REPUBLICAN DEBATE IN MICHIGAN

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The Lonely Conservative has all the essentials about tonight’s debate — 8 p.m. ET — to be broadcast on CNBC. Rather than live-blogging, I’ll be updating periodically with links and comments.

BTW, Ann Coulter’s latest column is a must-read, if only for the quote about “idiot Republicans (who should be tracked down and shot).”

UPDATE: At the first commercial break, I Tweeted, “This will be remembered as The Debate Ron Paul Won.” Being an Austrian (i.e., Mises, Hayek) in economics, I swear I get a thrill up my leg when Ron Paul talks purty like that.

Meanwhile, when they tried to bring up the accusations against Cain, the crowd booed the moderators and cheered Cain’s strong response.

Jeff Goldstein observes that some guy named “Seth” has decided all the not-Romneys are “unelectable.”

UPDATE II: At the second commercial break now. Jon Huntsman is getting waaaayy too much time. We’ve heard from Rick Perry maybe 3 minutes, and it seems like we’ve had 15 minutes of Huntsman so far.

Man, the media loves ’em some Huntsman, don’t they?

UPDATE III: Perry can’t even remember all the three government agencies he wants to eliminate. Ouch, that was ugly.

Herman Cain never forgets 9-9-9, by contast.

UPDATE IV: Allahpundit was impressed by Herman Cain’s response to the attempt to raise the accusations: “He knew he’d be asked about it and he came prepared. If, if, there are no more accusers, I think this’ll be seen as the moment that the bleeding stopped.”

Herman just now got a laugh with a repetition of his 999 mantra.

UPDATE V: Debate over, Larry Kudlow said Cain had an “unbelievably good debate tonight,” and called Rick Perry’s brain-freeze “devastating.” Video:

When I was mocking Perry on Twitter some guy said, in effect, would you pick Romney over Perry in a head-to-head? To which I replied, “You posit a hypothetical” — and it’s a farfetched hypothetical, at that. Perry is now 4th (10.2%) in the RCP Average, and is unlikely to improve any time soon. So exactly how and when will this Perry-Romney choice be presented to Republican voters as the only choice they get to make, except in the minds of Perry’s supporters?

I believe Ace has used the term “wishcasting” to describe such ideas.

UPDATE VI: Allahpundit has a round-up of the devastating reaction to Perry’s brain-freeze, including a top GOP fundraiser’s verdict that the Perry campaign is effectively over — which is perhaps too harsh, but does indicate the severity of the damage.

66 comments

  7. I am digging this heath care commentary, if only that I am finding  their answers building on each other.  I liked Paul, Cain, Romney and Gingrich building on each other. 

  11. Maybe Santorum needs to burst into song.  Oh wait, Perry is falling all over himself.  I feell bad for him. 

    I am digging Cain response right now. 

  12. I don’t see him with a goatee, a full handlebar would be better, it draws attention down from the eyes slightly when one talks. The angry comes from around the eyes.

  13. Huntsman needs to go.  The other candidates did fine (even with Perry’s brain fart moment).  Herman held up well and I hope he kicks ass over the next couple of weeks. 

  16. 9-9-9 is nice and all as an economic jumping off point, but Cain needs more. It simply is not the Rosetta Stone of a presidency.

  17. From: http://theothermccain.com/2011/10/24/karl-rove-decides-popular-guy-leading-all-the-polls-cant-possibly-win-election/#disqus_thread

    “Fox News: “Fair. Balanced. Don’t Think the Black Guy Can Win.”IYKWIMAITYD.”

    There’s more of that kind of thing further back, but I got tired  of clicking and hunting. One stuck out a few months ago chiding National Review or something, too… meh, I’m not a good Googler.

    From Ann Coulter: http://www.mediaite.com/tv/andy-levy-accuses-ann-coulter-of-playing-the-race-card-in-tense-red-eye-clip/

    Don’t get me wrong, it’s a tempting thing to play, especially when so many have used it on you unfairly. It’s especially understandable for Coulter to use it. How many times has she been accused of being a racist? Michelle Malkin? Etc.

