The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

SOUTH CAROLINA GOP DEBATE

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 33 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
UPDATE: 11:57 p.m. ET: The debate’s been over for an hour, and all the dudes who were just Twittering have left. Bandwidth is now excellent, but I’m on deadline for The American Spectator.

UPDATE: 10:42 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum says he voted 100% with the NRA: “lifetime A-plus rating.” Takes a shot at Ron Paul for voting against a bill to protect gun manufacturers.

UPDATE: 10:39 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney says he’s in favor of gun ownership, but does not threaten to shoot the Wi-Fi provider in the filing center, who is a varmint.

UPDATE: 10:33 p.m. ET: Wonderful discussion just now about Social Security reform. Bandwith issues on the WiFi again. I’m convinced Bain Capital should take over this WiFi system. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE: 10:27 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich pronounces Chile correctly: Chee-lay. Because he’s not “relatively stupid.”

UPDATE: 10:25 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney has a plan for everything — except fixing this f–king WiFi system, which is ruining my night.

UPDATE: 10:15 p.m. ET: Perry just suggested a “gong” would be appropriate for Ron Paul. Also, he name-checks Daniel Pearl.

UPDATE: 10:13 p.m. ET: Rick Perry talks Turkey. He wants to “go to zero” with their foreign aid.

UPDATE: 10:11 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum says, “President Obama has dealt with it about as badly as possible.” The question was about foreign policy and Syria, but the same answer could apply to anything Obama has done.

UPDATE: 10:08 p.m. ET: The past five minutes of debate were deleted by this hopelessly screwed-up WiFi system, which is controlled by warmongers on behalf of international bankers who don’t want you to know how awesome Ron Paul’s answers were.

UPDATE: 9:55 p.m. ET: Two guys in front of me, who are in here on media passes, aren’t writing a damned thing. They’re on Tweetdeck, however, chewing up bandwidth that I’d like to use to liveblog. Because they’re racist or something.

Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich is getting cheered for talking back to Juan Williams. Newt is pretty damned awesome in debates. Commercial break.

UPDATE: 9:52 p.m. ET: Excuse the long delay in liveblogging. The WiFi system here is discriminating against me. Because of Newt Gingrich, I think.

UPDATE: 9:41 p.m. ET: Ron Paul tries to distinguish between “military spending” and “defense spending,” and then wants to talk about “international banking,” but Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal won’t let him. IYKWIMAITYD.

UPDATE: 9:38 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney just talked for about what seemed like 15 minutes. Maybe it just seemed that way because it’s Romney.

UPDATE: 9:36 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is asked about unemployment benefits, and gives a good answer. Newt Gingrich gets a similar question and gives an awesome answer.

UPDATE: 9:32 p.m. ET: Rick Perry is asked about voting rights, and comes down somewhere to the right of John C. Calhoun. I’m pretty sure I heard a few rebel yells amid the applause from the audience.

UPDATE: 9:30 p.m. ET: After the commercial break, Mitt Romney is asked about Jon Huntsman’s “perfectly lubricated weathervane” comment. Mitt answers that he is not perfectly lubricated, but in fact sometimes squeaks when the wind blows.

UPDATE: 9:22 p.m. ET: Rick Perry jumps in and says, more or less, “States Rights!” That’s always an applause line in South Carolina.

UPDATE: 9:21 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is tearing Mitt Romney a new one over Romney’s “super PAC” ads claiming Santorum supports felon voting rights.

UPDATE: 9:16 p.m. ET: Ron Paul is asked about why all the 9/11 Truthers love him — wait, no. He was asked about his attacks on Rick Santorum and said the regular stuff Ron Paul always says. Santorum responds: I’m from Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: 9:14 p.m. ET: Mitt was asked about something. Blahblahblah job creation blahblahblah put Americans back to work blahblahblah.

UPDATE: 9:12 p.m. ET: Rick Perry was asked about his “vulture capitalism” attack on Romney. He wants to get rid of Dodd-Frank. Mitt gets to respond, and sounds suspiciously vulture-like.

UPDATE: 9:10 p.m. ET: The first question — with two follow-ups — went to Newt Gingrich, who was somewhat weaselly in his answers to questions about his attacks on Mitt Romney. Then Mitt got a chance to respond and sounded very Mitt-ish.

UPDATE: 9:08 p.m. ET: Sorry for the slow start on the liveblogging. More than 200 reporters in this media filing center, and the WiFi connection is strained to the max.

– – – – – –

We’re here at the Sheraton Convention Center on Oak Street, ready to bring you the liveblogging at 9 p.m.

