The wife and I cheered heartily when he busted the media in the mouth.
She actually started to tear up.

they are just bashing the entire slate.

Gingrich came off the most prepared, succinct, clear, and deliberate. How does this guy get a boost to get back in the game? Get a thumbs up from Palin if she doesn’t run?

Gingrich went after the moderators, I’m glad he did.

You could definitely tell this was a setup to get everyone to gang up on Perry and each other.

Shame on PMSNBC.

He could have said, “Like in any Ponzi scheme, the people who get in early think it’s great.”

Although I have to say, I really wish Herman Cain had more traction, as the guy makes so much sense….

Romney was much, much better than I expected. You’re right that it is a two-man race now. But the stumble on Social Security goes to the heart of what I find problematic about Romney: I don’t know what he really believes. The impression of the “weathervane” remains.

Plus, I’ve recently had conversations with committed DEMOCRATS in their 30′s and 40′s who know for a fact that they won’t get to rely on SS. Even diehard liberals know SS is a ponzi scheme. For Romney to defend it as he did is… let’s just say counterproductive.

It’s high time for some of the minor candidates to fold up their tents and start helping one or the other of the two main guys.

-TS

C’mon, can we get the candidates to have the cohones to say “NO” to liberal media debates and get more conservative or at least balanced debate moderators?

This question will continue coming up until Perry puts it to rest. He needs to arm himself with some info about the East Anglia emails and why hockey sticks are a guess not science.

I was worried how well Perry would do in heavy traffic, but he kept himself from making any serious gaffes. He deflected some of the shots from the other candidates with skill. All he has to do is play error free ball from now on and he’ll be in good shape.

none of them did poorly except that they may have said things you just don’t like. So some people would score Romney poorly if they just didn’t agree with them, Likewise I thought Santorum came off as a sanctimonious ass, but then I have always thought that of him.

None of them changed many minds with this debate, but Gingrich was more like the old Newt, and was really effective.

From a GOP perspective it’s to see who can take a punch. If they can’t handle a liberal Ken doll, a candidate won’t withstand what Hurricane Obama and company dish out. I would rather see someone fail in 2011 than in 2012.

1. Romney and Perry did about the same. Both stumbled on some answers and Perry could have been prepped better, but no major blunders on Perry’s part. He held is own. His answer to the gotcha question regarding TX death penalty was golden.

2. I thought Bachman was solid and well-prepared during the portion I saw. Her answers were smooth and confident. She held her own and maybe gained some. I thought Cain also did well in the portion I saw.

3. Huntsman’s doubling down on the AGW question came across as arrogant and insulting. He also had an odd orange tint to himself, does he tan? If so, he should stop. Now.

4. Newt is a smart guy, good answers. Too bad it does not translate into good governance.

5. Ron Paul. What can I say? One minute the man sounds sane and you find yourself agreeing with him and the next minute he whips out the crazy. His comment re: the border fence was just…well…bizarre to put it mildly.

6. I heard one answer from Santorum and it was not bad, it just was not really good either.

did you like the “awesome spray can tan job of Huntsman?” I think he may be the first ever representative from either party that appeared on stage with a bronze face.

Man alive, he is by far the most knowledgeable and articulate one in the bunch! I wish I knew even half of what that man must have forgotten by now. Still don’t trust him. Wouldn’t back him unless I had to. But respect the man’s knowledge? Oh, yeah, do I ever.

I think they got the message that American citizen/voters/taxpayers don’t TRUST people of their foney Journalist Positions and the third one brought in to try and sway the illegal alien vote was a disgrace, Wasn’t Williams and Harris capable of asking the question?.
The RNC needs to can like FIRE, Willams and Harris and get real Moderators not obama biased ponies.

is about Newt. If I could vote for the smartest person, the person who knows the most about the country, the Constitution, regulation and how to get our freedoms back, it would be Newt. The person who says it like it is and cuts through the crap. And it’s possible that I still might jump from Herman Cain to Newt. We’ll see…

The only thing that happened to Perry tonight is that he got called out about a lot of his negatives. I expect him to drop i the polls after this. And if you keep driving this Perry train of yours, I will cease to visit Redstate.

Except for RP and Huntsman, but even those 2 would be much better over BHO.

I did like how there were times when each of them complemented each other on things. Wish there was more of that, at least pointing out good ideas that are out there.

Overall I was impressed with the debate, seemed pretty even.

