A follow up from last night’s debate.

CNN already has a reputation of being a cheerleader for Hillary – “Clinton News Network” is a common refrain. They got a a rash of criticism for their Democratic debate for stacking the audience in Hillary’s favor and not doing enough background checks on the questioners for being Hillary plants. So with that in mind, how in the world could CNN get “fooled” once again so easily by the Hillary campaign? Makes you wonder if they were truly “fooled” at all….

Here is a fresh thread to talk about what will happen, what is happening, and what did happen in tonight’s debate on CNN. Debate starts at 8pm.

I might watch it and give my impressions later.

UPDATE (8:32pm): Round one on Immigration – winners Huckabee and McCain. Both candidates gave solid answers and focused on the issue itself instead of attacking the others. Giuliani and Romney just looked childish with their sniping at each other (”sanctuary mansion” was just lame). Fred Thompson sounds half asleep. And as far the others, they don’t matter, so it isn’t worth time even rating them.

UPDATE (8:50pm): Round two on Government Spending and Taxes – winner again is Mike Huckabee (get rid of IRS and reorganize Homeland Security). Thompson did not get specific whatsoever. McCain ended up debating with Ron Paul instead. Giuliani and Romney were just bleh. All would promise to veto tax hikes and sign pledge saying so except Thompson, McCain and Hunter. Something about farm subsidies came up. Finally, a real cheap attempt at Gotcha journalism by Anderson Cooper bringing up the allegations reported earlier today against Giuliani. Giuliani handled it well.

UPDATE (8:56pm): They play a Thompson commercial attacking Romney past position on abortion and a Huckabee speech where he appears to be agreeing to tax hikes. Romney claims he was wrong and changed his mind (looked pretty weak to me) and Huckabee claimed it was a distortion of his record and said it means he is being attacked because he is ahead. Another solid effort by Huckabee.

COMMERCIAL

UPDATE (9:09pm): Round three on Guns and Crime – Giuliani just looks silly answering this question, trying to claim his past support of gun control doesn’t mean he is against gun ownership. Great answer from Thompson on whether he owns guns (he is not going to tell you what they are or where they are). Thompson, Hunter own guns. McCain doesn’t own one. Once again, Giuliani and Romney start sniping at each other over each other’s crime records. Thompson is the winner on this issue and Giuliani is clearly a loser.

UPDATE (9:11pm): Round four on abortion. Time for a bathroom break because I really don’t care one iota about this issue.

UPDATE (9:19pm): Round five on Religion (Bible/Death Penalty) – Great answer by Huckabee on his using the death penalty (”Jesus was too smart to run for public office” was a great comeback to Anderson Cooper). Giuliani doesn’t believe everything the Bible. Romney believes it is the Word of God. Again, this question was set up perfectly for Huckabee and explains what he believes what the Bible is and says everyone can believe what the Bible says however they want. Big Winner – Huckabee.

COMMERCIAL

UPDATE (9:27pm): Round six on Foreign policy – Giuliani finally gives a good answer to question about offending Muslims (”The people we should offend are the Islamic Terrorists”). McCain says we should continue the surge and we are winning in Iraq and we should fight Democratic efforts to surrender in Iraq. hunter says he will never apologize for what America has done in the past. All gave great answers.

UPDATE (9:33pm): Round seven on “Torture” – Romney opposed to closing down Gitmo and won’t call waterboarding “torture”. McCain slams Romney for not calling waterboarding “torture”. Romney gives a good response stating he would not classify anything without the council of many voices. Basically this is a disagreement which I can see the merits of both sides.

UPDATE (9:37pm): Round eight on Iraq – Thompson wants to stay as long as necessary to stabilize region, but speaks mostly in generic terms. Paul rambles about getting out now and compares it to Vietnam. McCain responds that America didn’t lose in Vietnam, the American public did and believes we can and will defeat terrorism extremism in the Middle East. McCain is the winner here.

UPDATE (9:39pm): Round nine on whether Rudy uses 9/11 too much – Rudy responds by saying people should look at his entire record as Mayor and says he is qualified based on his record as Mayor before 9/11. Good answer.

UPDATE (9:42pm): Round ten on power of VP (does Cheney have too much?) – Anyway, Thompson says VP should be chosen to be qualified as President and should be a part of administration from the start and have the authority President gives him. McCain says the VP is a key to the administration and should be qualified. What a dumbass question.

COMMERCIAL

UPDATE (9:54pm): Round eleven on Serving Openly Gay in Military – Hunter, Huckabee and Romney all state we should listen to what the military believes is the best. Pathetic by CNN to let the questioner ramble on for over 90 seconds. McCain thanks the questioner, but says the military tells him “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell works and the policy should be kept. A second question about whether Gay Republcains should support Huckabee. Huckabee says yes, but he will not change his position on same-Sex marriage. honestly, these two questions were a naked attempt by CNN to try an embarrass Republcains, but you knew CNN couldn’t resist.

UPDATE (9:56pm): Something on Social Security that I completely missed.

UPDATE (9:58pm): Round thirteen on Space Program – Huckabee would expand space program, but would not pledge a trip to mars, but would promise to put Hillary on the first mission to Mars if there is one (HA!) Tancredo says we can’t afford to go to Mars.

UPDATE (10:00pm): Round fourteen on why blacks don’t vote GOP – Giuliani says GOP do not do a good job of explaining why GOP is best for blacks. Huckabee said 48% of blacks did vote for him because he asked them for their vote and says GOP better reach out to Blacks and Hispanics if they hoe to survive.

UPDATE (10:03pm): Round fifteen on Confederate Flag – Another dumbass question from CNN. Romney doesn’t care about this issue and says there are more important issues to deal with (good answer). Thompson says it doesn’t belong in public places.

UPDATE (10:07pm): Round sixteen on Infrastructure – I guess this isn’t ending at 10:00. Giuliani says US needs a sustained program between Federal, State, and Local governments. Paul blames the infrastructure problems on the US foreign policy. McCain will veto any pork programs, give the President line-item veto which he says Giuliani opposed. Giuliani says line-item veto is unconstitutional.

UPDATE (10:08pm): Will Ron Paul run as an Independent? Ron Paul says he will never run as an Independent and says he raise money and can still win the nomination.

UPDATE (10:09pm): Why did Giuliani root for the Red Sox? He says he is an American League fan, but will root for the Yankees again and points out the Yankees won four World Championships while he was Mayor and none since he left. Pretty good answer. Romney responds that like most Americans, we love sports terams and hate the Yankees. HA!

That’s it!

FINAL UPDATE (10:12pm):

WINNER – Mike Huckabee by far, although he didn’t a chance to really answer many of the foreign policy questions in the second half of the debate, which I would have liked to have seen.

2nd Tier – McCain. One thing about him is you could tell he hated this format, but I think he gave straight and serious answers to every question, even if I don’t agree with them.

3rd Tier – Thompson and Romney. Neither candidate really shined tonight. I thought Romney was silly to get into a pissing match with Giuliani on the first question. Thompson was good in some parts and sort of bleh in other parts. He just doesn’t excite me whatsoever.

Loser – Giuliani. I’ve said all along he has run the best campaign so far this year. This debate performance was just absolutely horrid. On issue after issue, he was just off, stumbling over his answer. His “sanctuary mansion” attack on Romney in the first question was just petty.

Doesn’t Matter – Hunter, Tancredo and Paul.

Honestly, except for the section on gays in the military and the question on Confederate Flag, the topics chosen were good and gave the candidates a chance to expouse their views on issues that are important to Republican voters.