The 2012 New Hampshire Republican Presidential Debate

[hippie_hunter]

I'm starting to think that as well.

 

[Paradoxium]

His whole dodgeball charade is the one reason I trust him least. Simultaneously he probably has the best odds against Obama for being this type of dodgeball expert. Whole thing is depressing.

 

[Marx]

If Romney has anything, it's his ability to not answer a single ****ing question and dodge/avoid everything thrown at him. His whole campaign might as well be: "forget about me, Obama sucks". Son of a ***** might slip through his RomneyCare debacle.

You caught that too, huh?

 

[hippie_hunter]

His whole dodgeball charade is the one reason I trust him least. Simultaneously he probably has the best odds against Obama for being this type of dodgeball expert. Whole thing is depressing.

I think the main reason why I'm not bothered by this is simply because I am that vehemently against Obama having a second term and Romney is becoming the best shot to get rid of him.

 

[DACrowe]

I only saw the first 20 minutes of the debate, but tuned in for the CNN and wrap up. My new thoughts from the highlights:

1. The big winners of this debate were Bachmann and Romney. The former just nationally grabbed the social conservative lady mantle from Sarah "I don't want to do hard things like campaign" Palin. Sure, she is still crazy, but that's never stopped huge swaths of the GOP before. Romney won because he flat out lied about his credentials and even though he was the frontrunner, no one seems to have had the guts to stand up to him. This just further establishes him as the logical choice of the GOP and the idea that "it's his turn." And that sort of country club mentality has worked wonders for the GOP during the last 50 years or so. It'll be funny if Romneycare ends up killing him in the general, instead.

2. The big loser of the debate was ZPaw. He had a chance to knock Romney down a peg and make himself seem like the more viable candidate to GOP donors. His inability to even stand by a statement he made barely 24 hours ago makes him look weak and feckless.

3. They're still calling Obama weak on defense? Reaaalllly?!?1! That line of attack is gone. And as half called for a no-fly zone in March, their backtracking on Libya is pathetic. I'm looking particularly at you Newt.

4. Newt shot himself in the foot with Ryan again. Enjoy Greece. You'll have plenty of time to go back there on vacation in 2012.

5. Santorum, Bachmann just stole your thunder. Buh-bye.

6. Cain just deepened his hole with yet more Islamaphobia.

7. Newt endorsed McCarthyism? There must be some way to take back his academic credentials in history.....

8. Ron Paul is the only one with a shred of principles among them. I may disagree with the man, but he articulates a strong vision that is consistent year in and year out. Here was someone talking about foreign policy in a way that stemmed from the desire to truly protect Americans and American troops' lives. The others were just playing partisan games with the issue and it was pathetic.

9. Oh and most of them are homophobes.

Unless someone has the guts to stand up to Romney on his egregious levels of hypocrisy, he's going to cake walk to his nomination at this rate.

 

[Marx]

The fact that the majority of them are incredibly homophobic in their stances bothered me the most. For obvious reasons...

 

[hippie_hunter]

1. The big winners of this debate were Bachmann and Romney. The former just nationally grabbed the social conservative lady mantle from Sarah "I don't want to do hard things like campaign" Palin. Sure, she is still crazy, but that's never stopped huge swaths of the GOP before. Romney won because he flat out lied about his credentials and even though he was the frontrunner, no one seems to have had the guts to stand up to him. This just further establishes him as the logical choice of the GOP and the idea that "it's his turn." And that sort of country club mentality has worked wonders for the GOP during the last 50 years or so. It'll be funny if Romneycare ends up killing him in the general, instead.

Can't blame them for something that works most of the time. Often giving the nomination to the runner ups in previous primaries has given the GOP winning candidates such as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And for a while, until he nominated Sarah Palin and the economy went to complete crap during the late summer, John McCain was actually competitive against Barack Obama.

And here we have a Mitt Romney who is competitive against Obama. And no, if he gets the nomination, Romneycare isn't going to hurt him. It's only going to hurt him in the primaries.

 

[DACrowe]

Can't blame them for something that works most of the time. Often giving the nomination to the runner ups in previous primaries has given the GOP winning candidates such as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. And for a while, until he nominated Sarah Palin and the economy went to complete crap during the late summer, John McCain was actually competitive against Barack Obama.

And here we have a Mitt Romney who is competitive against Obama. And no, if he gets the nomination, Romneycare isn't going to hurt him. It's only going to hurt him in the primaries.

A give-and-take between the campaigns in the news cycle and/or debates:

OBAMA: You say you want to repeal Health Care Reform, the first meaningful step towards fixing our broken health care system after a hundreds years of trying, even though it is nearly identical to the health care law you passed when you were governor of Massachusetts?

ROMNEY: No, what I did was find a solution to a major problem for my state that worked for that time.

OBAMA: So you were for it before you were against it? [insert flipflop joke]

ROMNEY: No, no, no. We solved it at a state level as the Constitution said and not at the federal level.

OBAMA: So, you don't want pre-existing conditions for your state, but you're all right with throwing children off health care insurance across the country and bringing back pre-existing conditions?

