Via Protein Wisdom, we have this Zero Hedge article that is a bolt of pure hairshirt. “Welcome to the Age of Instability”. Yes, it’s going to be turbulent for a decade-ish. Yes, the centralized world order is dead on its feet. Yes, some folks in the forty-to-sixty age bracket, like me, are getting a haircut of sizeable proportions.
AMES, Iowa
This is where everybody weighs in with their opinion of tonight’s debate. I’ve got photos, video, etc., but please feel free to cram the comments with your own views.
The view from here? T-Paw was the big loser. He looked weak, and I’m not the only one here who thought so.
UPDATE: Here’s my video intro to the spin room:
UPDATE II: Guess who I found in the spin room? Chuck Grassley!
UPDATE III: Herman Cain in a post-debate interview:
UPDATE IV: They closed down the spin room at midnight here, and I had to go find someplace to finish my Friday column for The American Spectator.
The National Affairs Desk, at Buffalo Wild Wings on Duff Avenue.
And a weird thing just happened. After I hit my deadline, I went outside to smoke a cigarette and phone my editor, and while I wandered around in the parking lot talking on the phone, I saw a familiar face: Rick Santorum’s daughter. The entire Santorum campaign — including Rick Santorum himself — was out on the patio having a late dinner and watching the replay of the debate on Fox News.
Dumb luck? An omen? I dunno. But if Santorum does better than expected in Saturday’s straw poll . . . well, that’s a hypothetical.
For now, the certainty is that it’s nearly 1 a.m. and I’ve got to be up early in the morning. Good night from Ames!
People ask me how it’s going, and I say “I can’t complain.” Case in point as to why:It’s explicitely spiritual, without being heavily evangelical.
<jest>At the end, though, Crowder does ‘go British’, and starts hating on the Cosmic Credit Card that has made America great. Why do you hate Progress, Steven?</jest>
9:03 p.m. ET: First question for Bachmann, who shovels out the red meat: “Send a message to Obama . . . one-term president!”
9:05 p.m. ET: Romney hits his talking points, gets a tough follow-up from Brett Baier.
9:08 p.m. ET: Question for Ron Paul. “Restore sound money.”
9:09 p.m. ET: Question for Herman Cain. “Make the tax rates permanent. . . . I represent growth. . . . Bring certainty back into the economy.” He gets applause.
9:10 p.m. ET: Jon Huntsman, asterisk.
9:11 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich teaches a history lesson.
9:13 p.m. ET: Tim Pawlenty offers to come to your house and cook you dinner.
9:14 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum mentions that he’s traveled to 68 counties in Iowa. Also, he wants to cut taxes.
9:16 p.m. ET: Tough question from Chris Wallace to Tim Pawlenty about his dissing of Michele Bachmann. “In Congress, her record of accomplishments and results is non-existent.” Ouch. Wait ’til she fires back.
9:18 p.m. ET: Bachmann hits him with “cap-and-trade,” etc. Cheers from the crowd.
9:19 p.m. ET: She doubles down on her comparison of T-Paw to Obama. She’s a fighter, who fights, fights, fights.
9:20 p.m. ET: Pawlenty doubles down. Groans from the crowd.
9:21 p.m. ET: Bachmann goes back — fight! fight! fight!
9:22 p.m. ET: Chris Wallace hits Mitt Romney with a tough question on his business record and his record as governor of Massachusetts. Mitt looks really handsome, doesn’t he?
Commercial break. Ahhhh . . .
9:27 p.m. ET: Chris Wallace asks Gingrich about his campaign problems. Gingrich compares himself to Ronald Reagan. Accuses Wallace of “gotcha” questions, “playing Mickey Mouse games.”
9:29 p.m. ET: Question for Jon “Asterisk” Huntsman. He talks about how wonderful his record is in Utah.
9:31 p.m. ET: “Gotcha” questions for Herman Cain. Gets cheers for saying “Sharia law doesn’t belong in the courts of the United States of America.”
9:33 p.m. ET: Susan Ferrichio asks a question of Governor Asterisk, who says . . . eh, something.
9:34 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney talks immigration. He wants “the best and brightest” to be admitted as immigrants.
9:35 p.m. ET: Herman Cain: “America’s got to learn how to take a joke.” Applause. He talks immigration — more applause.
9:37 p.m. ET: Gingrich slams Obama on immigration. Gets applause.
9:38 p.m. ET: Ron Paul goes off on a tangent about Iraq and Afghanistan.
9:40 p.m. ET: Now Byron York asks Romney about Standard & Poor’s and taxes. Mitt fields it pretty well. “We cut spending . . . balanced the budget . . . leadership.”
9:41 p.m. ET: Pawlenty touts his rating as governor by the Cato Institute. Expresses regret for taxes on cigarettes.
9:42 p.m. ET: Bachmann asked about her vote for cigarette taxes, uses it to accuse Pawlenty of “cut[ting] a deal with special interests.”
9:44 p.m. ET: More back and forth — Pawlenty vs. Bachmann. Pawlenty says Bachmann’s answer is “illogical” — Governor Spock!
9:46 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum jokes about how little time he’s getting on TV. It’s not actually a joke, because so much of the debate is being chewed up by Romney, Pawlenty and Bachmann.