I thought all the candidates did fairly well in their respective roles. The good govenor of Texas looked and sounded exhausted. I can only assume his week has been a hard one with the wild fires consuming Texas. I thought he missed a couple of golden opportunities with SS,Gaurdisil and global warming but he has a couple more bites at the Apple. The questions he got and their phrasing betrayed the obvious bias of the moderators and frankly gave me the last reason I needed to parental control MSNBC on my tv lest my children should stumble across it by accident and suffer irreparable brain damage.

of women, seems that they believed the frontrunners Perry and Romney were still frontrunners, with the former in the lead. Newt’s answers for them were spot on but they did not seem him in anything but an advisory position. Bachmann’s answers resonated but somehow the shine was off this evening. Cain was polite but too predictable with his responses. Sadly, Santorum seemed quite defensive on the offensive.
The women thought Huntsman was as insincere as his tan.
Finally, all agreed Congressman Paul needed meds.
The focus from here out, unless a newcomer enters the race, will be on the current Governor versus the former MA governor. Let’s roll!

Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, and Rick Santorum are wasting everyone’s time. Huntsman is very icky in my opinion. Sorry, but no higher brow word really seems to fit.

Bachmann went down some in my estimation tonight. Some of her answers seemed canned. And her hair was awful, and yes it does matter because she’s a woman and don’t blame me because I didn’t invent human nature. Sure, Santorum’s hair was pretty bad too but I challenge you to find me one person who cares!

Newt is Newt. Spot on with most of his answers. Very rarely does he go into canned mode. First class mind, second class temperament, third class character.

Herman Cain was solid. He has improved a lot since the early debates.

I thought Perry and Romney both did well. I think the hand wringing in some quarters about their performance is over done. This is still basically spring training. Very few Americans watched this debate and almost none of them will make a decision in November 2012 based on tonight.

Romney was more human tonight than I’ve seen him before. His answers were in the main well stated and correct.

Perry really got hammered by his “fellow” Republicans and the “moderators”. The fact that he maintained his cool and composure is a HUGE positive.

My laugh out loud moment was due to Bryan Williams’ snippy tone as he asked Rick Perry what he thought of the applause on the death penalty question. Talk about out of touch.

I maintain my position that Perry is the one to beat. Tonight was a strong start and he should improve as he catches the rhythm of a national campaign.

- “Forgive me Father, for I have sinned. I gave MSNBC ratings.”

I believe your Father will forgive you on this particular sin.

But I doubt your Father will ever forgive you for going to CNN to not only boost their ratings but help them to attack and smear your fellow conservatives for a mere 30 pieces of siliver.

Bless you.

The most telling line of the night came from the clown from Politico when he tried to bait everyone into a free for all about the individual mandate. Just after Newt beat him like a dirty rug, he came back to the topic. He made the statement that as he understood “you conservatives’ ” objections to Obamacare they are…. He revealed that he really doesn’t understand our objections, thinks they don’t have any validity, but just wants to point out have wrong conservatives are about this issue. He’s a better PR flack for Obama than he is a “journalist.” And, he’s a poor excuse for a journalist.

and they lap it up.

Who does Romney think he’s ingratiating himself with, anyway?

I think we know.

like the far leftist Brian Williams? When in the hell will these idiots all, start refusing to debate with those that want nothing more than to marginalize the. I have a serious problem with Republicans agreeing to debate in front of leftists. Didn’t we already freaking learn that the left will make every republican candidate in the worst light possible.

It was almost an all out attack on Perry, it seemed like it to me. Perry did well considering that he’s been dealing with the devastation to TX by fires. He did not come off as practiced which I liked.
I was shocked when Romney stopped the Guardasil attacks on Perry. I had RS up and know it was Romney acting presidential.
What exactly does Romney stand for? I live in MA and I am not sure and he was our governor. He ran for governor as a way to start his POTUS campaign.
Can we get rid of Huntsman? He came off as an elitist, which he is and I believe he’s there to attack for Obama.

The race is indeed now between Perry and Romney. Both were well spoken but Perry was the only person who was willing to give a clear answer about Unconstitutional wealth-redistribution programs being a Ponzi Scheme. Michele Bachmann gave a very good answer on Libya and I still think that Perry-Bachmann would be an excellent ticket to oust Obama.

will be putting up perry signs in their campaign headquarters

Mitt looked good, sounded articulate, but showed he’s just another politician with his social security answer tonight. Romney’s defense of the status quo contradicts his recently developed image of being the “outsider”. I really don’t get why people support this guy. It must be the hair.