Category: Debates, Election 2012, South Carolina

South Carolina Pre-Debate Thread UPDATE: New Rick Santorum TV Ad in S.C. Hits Romney as ‘Just Like Obama’

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 12 Comments

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
We’re currently an hour and a half before the start of the South Carolina Republican presidential debate (9 p.m. ET, Fox News) and I’m set up here in the cavernous Media Filing Center at the Sheraton Convention Center. Thought I’d use this post to dump in a bunch of photos, videos, etc., beginning with this special video featuring my loyal assistant, 13-year-old son Jefferson:

Do what he says: It’s for the children!




UPDATE: The Rick Santorum campaign has just released this new TV ad in South Carolina:

The ad script:

Obama supported the Wall Street bailouts… So did Romney.
Obama gave us radical Obamacare… that was based on Romneycare. Obama’s a liberal on social issues.
Romney once bragged he’s even more liberal than Ted Kennedy on social issues.
Why would we ever vote for someone who is just like Obama? When we can unite around Rick Santorum. And beat Obama.

Mark Halperin of Time magazine: “Amazing to think about what would have happened if this ad had been run in Iowa for all of December with real money behind it.”

Yeah, but imagine the impact it will have during five days in South Carolina. Surge, baby!

UPDATE II: Just interviewed Santorum communication director Hogan Gidley about the new ad. “Rick said today, it’s time to draw a line in the sand,” Gidley said, acknowledging that Santorum didn’t attack Romney until after the pro-Romney “super PAC” started airing ads here which Santorum said included “lies” about his record in Congress. “Mitt tried to do this to Huckabee in 2008,” said Gidley, who was executive director of the South Carolina state GOP at the time. “We’re not going to put up with it.”

UPDATE III: A couple of photos from today:

Ron Paul is not a Truther. Nudge, nudge. Wink, wink.

Rick Perry has exactly three supporters in South Carolina.

UPDATE IV: Via Allahpundit, now it’s Newt Gingrich making the “nobody but me” argument that was for many months the special property of Rick Perry’s supporters:

“If you vote for Sen. Santorum, in effect, you’re functionally voting for Gov. Romney to be the nominee.”

Yeah: Vote for the twice-divorced Freddie Mac lobbyist supported “green energy” with Nancy Pelosi and who is, by the way, the most divisive public figure in the history of divisive public figures. Because only he can beat Romney. That makes sense, right?

LIVEBLOGGING HERE!

Category: Debates, Election 2012, South Carolina

Fall Off The Planet, Harry Reid

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 2 Comments

by Smitty

What a walking monument to cretinism, as Hoft notes:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has failed to produce a budget in over 1000 days, told Face the Nation yesterday that the Republicans need to ditch the “tea party extremism.”

Funny thing to hear ‘ditch’ in the same context as Harry Reid. May he never find himself stretched out in one.
I’m really not sure which half of American Goatrope is worse:

via Gateway Pundit
Category: Democrats

How Low Will They Go? This Low.

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 63 Comments

Rick and Karen Santorum greet supporters
in Myrtle Beach, S.C., Jan. 16, 2012

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
I just got through covering Rick Santorum’s speech to the Faith and Freedom Coalition event here. Afterwards, Senator Santorum, his wife Karen and their four oldest children — Elizabeth, John, Daniel and Sarah — greeted supporters here for tonight’s debate. The senator’s wife was kind enough to say a few words to my son Jefferson. who came along on this trip as my assistant.

So I came back to sit down and upload photos and video and check my e-mail, and there was an e-mail informing me that the Daily Beast has done a story about Mrs. Santorum’s ex-boyfriend from nearly 30 years ago, before she met her husband.

Stop and think about that for a minute, folks. I’m 52 — a year younger than the senator and a year older than his wife — and I’m thinking back to who I was and how I lived 30 years ago.

Would I want somebody doing a story based on an interview with one of my ex-girlfriends from back then? Would I want my wife and children and friends to read such a story?

Exactly what political relevance or news value this Daily Beast story has, I’m at a loss to explain, but I’m shocked that they would publish such a thing, especially considering how any critical inquiry into Barack Obama’s past associations was declared off-limits —  even racist — four years ago.

Update (Smitty): linked at The Camp of the Saints.

Category: Election 2012, Media Bias, Rick Santorum, South Carolina

A Simple Graph To Explain Why Merely Changing The Names On The Doorplates Means, Roughly, Jack

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 4 Comments

by Smitty

This is the Information Age. We’re using technology to streamline enterprises and improve profitability. Except in government. Technology, should, for a quick guess, be a liberating force. The laws, theoretically, ought to need less people to administer over time, no? Ha ha, quite the opposite: that word processer churns out even more laws, requiring even more clowns to pretend to administer.

