Elk County Forum

Warph, can you give us your opinion on the NH debate candidates last night.  There were a couple that I think should drop out now. I value your opinion on this as do many others on the Forum.
Frank

Thanks  for the compliment, Frank but I am still trying to figure out what is going on with the Republican Party.  The only one I saw that had ebullient vitality and energy was Bachmann.  

First, let me say... IMHO... that 30 seconds isn't enough time to take a pee let alone to answer important questions concerning the economy, jobs and ObumaneyCare.  What was CNN thinking?

I couldn't see the post-​​debate pun­ditry re­ac­tions, but I gen­er­ally feel that there was no clear win­ner in the debate.  How­ever, it did seem to me that there were two def­i­nite tiers here:
Top Tier:
--Romney's per­for­mance was fairly solid but not spec­tac­u­lar, as you'd ex­pect from a front-​​runner.  Mitt had an oddly scruffy look tonight.  He seems vaguely un­tidy and a bit blurred around the edges, like an en­cy­clo­pe­dia sales­man with worn-​​out shoes.... but he didn't forget to bring his crest-toothpaste smile.  It will take a while for people to get used to him.
-- Her­man Cain's per­for­mance style played well to the sound-​​byte for­mat, and he prob­a­bly had the best quips.  Fairly good per­for­mance, but not clearly bet­ter than Rom­ney.  He can forget about the Muslim vote if nominated.
-- Bachmann's per­for­mance was also con­sis­tently strong with Re­pub­li­cans... judg­ing by au­di­ence re­ac­tion.... but not as strong with In­de­pen­dents.... but then again, I strongly sus­pect some "in­de­pen­dents" are ac­tu­ally Tea Party ad­vo­cates who refuse to af­fil­i­ate with the Re­pub­li­can Party.  That also ex­plains some of Bach­mann responses.  I think they will come around to the repubs in time.  She's definately the flip-​​side of Romney.

Bot­tom Tier:
-- Pawlenty's per­for­mance was hit-​​n-​​miss.  He had a chance to knock a few middle-​​of-​​the-​​plate soft­balls out of the park, and he blew it, I thought.  He failed to show that he de­serves the job more than Rom­ney.
-- Ron Paul got good au­di­ence re­ac­tions, but it seemed like every­one was in on the joke that he even has a chance to win the nom­i­na­tion.
-- Gin­grich doesn't do well when he has to limit an­swers to 30 sec­onds or less, so he strug­gled in this for­mat.  I thought  he came off like your typical rumpled college professor.   It is a shame too, because Newt is a politically savey dinosaur.
-- San­to­rum dis­ap­peared on stage and dis­ap­pear­ing next to Paw­lenty is some trick!  Maybe he should pur­sue a ca­reer as a magician!

It will be in­ter­est­ing to see who pays the elec­toral price and where.  Mitt seems to be the only one try­ing to ap­peal to in­de­pen­dents at all.  Cain and Paul get oc­ca­sional in­de­pen­dent peaks, usu­ally for their "lib­er­tar­ian" ideas, but Gin­grich, Paw­lenty, and San­to­rum seem to be go­ing straight for the Re­pub­li­can base.

These seven definitely need a "Snow White."


I would like to hear your opinion, Frank and anyone else that saw the debate.

Started to watch it WARPH but lost interest real quick when King would stop them from answering anything----times up !!!! Switched channels and watched "Swamp People"---about the same thing .:)

Warph, I see that Texas Governor, Rick Perry has thrown his hat in the ring for the Republican nomination. What is your take on him? I still don't see a really strong candidate out there yet.
Frank

I don't think Perry is ready to go for it yet... we'll know in a few days.  He'd make a great one.

Now there's Chris Christie.

Yo, Chris Christie, governor of New Joisey, how ya doin'?

What's this I'm hearin'?   People are beggin' you to run for president and all you can say is "fuhgeddaboudit"?

Well, you need to fuhgeddaboudDAT!

Look, smart guy, you surely see what a mockery Republicans are makin' of their presidential nomination process.

Yeah, it's early. But what's with Trump takin' the media for a ride?   Fox News took the goof seriously.

Here we got real problems, and that guy had us talkin' about birth certificates!

The rest of the field isn't much better.

There's Mitt Romney, two-term governor of Massachusetts. Sure, he's got a lotta dough and a well-run organization.  But as governor, he passed a health care plan that stinks almost as bad as the one President Obama rammed though.... thing's hangin' around Mitt's neck like a rottin' side of beef!

Tim Pawlenty, two-term governor of Minnesota? Seems like a nice enough guy, with an OK enough record as governor.
Trouble is, we need a bold, knock-your-socks-off candidate. Pawlenty's about as inspirational as a toll collector on the Joisey Pike.

U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the libertarian guy, has some sensible ideas about reinin' in our out-of-control government.
Then again, there's something a little nutty about the guy. I prefer him in Congress -- where we can keep an eye on him.

That brings us to Rick Santorum, the social conservative.  Wasn't he the guy who tried, when he was a U.S. senator, to get the federal government to fund a program to support marriage?  Ain't marriage in enough trouble without Washington muckin' it up.

Newt Gingrich is a smart guy.  But he's really steppin' in it lately.  What was he thinkin', turnin' on fellow Republican Paul Ryan's plan to reform Medicare?   Besides, he's mighty polarizing .... the opposite of what we need right now.

John Bolton, our former U.N. ambassador, is a smart guy, too.  But he ain't got a prayer for the nomination.
Americans can't handle a guy who speaks the truth so abruptly.   And some in our country aren't ready for a president who looks like Mark Twain.

It doesn't look like former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin is gonna go for it, but between you and me I'm afraid she wouldn't beat President Obuma .... and she's almost as polarizing as Gingrich.

So the press is lookin' to beat up another Republican woman.  That would be U.S. Rep. Michelle Bachmann – she has some good things to say now that she's thrown her hat in the ring.

I was really hoping Mitch Daniels, governor of Indiana, would jump in, but he's out.

That's a shame, too, because he has his state in sound fiscal order and firing on all eight cylinders... exactly what our country needs.

The most interesting pol in the lot is Herman Cain.  He's one of those guys who makes everything he touches turn to gold -- which is why he was so successful in business.  Trouble is, he's a political novice.  Thanks to Obuma, nobody's in the mood for another political novice.

It's real simple, Gov. Christie.

The country is in a mess.  Spending is out of control, unemployment remains high and we're headed for a fiscal collapse if we don't get our act together.

We need somebody like you to tackle that thing -- spending.

We need somebody like you to beat the federal government into shape -- just like you're doin' in Joisey.

But the Republican field has got nobody like you.

We need you to reconsider, big boy -- and we're not gonna fuhgeddaboudit.