    How great to turn the tables on them all!

    On the other hand – it’s also one of those things that will seriously galvanize primary opponent opposition, and make the general harder for Cain if he gets the nomination.

    If Cain wins that nom, he’ll need as much support as possible from everyone… Paulbot-lite tactics (not necessarily from you, but I’ve seen it in some of Cain’s supporters) will definitely hurt more than help in the final fight.

  19. I denounce you too, just for safety.

    Maria’s no Diane Macedo, but she did revolutionize business news reporting.  Back in the go-go days of the late ’90s and early ’00s, even the most frenetic day-traders would turn from their computer screens when they heard her voice on the television. 

    It was new, but perfect.  What goes better together than money and women?

  20. NO candidate’s full platform EVER gets enacted.  But start big and fight for all of it you can.  Anyone doubt Cain’s a fighter at this point?

    It’s also memorable.  What other candidates have ANY lines or phrases that immediately identify them to the public?

  22. Perry should have just thrown out a random department for the third.  Other than Defense and Treasury, they’re mostly expendable.  I felt sorry for him when the panelist nailed him on forgetting.  He’s done now, I think.  You just can’t be this bad in debates and survive.

    He would have moved up in my consideration if he had thrown out – “the State Department – after we hang all the traitors, there won’t be many left anyway.”

    Cain rocked the attempt to ask about the scandal.  Too bad he wasn’t like that the first four days when he was all over the place lying his butt off with multiple ever-changing accounts.

    Huntsman needs to be gone – Santorum, Bachman, and Paul, too, really.  They’ve had their chances to make their case.  Leave it to the contenders – we may be down to three if Perry just stays on the canvas and doesn’t make anyone call the TKO.

    And lose the media, too.  Things more on the order of the Cain-Gingrich entitlement encounter are far more informative.

  27. Adjoran, please stop saying Cain lied.  I am not sure he did at all.  I think they did a bad job, but I really doubt he knew what the settlements were.  Plus you sound way too Dan Riehl. 

  28. That brain fart moment of Perry’s will be shown at least once per hour on every cable news show until a more damaging of him or one of the other candidates gives them one that’s even worse or a larger story knocks it out of the cycle. The only reason they stopped showing the squabble between Romney and Perry is because of the bimbo eruption. Mean while FNC and maybe a couple other will show the boos for the scandal questions for a couple days, don’t think you’ll see it much on MSDNC unless they can spin it as an example of the raaaaacist base.

  32. I’ve been pointing out for some time now how Perry is prone to do that. He draws these blanks, like he’s having a petit mal seizure, and out of the blue he’ll pull out some word that comes closest to approximating what he’s meaning to say, and most of the time it comes out sounding clumsy. I noticed that in the last debate when him and Mitt got into it.

    “Mitt, as far as I’m concerned you don’t have no===============standing with me.”

    He was clearly trying to think of a different word than “standing”, probably “credibility”, but drew the blank and sputtered out “standing” instead. Go back and look at the tapes.

     I wasn’t kidding when I said it might be a sign of early onset of Alzheimer’s.

  33. Actually, PT, the example you quote is actually Perry making a Texan / Southern grammatical error (“no” vs “any”), realizing it, and trying to think up a way to correct it before brazening it out.

