Did the debate tonight hurt or help Ron Paul?

[paulitics]

Honestly. What do you think the outcome will be?

 

[noxagol]

Good. He got attacked again, just like with Guiliani, except this time he got to the REAL reason we are still there, saving face.

 

[JoshLowry]

I think it was awesome!

 

[Mr. White]

Anytime the man gets press it helps him. Huckabee, in my opinion, made a huge mistake saying that republicans are in favor of saving their honor over winning an election. That actually pissed me off, the rest just annoyed me.

 

[njandrewg]

any mainstream exposure helps. People always call him a failure right after the debate, but then the support/money starts pouring in and they shut up

 

[catwoman]

I think he did a great job. He was on fire and passionate and truthful. If the voters are really honest with themselves, they'll realize they have only 1 choice and we all know who that is.

 

[brumans]

i don't see how anyone could see how this could hurt ron paul. he got TONS of exposure, his name was brought up constantly. he answered the questions very well with passion and got his ideas out.

 

[max]

Anytime the man gets press it helps him. Huckabee, in my opinion, made a huge mistake saying that republicans are in favor of saving their honor over winning an election. That actually pissed me off, the rest just annoyed me.

Huckabee's "honor".....our blood and our money

Hucksterbee is more like it

 

[born2drv]

He sure took a beating today, but I think he held his ground very well.

I honestly think it's just going to crack open the divide.... I think it will strengthen him with people who oppose the war.... and those in favor of the war will distance themselves from him more.

But we don't care about the second group of people and those people never really supported RP in the first place... so overall I think RP's performace today helps a lot. You have to remember, there are still a lot of republicans out there that still have no idea he is against the war. A lot of independants and democrats for that matter as well. And I think his speeches are going to get lots of play time on the media and I think those who don't favor the war will give him another look.

 

[Paulitician]

It was much better than the ABC debate, all things considered, that's for sure.

 

[Phil M]

This is the only debate that I can honestly say he won. He was fiery, passionate, on the offense, and got much more time than Fox wanted to allot him. Yeah, the OM keeps on spinning the Huckabee thing as a loss, but anyone who saw it who isn't a GOP hack knows Paul won.

 

[remaxjon]

I voted that it hurt Paul. The constant laughing at him by Rudy and the last question talking about getting rid of the FBI really hurt. I wanted to jump at the TV and punch someone.

The Huck exchange was great but that last question really killed it for me

 

[10thAmendmentMan]

How could any of that debate performance possibly hurt him? The only thing that might offend some are his clear-cut plans to cut spending.

 

[Phil M]

Also, anyone notice how everyone always said "with the exception of Ron Paul" in the post debate discussion?

 

[SWATH]

Well Ron Paul is now the recipient of extremely viscous attacks on other forums for claiming that Iran is not killing US soldiers and that if they were they would be justified in doing so. The spin is in warp drive now.

 

[BuddyRey]

Tonight's debate was like the first FOX debate times a thousand as far as publicity goes. I've been all over news sites, including the New York Times, and they're all talking about Paul and Huck's "heated exchange."

 

[Ninja Homer]

Ron Paul did awesome tonight! He's getting better and better at debates.

Although, I must admit, Huckabee is a master-debater. I say that tongue-in-cheek, but seriously, he's a very good speaker even if he sucks on the issues.

Does anybody else realize what an absolutely awesome night this was for the Ron Paul campaign?!?

• He did great in the debate.
• Fred Thompson entered, further splitting the pro-war vote.
• McCain appears to be making a pro-war vote comeback, probably taking votes away from Giuliani.
• Huckabee made a nice showing for the pro-war vote.
• Ron Paul completely owned the text message poll.
• There will be as much air time for this Paul/Huckabee battle as there was for the Paul/Giuliani battle.

The pro-war vote will now be split between Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain, and Huckabee. Forget about Brownback, Hunter, and Tancredo; even if they last, they won't make much of a showing when it matters and if they do it just furthers Ron Paul because it splits the pro-war vote even more.
I believe the results of the text message poll are pretty close to how the primaries will end up. Especially if we continue to work harder and harder!

 

[manuel]

I think it clearly helped. The way I see it, this election will go down as either for the war or against it. There are plenty of people that are against this war. Getting the message out there and getting people to realize that there is an anti-war Republican can only help.

Besides, he'll get tons of press with the Huckabee exchange. It really doesn't matter who won or lost that exchange. What that exchange did was put everything into perspective. Do we stay in Iraq and "finish the job" or do we realize that there is no "job to finish"? This whole idea that we have to "leave with honor" is nonsense. What does "leaving with honor" even mean?

The reality is that Iraq is causing us way more harm than good and I'm seeing plenty of people that are awakening to that fact.

 

[Matt Collins]

Also, anyone notice how everyone always said "with the exception of Ron Paul" in the post debate discussion?

Yes - I think that was good publicity because it keeps setting him apart from all of the other clowns on stage

 

[UCFGavin]

definitely helped. he came out and was fired up.