Although Rick Perry will need to give more articulate explanations on the issue of social security in future debates, there is no doubt that he has raised the stakes by taking on an extremely controversial subject. How Perry answers this question in the next few weeks will determine his fate as the front runner.

Bachmann won’t be the nominee, but made a few good comments regarding Obamacare. In fact, she is the only person on the stage who explained how difficult it will be to repeal Obamacare. Romney said he would issue waivers, but never said he would repeal Obamacare. All the candidates need to be far more specific on how they plan to stop ObamaCare, particulary if the supreme court rules in favor of Obama next year.

Newt was, well, typical Newt. He is a professional debater and it shows. But he would not make a good president.

Herman Cain did well, and is by far the best candidate who cannot get elected.

Ron Paul looked tired and angry.

Santorum needs to get a job.

Huntsman made a few good remarks, but then threw all his good will away when he incorrectly stated that 98% of scientists believe in man made global warming.

I thought he came across not only presidential but human as well.

Romney always does well. I didn’t like his Social Security response though.

Bachmann did very well but a couple of her answers came across a bit too glib.

I loved Newt tonight. Nothing like a little beeyotch-slapping of moderators.

I missed anything Cain had to say.

Huntsman is orange. No one orange should ever run for President. No one will listen. All they will be thinking is “Dear God…you’re ORANGE.”

Paul continues to creep me out. I never know which Ron Paul is going to answer. The one that makes sense sometimes or the crazy one that acts like he was just released from being locked in an attic.

Didn’t pay attention to Santorum..

I got a big grin when Perry came back at Ron about the letter to Hillary with Ron’s letter to Reagan and put him on the defensive.

Seems there is now a picture someone snapped during the commercial break of Perry talking to Ron Paul.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/texas-governor-perry-talks-during-break-rep-ron-photo-022735976.html

Contest started for captions for the pic!!

Rick Perry complimented the president by saying, “The other thing this president has done, he has proven once and for all that government spending will not create one job. Keynesian policy and Keynesian theory is now done. We’ll never have to have that experiment on America again.”

As always, I love everything that comes out of Rick Santorum’s mouth in these debates. It’s a shame he can’t gain some traction. He’s the one who best articulates the uncompromising three-legged conservative position. Consistently.

If Mitt Romney can run to the right of Perry on immigration, it’s probably not a smart idea for Perry to focus on this issue during the primary season. Ironically, Perry’s immigration positions will actually benefit him in a general election, while hurting him now.

The reality is, republican primary voters support a fence at the border, and oppose illegal immigrants from getting in state tuition rates equal to those of legal citizens.

but just OK. (Hey, if Santorum can speak in 3rd person, why can’t I? ) Romney came across as considerably more presidential, though I didn’t like his answers as much, especially on SS.

Gingrich was awesome again. He should be Chief of Staff for whoever wins. Paul actually made sense a little over half the time, which was an improvement for him. And could someone please tell me why Huntsman is still even invited to these?

The scariest part of the evening was right after the debate ended. A frighteningly androgynous space alien appeared on our TV screen. I quickly scurried my family to our basement shelter until it was safe to return! Whew!

and if we make it the issue, we will lose. It’s the Democrats’ only hope.

We can sell “reform” but if we are intent upon attacking the system itself, we’ve just committed the unforced error which blows it.

I’m not arguing that it’s a good system. I’m saying if you threaten older voters’ income, you lose.

Perry maintains his frontrunner status. Romney did well and will get a bump for his very good economic plan. I cannot wait to see Perry’s response this plan. If Perry is the nominee, he would be wise to incorporate the Romney economic plan. The race is now officially Perry V. Romney.

Bachmann, Gingrich, Cain, and Paul are the minor candidates that will hang on until at least Iowa. Only Paul will hang on until the very end as he did in 2008. He has nothing to lose by standing on his principles. Finally, Santorum and Huntsman will be dropping out before Iowa.

on politics? (Politics – Who Gets, What, When, Where & How is about relationships. Who is “more qualified,” then, than a rabbi to comment about relationships?)

Long time reader of the comments and commentator. First time to weigh-in here. Host a national podcast, Ramble & Rumble with Rabbi! and a blog at River Rising Review.