  34. biggest winner…
    the candidate who picks up both the existing perry supporters, and the one who initially supported him, backed off and were in a ‘hold pattern’.

    i’m giving half of both subsets to newt.  he isn’t my guy, but he is the next logical choice.  perry supporters hate romney.  they respected perry’s resume, and will look for the next best resume, which i would argue, is newt.

    cain will pick up about a tenth-to a quarter of both aforementioned groupings, and the other 25% will need some time.

    modest projections?
    newt is up 4-8 pts, initially, 5 days, but clears the 20% number within ten days.   hard to gauge cain in the middle of his sh*t storm, but in a vaccuum, perry’s stumble will give him measurable support, just outside of margin of error, 4-5pts.  Darn close to 30%, which is more a legitmate ‘tipping point’ than other pundits have been quick to offer this week. 

    biggest loser?  perry would be an easy pick, but he was playing an outside shot to get the presidency, from where he was in the polls.  romney is actually the correct answer.

    he gains ‘nothing’ from perry’s slide.  the fourth place guy, with double digit support, is about to bleed support, and number 1 and 3 are the only two who have a shot of momentum.

    he’s down 6pts, during herman’s hell week, where cain only lost 3pts. (rasmussen)

    at this point, watching romney campaign, is like watching a guy pulling a slot machine lever, in a machine that he knows is empty.  everyone else is doing it, and their machines pay out, while romney has to smile and act like he is winning.  he isn’t. 

  38. Well, that probably wraps it up for Perry.

    As a gambler, I’m somewhat disappointed. If he’d managed to get his act together, there might have been some non-trivial chance of a contest next November. I was kind of looking forward to betting Republican if I could get a 10-point spread on the popular vote. I’m just not that interested in betting on a GOP electoral vote over-under that’s in low double digits.

  39. You will be able to pull off the “RINO” tattoo they put on your forehead as sort of an edgy new-agey sort of thing.  Just don’t let it happen again – that will mean the camps or the Russian Front.

  40. Um, a private eye using his “software” to analyze the video? 

    That’s some proof – until someone reads something different in goat entrails. 

  41. That’s cold dude – Dan Riehl?  Riehly?  That cuts deep . . . I would rather hear how Jim Treacher would feast upon my grandmother’s carcass in a Satanic ritual – with Treacher naked, even – than a slam like that. 

    But I refuse to retract, rephrase, or retread my contention.  Squirmin’ Herman had ten days notice the Politico NRA report was coming, yet he spent the first four days contradicting himself over and over, revising implausibly, and saying things which just cannot be true and he had to know they were not true.

    I consider it a lie if he knows it isn’t true but presents it as true
    anyway.  If you need to figure some Clintonian way around his
    falsehoods, that should tell you right there what you need to know.
     
    So how about these statements from Cain, which I copied from my comments on previous posts?:

    No skeletons in my closet
    Had no idea what story was about, couldn’t prepare
    Accusations baseless
    No settlement that I know of
    Only incident I recall is height of wife story
    Were settlements, but insignificant
    Said no settlements because I thought they were “agreements” (Bill Clinton loves this one)
    Settlements were normal severance pay, two-three months salary
    High tech lynching
    Briefed Curt Anderson on scandals when he worked for me in 2004, he works for Perry and leaked it
    Maybe didn’t brief him
    Perry still did it, maybe Anderson still did it

    You can believe whatever you wish. 

  44. It’s remarkable – Perry in interviews sounds informed, even cogent, on top of all major issues and comfortable and convincing.  In debates he becomes a deer-in-the-headlights neophyte.  Cain typically rocks the debates, he’s even fairly good on off days, but in interviews he stumbles and messes up and has to spend days correcting his position after it – Palestinian right of return, trading terrorist for hostages, abortion.

    If you could combine Perry’s interviews and Cain’s debates, that candidate might smoke Romney.

  46. I dunno about that. A guy with an Italian-sounding surname with a big “happy pizzamaker” mustache might not get taken any more seriously than a former U.S. Senator who looks like Nicolas Cage.

    Possibly even less.

  49. It ought to happen far more often. It should have never been allowed to devolve to the point that it has. If conservatives had fought back tooth and nail against these kinds of charges from liberals, we wouldn’t be in the position now of trying to decide how far we should be willing to go to fight back. We owe the left nothing, including respect or assumptions as to their integrity.

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