic nielsen ratings. Im with Mitt, he has always been my back-up I was a fredhead. I have a multitude of reasons for supporting him, business experience, governing experience, not a career politician etc. Flip flopper, I see it as a guy who will govern as the people wish. Is McCain a flip-flopper, no he digs in when the base is against his plan. I have sperience with gangsters too and one thing I have learned, you can’t allow them to intimidate you or push you around.
Take a look at what ugo is doing down south, a vote for the dems and in four years you might not recognize your country. If anyone thinks this era is like Reagan’s era they are mistaken, during Reagan we were already well adapted to soviet nuclear warheads aimed at us. We had already experienced inflation, odd and even gas lines, industry collapses such as construction, yes and housing too. They can’t scare me I have already lived though most every thing they can come up with.
A vote for hillbillary is not the same as a vote for jimmuh, way different world, much more dangerous, you see back then the soviets wanted to win but they also wanted to live to tell about it afterwards. Thompson’s withdrawl, no not the one he had while campaigning, left a bit of a mess but like the man said, don’t get stuck on stupid. Fred either didn’t really want to be Pres or he realized that he was not exactly what people had made him out to be so for the good of the country he withdrew, he’s that kind of guy. And the final possibility, the campaign was keeping him up past his bedtime. Just kidding.
Memo to OmbreRose: less is more when it comes to use of the all caps feature. This fact is also true with respect to annoying bible thumping.
Conservative Cat, your ongoing obsession with flenser is sort of disturbing brah.
I don’t think you have to worry about McCain CC…Ron Paul exposed his ignorance about economics with one simple question.
As much as Rudy is lagging thus far, I too think he can surprise come Super Tuesday.
But I think, thus far, Romney is the “chosen one.” Will have to monitor the radio and tele today to confirm whether they still want Giuliani though.
You know Fox News Corp. does.
Fed Up