I don’t agree with the title of the graph: this problem is not an Obama-centric one. It has everything to do with the nature of bureaucracy. While amputating Obama from the body politic and cauterizing the wound remains our first priority, in the longer run, asking ourselves who these civil servants are and are they really needed is a job that Has. Got. To. Be. Done.

via Protein Wisdom

Category: Uncategorized

Values UPDATE: Santorum Calls On Mitt To Release Tax Returns

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 9 Comments

by Smitty


A refreshing 32-second palate cleanser. Godspeed, Rick.

via The Corner

Update: via The Hill

“I don’t know why he hasn’t released his tax returns. I think he should,” Santorum said in an interview Monday on the Laura Ingraham radio show. The former Pennsylvania senator added that it was important especially for “someone with [an] enormity of wealth,” like Romney.
“Well, let’s see how he manages his own economy,” Santorum said.

It isn’t clear what exactly Dr. Strange-glove buys through obscurity here. Are we going to discover Romney paid for Kenyans to attend Columbia, or something?

Update II: linked by The Lonely Conservative. And by the way, hasn’t Dr. Strange-glove’s campaign heard of The Streisand Effect? If there is some strategy behind what they are doing, please leave it in the comments.

Category: Rick Santorum

A Fitting Finale to the Huntsman Flop

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 19 Comments

Network TV cameras at the Huntsman press conference

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.
Jon Huntsman quit the 2012 presidential campaign just as he ran it all along: Sowing confusion with contradictory messages.

“This race has degenerated into an onslaught of negative and personal attacks,” the former Utah governor said in announcing that he was suspending his campaign. Huntsman denounced “the current toxic form of our political discourse,” which he said had created a “corrosive” environment.

However, Huntsman then endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP frontrunner whose so-called “super PAC,” Restore Our Future, has spent millions of dollars on negative attack ads against his Republican rivals Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. None of Romney’s attack ads ever targeted Huntsman, whose anemic poll numbers never made him a serious challenger to Romney for the nomination.

Huntsman’s farewell speech was crammed full of mixed messages. Having served as the Obama administration’s ambassador to China, Huntsman included a shot at the president in his speech Monday, accusing Obama of waging “class warfare for political gain.” And having spent six months attempting to distract and divide the Republican opposition to Romney, Huntsman said it was “time to unite around a candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama.”

Another consistent theme of Huntsman’s candidacy also continued until its end: His final campaign press conference was lavishly covered by the media. Multiple network cameras, dozens of press photographers and scores of reporters were on hand for the 11 a.m. event in Room 202 of the Sheraton Convention Center on Oak Street. Among the faces I recognized in the media swarm: Byron York of the Washington Examiner, Danny Yadron of the Wall Street Journal, Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Michelle Goldberg of Newsweek and Carl Cameron and John Roberts of Fox News.

Huntsman’s media coverage was always grossly disproportionate to his support among Republican voters. He was the subject of glowing profiles in the mainstream press and treated with deference in network TV interviews. Yet despite his enviable media coverage, Huntsman never got out of the single digits in national polls of likely GOP primary voters. Strangely enough, however, his poll numbers were always deemed minimally sufficient to include him in televised debates. He eventually decided to stake his entire campaign on the New Hampshire primary, where he placed third by getting support from voters who approved of Obama’s policies and were hostile to the Tea Party movement, according to exit polls.

And so now, the quixotic candidacy of the man whom I long ago dubbed “Governor Asterisk” is now officially over. Students of American political history who examine the peculiar course of Huntsman’s campaign will undoubtedly scratch their heads and ask themselves, “What the f–k was that all about?”

Video of Huntsman’s speech, recorded by my 13-year-old son Jefferson:


UPDATE: Headlines via Memeorandum:

Axelrod: Huntsman Dropped
Because He Wouldn’t Sell His Soul
— BuzzFeed

Huntsman Leaves Race With
Plea for Party Unity
— New York Times

Huntsman: A boutique candidacy
that didn’t sell
— Washington Examiner

PREVIOUSLY:

Category: Election 2012, Jon Huntsman, South Carolina

A Net-Based Sarah Palin Write-In?

Posted on | January 16, 2012 | 64 Comments

by Smitty

Muir at Day by Day is provocative, but I find the idea fraught with peril. Just as Congress doesn’t call a vote without a fairly deterministic outcome, the likelihood of a Sarah Palin write-in going pear shaped and resulting in Obama II: What Haven’t I Fracked Yet? is far too high for comfort.

In my perfect world, a viable conservative candidate, e.g. Santorum, would bring her on as a VP, both to harness the energy she brings, and to line her up for POTUS in 2020. Because 16 years of continuous fiscal sanity would be a fantastic start toward restoring liberty to its rightful place in this country.

Update: linked at Katypundit.

Category: Day By Day, Sarah Palin
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