9:49 p.m. ET: Newt Gingrich draws applause for trashing the debt-ceiling bill and its “super commission.”
9:50 p.m. ET: Now Chris Wallace tries to stir up bad mojo between Pawlenty and Romney, using T-Paw’s “ObamneyCare” quote.
9:51 p.m. ET: Mitt Romney invokes the 10th Amendment. You’ll never go wrong in a GOP debate that way.
9:53 p.m. ET: More TV time for Mitt. Notice that Santorum doesn’t get these kind of question-and-follow-up deals.
CRAP: THE POWER UNIT ON MY COMPUTER HAS GONE BAD!
10:44 p.m. ET: I’m back from Wal-Mart, where I bought a new power unit for $74. Good Lord, what a nightmare.
10:50 p.m. ET: Rick Santorum is very good.
10:51 p.m. ET: Commercial break. While I was coming back from Wal-Mart, I had a phone conversation with Jimmie Bise Jr., who pointed out that, once again, when T-Paw had a chance to go after Romney head-to-head, he pulled his punches. But no such deference toward Bachmann. Also, Byron York got booed for asking a question about biblical “submission.” In general, I think Bachmann got the better of it, and T-Paw looks weak.
* * * PREVIOUSLY * * *
The National Affairs Desk, 5 p.m. CT
AMES, Iowa
Greetings from the Hilton Coliseum at Iowa State University, media headquarters for tonight’s criticalpivotalcrucialworld-historic debate between eight candidates for the Republican presidential nomination.
The tension here is palpable, and the greatest fear of the assembled masses of media — some 700 of whom have been credentialed for this giganticenormouscosmos-enveloping event — is that no words can possibly describe how hype-worthy it is.
But we’ll try our best, doggone it.
UPDATE: A couple more photos from the scene:
Alex Pappas of the Daily Caller toils diligently, determined not to be scooped by the other 699 reporters covering this spectacularcataclysmicapocalyptic occasion.
Michael Barone told me he was very impressed by how Michele Bachmann manages to be so upbeat and optimistic while pronouncing gloom and doom.
UPDATE II: Paulistas gotta “represent the man”:
UPDATE III: More photos:
Gwen Ifill of PBS interviews . . . somebody important, I guess.
Rep. Steve King gives a pre-debate interview to Shira Toeplitz of Roll Call.
Jon Ward of the Huffington Post and Dave Weigel of Slate.
Ed Morrissey and Tina Korbe of Hot Air with Tony Katz of PJM.
Romney leaves Pella and makes his way an hour up the road to Des Moines. He’s the honored guest at a Polk County Republican fundraiser at the home of Nick Van Patten . . . Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, and other candidates have already been to previous county party fundraisers, and these people aren’t necessarily sold on Romney yet.
“He’s got a big fish hook in him,” warns Jack Salzeider, a commodities trader who wears one ring made of gold from the Black Hills of South Dakota and one ring that contains a slice of every stone that’s mined in Arizona. “That’s Romneycare. I’m still waiting to hear from Rick Perry — he might be the guy.”
This is the same vibe I describe in my American Spectator column today, but I thought it might be worthwhile to show you how this “I’m not quite sure yet” vibe is perceived by another reporter. Weigel may be a sarcastic closet liberal, but he does actual reporting, which is what counts.
NEWTON, Iowa
As opposed to the deferential treatment the national front-runner gets from the big-deal national media, Mitt Romney received some good old-fashioned commie incivility from this left-wing pest at the Iowa State Fair — and gave it back in surprisingly feisty fashion:
We conservatives have spent months dissing Mitt as a spineless RINO, so it’s interesting to see how the Left still views him as a right-wing extremist.
NEWTON, Iowa
When I showed up at the state capitol Tuesday for the Tim Pawlenty event, T-Paw had already split the scene and I found myself talking to Joe Garofoli of the San Francisco Chronicle, who explained that Pawlenty had avoided reporters’ questions while making his early exit.
We will shamelessly steal from conservative blogger The Other McCain and say that Gov. Rick Perry is the Phantom Menace of the GOP presidential scrum. Dude just announced that he’s GOING to announce that he’s going to run for prez…and everybody’s trying to figure out how to respond. Announce that he’s going to announce…it doesn’t get more meta than that.
Now comes word that Perry will be in Iowa Sunday speaking in Rep. Michele Bachmann’s hometown of Waterloo. Oh, it’s on now…
You’ll notice that Joe linked me twice in that post, which is two more links than I’ve gotten from Allahpundit recently. But don’t get me started on that . . . Here is Joe’s video of T-Paw not answering questions about Rick Perry:
“We’re not doing a scrum,” Pawlenty says. “Scrum” being slang for “answering questions at an impromptu press conference” — which all the other candidates are doing at almost every stop along the way.
Tip for GOP media strategists: If your candidate doesn’t do “scrums,” reporters will get pissed off and start writing trash about your campaign, just for spite. I’m not saying it’s fair for reporters to do that. I’m just saying that’s what they do. It’s a matter of “is,” not “ought.”
“Welcome to the Age of Instability”. Yes, it’s going to be turbulent for a decade-ish. Yes, the centralized world order is dead on its feet. Yes, some folks in the forty-to-sixty age bracket, like me, are getting a haircut of sizeable proportions.
