California GOP Debate

Here are my impressions of the CNN California GOP debate held tonight at the Reagan Library.

Mike Huckabee got a great photo-op with Nancy Reagan on his arm.

The Set - it looked cramped to me – the candidates were seated just a little too close together. Plus, seated is just the wrong format in general.

The cut-away - Ron Paul’s first answer was very strong – but the camera cut away from him on his last and strongest sentence. He was only asked two other questions the rest of the first hour as I recall.

The big lie – Ron Paul asked to be included in the discussion of who among them was liberal and who is conservative. All others had answered that question. He was cut off by Anderson Cooper who said he would be able to answer that if he would wait just two minutes – no just two questions – “I promise,” Cooper said three times. They never came back to Ron Paul for the answer to that question and he wasn’t included for many questions after that.

The Paulification of the front runners - in every debate, Ron Paul has stressed that our monetary policy is broken and our debts are being funded by borrowing money from China. They snickered at him. But tonight, for the first time, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and John McCain each said, “we have to stop borrowing money from China!” In fact, McCain said outright, “one thing I agree with Ron Paul about is that we have to quit borrowing money from China.”

Two conservatives – in a typically tacky CNN question, the candidates were asked, in front of Nancy Reagan and in the Reagan Library, if they would have appointed Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court. Huckster and McCain both said she was a wonderful lady and so forth. Ron Paul said, “no, I would have appointed someone who was a stricter constitutionalist.” Mitt Romney said, “I would have appointed people in the mold of Scalia, Roberts and Alito.” When you think about the next President appointing perhaps as many as three Supreme Court justices, I can’t think of a more telling moment in any of the debates so far.

Lifeless – Mitt, McCain and Huck each got to answer a question about abortion. Huck really touted himself as all but the singular champion of the pro-life cause. Ron Paul was cut off from answering the question. The OB-GYN doctor. The only GOP candidate that was in the Washington March for Life. The only candidate endorsed by the nation’s leading pro-life activist, Norma McCorvey. The only candidate who has introduced legislation that would negate Roe v Wade. He is unable to give a full answer to the question that others elaborated on. Ridiculous.

Food-fight – Hillary and Obama made themselves look juvenile during their last debate as they picked and sniped at each other. CNN was eager to get the GOP front-runners into a similar food-fight. McCain and Romney obliged. I think sneering and genuinely mean McCain came out the worst for it in flower-child California. He was booed. But Ron Paul nailed it when they finally asked him a question. He said all of this back and forth between McCain and Romney was just arguing over nuances of the same policy. What we should be debating is foreign policy itself – the big topic – not who said what first. It was crazy.

Huck shuffled – Huckabee was put at the far end of the table and he felt it. He complained several times about not getting his equal share of the questions. Ol’ Huck is being shuffled off the stage by the mainstream media. Ron can feel his pain.

Winners and losers. I think that Romney did well. McCain had one of his weaker showings and was in fact booed more than once. Huckabee was as folksy as ever but didn’t score in his brief appearances. Ron Paul was nearly non-existent though he did answer well when he was given a chance to answer (twice I think).