Republican Debate: Mitt Romney & Ron Paul Score Points

[Bradley in DC]

http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_272618469.shtml?ref=rss

Republican Debate: Mitt Romney & Ron Paul Score Points
By Jackson Simpson
Jan 25, 2008

So who won the Republican debate in Florida? It certainly wasn't John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. Mike Huckabee wasn't bad but wasn't good. But Mitt Romney had his best debate of the campaign season so far and shockingly wild card Ron Paul scored some great points as well. No, I'm not signing on with the wild bunch that supports him, but give the man his due, he sounded great on the stage.

Republican Debate: Mitt Romney & Ron Paul Score Points

This was an economic debate and a bit boring at times and that left John McCain in a very bad way. There was little bickering and that helped Paul, who has been slammed by other candidates all campaign season long. One other note - I almost forgot Huckabee was on the stage, and that is not going to help.

***

Congressman Paul performed at his best when he ticked off the many ways on why he believes that Republicans have abandoned their traditional conservative principles, including unbalanced budgets, massive increases in the size of government, infringing individual freedoms, and failing to strictly follow the Constitution. Hmm, not bad, and believe me, I am no fan of Dr. Paul.

Mitt Romney looked presidential and milked his anti-Washington rhetoric quite well. I'm certain that the GOP race is really down to only two viable candidates and they are McCain and Romney. I'm not certain how may Republicans even bothered to tune in to watch MSNBC, but Romney trounced McCain with his words and his style.

***

Now the question appears to be "Who can beat Hillary" for the GOP. That is the only thing keeping McCain's numbers up as many are frightened of another four to eight years of Clinton. Romney seemed to hammer away and say that he believes he could beat Hillary and her loud-mouthed husband. He even got in a good shot at Bill and his intern Monica Lewinsky without mention her name.

He then ripped her as "exactly what is Washington" and said that the last thing America needs is to send the Clintons back to Washington. He'll have to convince GOP voters to win Florida. If he does and keeps up the outsider mantra he may have a shot.

 

[ShowMeLiberty]

Nice. But if the author believes Dr. Paul is right about how "Republicans have abandoned their traditional conservative principles", how is it that he is not "a fan"? I guess he must be ok with the neocon takeover of the party. *sigh*

 

[austinchick]

i hate this arrogant review

shockingly wild card Ron Paul scored some great points as well. wild bunch that supports him
Paul, who has been slammed by other candidates all campaign season long

Hmm, not bad, and believe me, I am no fan of Dr. Paul

 

[Primbs]

Ron Paul did very well in the debate.

 

[josh24601]

Notice how Paul's supporters cast a dark shadow over his message....

 

[WilliamC]

Why does the average "pseudo-establishment" Republican (i.e. non-elected Repbulican's who have been involved in the party for a long time) have to work so hard to NOT like Ron Paul? Is it because they really are all blindly following the "establishment" Republicans (elected officials corrupted in Washington) and not willing to think for themselves?

I seriously don't get it. Do they want to see the GOP go down?

 

[Big Lou]

Why does the average "pseudo-establishment" Republican (i.e. non-elected Repbulican's who have been involved in the party for a long time) have to work so hard to NOT like Ron Paul? Is it because they really are all blindly following the "establishment" Republicans (elected officials corrupted in Washington) and not willing to think for themselves?

I seriously don't get it. Do they want to see the GOP go down?

The GOP has already gone down. Both parties are mostly socialist money parties at this point. Just slightly different flavors thereof.

 

[acptulsa]

The GOP has already gone down. Both parties are mostly socialist money parties at this point. Just slightly different flavors thereof.

There you are. Paul is severely anti-status quo. Establishment types among the G.O.P. faithful, even the less compromised and more idealistic ones, are very much stay-the-course types. A combination of a huge wave of "it's broke time to fix it" sentiment and enough time and exposure to Paul's ideas to digest them and see their merits is wearing these people down--and more average G.O.P. voters, too.

Our biggest asset is that just as Bill has descended to mudslinging and Hillary has stayed above the fray, we have done Dr. Paul's dirty work and he has remained his immaculate self. Only, Bill's an elder statesman and the role doesn't do him any favors, while Hillary has been unable to resist slinging that mud. And still Dr. Paul remains above the rabble of candidates!

We have done well. We now have to try to tone down the insistence that we not get ignored (when we aren't) and try to stay funny as we can with the mudslinging (like Austinchick's brilliant comparison of McCain to Miss Teen S. Carolina). We're doing very well. Kudos all around!!

 

[wstrucke]

Ron Paul did very well in the debate.

he did well with his allotted time. would have been much better had they given the candidates equal time as is their duty to the American people.

 

[Brother Butch]

The good side. If this guy is impressed, with all his negativity against RP, then there are likely undecided people out there who also took notice.

 

[billyjoeallen]

I believe the GOP is warming up to us! They wisely see that Dr. Paul is preferable to McCainism. Nice.

 

[WilliamC]

The GOP has already gone down. Both parties are mostly socialist money parties at this point. Just slightly different flavors thereof.

On the national level I agree. However I still think at the State and local level there are substantial differences between most Republicans and Democrats, at least the differences are pretty clear here in Mississippi. Now we have our share of "Conservative" democrats but they are being pushed out of the party as the National Democrats try more and more to exert influence over State races.

It's that rank-and-file GOP member who actually agrees with Ron Paul on >90% of the issues but who refuses to vote for him because "he can't win" is what I don't understand.