ROMNEY: No, we need to find a common sense solution...

OBAMA: So, what is your solution?

ROMNEY: To let states decide how to handle the problem and....

OBAMA: And repeal this law that would allow insurance companies to deny coverage to children in the meantime? To do nothing?

ROMNEY: No, it's too....


And now Romney is caught defending his opposition to something he already signed into law. Then the Obama campaign pulls out Romney's advisors from Massachusetts who endorsed the president's law and Romney looks worse than Kerry did on the Iraq War. Being a flipflopper on your party's signature issue can severely hurt you as 2004 has shown.

I agree Romney can beat Obama. But only if the economy double dips. I think his position on the auto rescue will be very damaging in Michigan and Ohio. If talking about HCR can make Florida competitive, Romney will have some trouble.

 

[hippie_hunter]

FYI, Obamacare isn't popular in Florida and the auto bailout isn't popular in Ohio.

 

[StorminNorman]

I thought Newt did the most to help his stock.

Ron Paul demonstrated he is the only serious candidate.

Pawlenty ended his campaign tonight.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think that this was some much needed good news for Newt.

 

[luke1234]

The fact that the majority of them are incredibly homophobic in their stances bothered me the most. For obvious reasons...

Understandable Marx, though I am in not the same position as you, I cannot find a valid reason to support a president who denies anyone their essential rights as a decent human being.

The only person answering questions tonight was Paul. I was disappointed by Romney, he could of taken a more mature role and began to answer questions more thoroughly then just simply bashing Obama.

Bachman is frightening to me.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

Im watching it right now. Why can't people answer a question without dodging like its a game of dodgeball. Answer the damn question.

 

[hippie_hunter]

Im watching it right now. Why can't people answer a question without dodging like its a game of dodgeball. Answer the damn question.

Every candidate except for Ron Paul does that. Barack Obama was the worst at it in 2008 and look at how far that got him

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

The blaming Obama for stuff is funny to me. I mean their blaming stuff thats been happening since The first Bush. This is entertaining stuff.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

If the economy goes up and I know this is a long shot, Obama replaces Biden with Hillary then he can't lose.
Jesus Romney is showing too much love.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

There are more black people debating than there is in the audience.

Cain is just for show. He's only up there to say "look a black republican, our opposition to Obama isn't tainted by racism!!!"

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

There are more black people debating than there is in the audience.

Cain is just for show. He's only up there to say "look a black republican, our opposition to Obama isn't tainted by racism!!!"

I agree.

 

[hippie_hunter]

There are more black people debating than there is in the audience.

Cain is just for show. He's only up there to say "look a black republican, our opposition to Obama isn't tainted by racism!!!"

I agree.

Or maybe he's actually a black Republican who wants to be a serious challenge to Obama. A black Republican surprising

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

A Black republican isn't surprising. It's obvious their using the man as show. He got no chance in hell.

 

[MessiahDecoy123]

If the economy goes up and I know this is a long shot, Obama replaces Biden with Hillary then he can't lose.
Jesus Romney is showing too much love.

If economy improves Obama will win in a landslide.

A dead Bin Laden and a averted recession. Nobody can challenge that.

 

[8wid]

I think all except Ron Paul are pawns of Fox News or Wall Street.

 

[hippie_hunter]

If the economy goes up and I know this is a long shot, Obama replaces Biden with Hillary then he can't lose.

Yes he can. First of all, Hillary doesn't want to be Vice President, as a matter in fact, she plans to retire from politics after Obama's first term.

Second, the economy isn't going to go up enough in time for the November election. Comments on how he stabilized the economy or how he turned it around are going to hurt him, because lets say that he has, the fact is that people aren't feeling it. And when he says things like that, he comes off as very out of touch and completely ignorant. His poll numbers in regards to the economy are very, very, VERY poor. Add in the fact that his policies regarding health care, the stimulus, cap and trade, the auto bailout, Libya, etc. are unpopular. Afghanistan would also be very unpopular if he didn't kill Osama bin Laden.

Obama is very beatable in 2012. I'm not saying that he's guaranteed to lose, but there is a strong chance that he will lose his re-election bid.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

I think AND hoping the economy will improve somewhat before November 2012. I go to College in 2013 and imma need a job lol.

 

[TheIncredibleSk]

Yes he can. First of all, Hillary doesn't want to be Vice President, as a matter in fact, she plans to retire from politics after Obama's first term.

Second, the economy isn't going to go up enough in time for the November election. Comments on how he stabilized the economy or how he turned it around are going to hurt him, because lets say that he has, the fact is that people aren't feeling it. And when he says things like that, he comes off as very out of touch and completely ignorant. His poll numbers in regards to the economy are very, very, VERY poor. Add in the fact that his policies regarding health care, the stimulus, cap and trade, the auto bailout, Libya, etc. are unpopular. Afghanistan would also be very unpopular if he didn't kill Osama bin Laden.

Obama is very beatable in 2012. I'm not saying that he's guaranteed to lose, but there is a strong chance that he will lose his re-election bid.

I stopped reading after Hilary retiring. I didn't know. My heart is broken.