Grade Ron Paul's Debate Performance Tonight

[specsaregood]

Paul Wolfowitz is a very dangerous opponent. You cite him, in supporting a policy that he is absolutely opposed to, to his face, you damn well better have every single one of your ducks in a row, or he will have chunks of you in his stool.

i found it quite amusing that he felt it necessary to claim that bush was a "conservative republican" in his question.

 

[fc2008]

Newt won the Patriot Act exchange. Awful rebuttal, Ron outright conceded a police state can make you safer. I watched it several times, he actually says it... Not much accomplished on this front in terms of waking people up who are still sleeping. If someone was still on the fence Newt probably convinced them it is needed. - F -

Ron ended one of the last questions with "we should mind our own business". Good position, really bad delivery. It was the tone of his voice, to an undecided, he probably came across like his head is in the clouds when it comes to terrorism. - C -

All other responses were A+

 

[AmericasLastHope]

Answer "F".
I have watched it a few times, and he just does not come off well...and seems very confusing in his answers.

Awful rebuttal, Ron outright conceded a police state can make you safer. I watched it several times, he actually says it... - F -

Troll(s) or coincidence?

Anyway, I honestly thought this was Dr. Paul's best performance yet. He aced it!!!

 

[JoshS]

He drew the line in the Newt exchange, do you want freedom or do you want to live in fear and for how long?

 

[Muwahid]

Why is Ron so humble that he does not mention that he served in the war OR gets the most donations among all the GOP candidates combined?

I think he needs to mention it.

I wish he also stated he's a medical doctor when talking about anything related to healthcare, or marijuana/drug legalization it gives him more authority over any of them.

 

[FA.Hayek]

A-.. honestly, it should be A+ considering how stacked the odds were against him going into the debate, but the good dr. had knocked it out of the park.
Ron Paul is stepping his game up as we approach the Iowa caucases and so should we! Donate as much as you can (NOW), spread the word about our next moneybomb, and, most importantly, PHONE BANK. Let's seize this momentum that's been so hard-earned by Dr. Paul and many of his supporters (that goes all the way back to 2007). Let's double our efforts for the revolution!

 

[Fredom101]

A-. He slipped up just a little bit on the Al Qaeda answer, otherwise, perfect answers across the board.

 

[revgen]

I thought he answered Gingrich's "gotcha answer" beautifully. If you want to live a police state, you can be protected, but you also lose the liberties that our country was founded on. I would rather live free and worry about terrorists then give up my freedom and live in a prison.

 

[exmark]

I have seen Dr. Paul do better in the past. This is a good thing though, because he is still way above the competition even with my "B".

 

[McDermit]

Paul Wolfowitz is a very dangerous opponent. You cite him, in supporting a policy that he is absolutely opposed to, to his face, you damn well better have every single one of your ducks in a row, or he will have chunks of you in his stool.

"There are a lot of things that are different now, and one that has gone by almost unnoticed--but it's huge--is that by complete mutual agreement between the U.S. and the Saudi government we can now remove almost all of our forces from Saudi Arabia. Their presence there over the last 12 years has been a source of enormous difficulty for a friendly government. It's been a huge recruiting device for al Qaeda. In fact if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land, Mecca and Medina."* - Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, May 2003

 

[vechorik]

A. He sounded a little too "dovish" for lack of a better word ......

Excellent debate -- Dr. Paul appeared a bit "grouchy" -- He also needs to wake the neo-cons with something like "I'm often portrayed as the dove -- the anti-war candidate -- don't misunderstand this -- I will knock the hell out of whoever needs killing " LOL Well --- not like that, but you get the point! He needs to sound TOUGH, TOUGH, TOUGH and speak UP for Israel -- saying he will help them when necessary/if asked/whatever. Or that he's accused of not standing with Israel ---and say the words outloud with a fist in the air "I stand with Israel" (you know it's a GOP MUST to become president).

 

[trey4sports]

I thought the patriot act question was handled beautifully. Last two answers were weak, but whatever.

 

[Original_Intent]

First half of debate a solid A. He lost energy and kind of went into education mode/rambling during the 2nd hour, be even there I would say B-.Total debate B+.
And I would give CNN/Wolf a C+, with all previous debates/moderators getting a D- or an F.

 

[2ndfor1st]

If paul was studdering, it's because he was in shock that he was giving so many times to speak...he's not used to that yet. He handled Newt well and Newt debates strong...Newt World Order has been waiting for the right opportunity to one-up Paul but he hasnt landed anything good, Pauls response was excellent.

 

[2ndfor1st]

So it's Ron Paul vs Newt World Order, Bomb iRomney, and Herman Keynesian. He's got this.

 

[Birdlady]

I think RP did all right. The first part was great, but as someone else said, he started to go into professor mode at the end and I don't think he ended very strong. Remember to look at this as if we weren't already supporters.

 

[coffeewithchess]

I thought the patriot act question was handled beautifully. Last two answers were weak, but whatever.

Until he mentioned Tim McVeigh, and it went downhill quickly. Which is why RP needs to seriously sit down with a speech coach, and/or team, and get talking points that he can stick with. He already has them, they are just not clear and concise as they should be; when he wanders into things like Tim McVeigh, it allows the whole, "unpatriotic" thing to be destroyed like Newt did...which should not have happened.

Again, if you are an RP supporter only, and you NEVER talk to the hardcore Fox News viewers, you have no idea what they think of RP, and what he is saying on stage...WILL not change their view of him. RP could have won this thing MONTHS ago, if he simply had a speech coach/debate team, that helped him concentrate more properly on how to answer the questions.

 

[trey4sports]

Until he mentioned Tim McVeigh, and it went downhill quickly. Which is why RP needs to seriously sit down with a speech coach, and/or team, and get talking points that he can stick with. He already has them, they are just not clear and concise as they should be; when he wanders into things like Tim McVeigh, it allows the whole, "unpatriotic" thing to be destroyed like Newt did...which should not have happened.

Again, if you are an RP supporter only, and you NEVER talk to the hardcore Fox News viewers, you have no idea what they think of RP, and what he is saying on stage...WILL not change their view of him. RP could have won this thing MONTHS ago, if he simply had a speech coach/debate team, that helped him concentrate more properly on how to answer the questions.

I love how everyone seems think that Ron would have easily won this whole thing had he just done _________ (insert your pet peeve here).

Quite frankly Ron has been in at least 50 presidential debates in his lifetime and he has not changed his style one bit, and it's not going to change. Period. Ron did fine in the debate. He clearly projected that he is the one who will cut the budget which is the driving political issue right now.

 

[jbuttell]

A- The negative was for allowing them to not let him speak on rebuttals. I think sometimes he needs to be a little assertive when you're being attacked by other candidates.

On top of that, I've noticed a couple talk shows who are obviously anti-Paul intentionally left off Ron's rebuttal during the Newt exchange regarding the Patriot Act, very sad.