Lets get to the points.

Agree with Erick’s “former” list. Don’t agree that the debates tell the engaged and unengaged enough about the candidates. The format is less about the candidates policies and perspectives and too often about the media’s agent framing the questions.

The 115 comments (read 75+ before posting) were interesting. Some more carefully thought through than others.

Two points I am not seeing that I certainly consider important. One a deal breaker with regards to Governor Rick Perry.

Perry must answer fully the islamic connections. If he was duped, it is a deal breaker, for me, in Perry as POTUS. If it is intentional, that is, he gives “equal” status to allah and GOD through islamic connections, it is a deal breaker for me. The islamic issue cannot be ignored or handed-off to handlers to respond.

Gov Sarah Palin, if and when she announces she is a GOP candidate for POTUS it will be of her own time and choosing – unconventional. In that regard, Gov. Palin should announce her candidacy with the “tease” line … “I will announce my selection for vp and 5-6 cabinet nominees over the next ten days!” Her vp should be Bachmann (unless Bachmann prefers to run for United States Senator) otherwise Rep Paul Ryan.

There it is … the path to victory for Gov Palin …

BTW … when a site that invites … comments from others, but only after a certain undisclosed time frame of being registered [Error: You have not been registered long enough to comment.] (yeah, I know, you want to vet the moles and trolls … really?) then you have fundamentally communicated the old guard adage … come in, sit down and shut-up … well, it is both a “tease” (Erick’s new fav word) and unAmerican. I also made a $20.12 donation to RedState within hours of registering to comment to see if that made any difference in when my comment would be published. Enough is enough with the ‘tease’ RedState. Do you want ‘newbies’ to “Leave a Comment” or not?

Finally, political pundits, however much we may appreciate their ability with a sharp tongue and well-turned phrase, however lofty they may think of themselves as ‘right’ in their loudly expressed and megaphone broadcasting voices, the bottom line is simple: the decision to offer oneself in service to our country is not a decision to be cajoled by media elites on the left or the right. Media personalities who do cajole potential candidates with “in or out” rants are themselves the teaseor and have projected their sin on folk like a Gov. Sarah Palin, or Gov. Chris Christie or even Rep. Paul Ryan. Enough is enough with Erick and many others who use the word “tease” in an intentional barb toward Sarah Palin. She is still a beautiful woman but is still faithfully married. She may turn heads and hearts but not because she is a “tease” it is because of the lust (there I have said it!) in the flesh from those who must admire her from afar. Sarah does not have to dance to the tune or to the time of political pundits. So enough of your petty punditry.

–
Love & Prayers,
Rabbi Eukel

Social Security might be so much a Poncy Scheme if the “Raiders of the SS Trust Fund” hadn’t stolen it all – the Congress of previous administrations. While all of the deadbeats, near-do-wells and freeloaders – the non-contributors in our society – are screaming for money from Obama’s “stash”, we Seniors should scream loudly as well – that Congress pays off all of those IOU’s they put into the Social Security Trust Fund. Then SS would be solvent once more. If they won’t do this, then vote every one those Congressional free-loaders out of office at the very next opportunity. Rookies could do no worse than the current class of incompatents!

The first order of business at the GOP Debate Sept. 7, 2011, was for Governor Perry to project the stature and image of a serious candidate for the Republican Party nomination. His No. 1 job was to equate, but not necessarily surpass the stature and image that Mick Romney has already had plenty of time to project during all the time that he has been in the race.

Nobody in the media can deny that Governor Perry can claim “mission accomplished,” because he accomplished his goal. Now, the rest of the country can see why Rick Perry merits his front-runner status in his campaign.

After the debate, I forced myself to watch the MSNBC analysis direct from the Kremlin. That bunch of so-called analysts is really a scary lot of loonies. Their mission was to seek to destroy the Michele Bachmann’s campaign. Why, because the Left wants America to believe there is only one woman in the entire country that could ever, should ever, be elected President—Hillary, not Palin, not Bachmann—only Clinton.

your first line and 2nd para were classic.

Since I’ve began watching RS again, I’ve enjoyed seeing an increase in your blogging.

But, you should think about writing columns. You’d beat Malkin and Dowd any day with your all-American style.

It’s not angry, it’s direct and speaks to us intelligently, like we’re not fools. Thanks.

/end what others might think as kiss-assery. :/