Who knew that a state like New Hampshire could be the source of such ravishing entertainment?
In Saturday night’s GOP debate, things got personal. With one state down and 49 more to go, the race for the Republican nomination seemed to heat up a bit. And it was definitely fun to watch.
After his unprecedented finish in Iowa, Rick Santorum was immediately thrown into the middle (literally, he stood at the center podium, in between all of the other candidates) of last night’s affair when all eyes seemed to turn to him. The now Michelle Bachmann-less field was at its best, and each candidate had to be on top of his game last night. Perhaps the best moment from last night was when Ron Paul confronted Newt Gingrich about avoiding the draft for Vietnam War. Dr. Paul brought up Newt’s five deferments, and when asked if he would use the term “chicken hawk” to refer to Gingrich a second time, (he did so in an interview a week earlier) Paul did not hesitate to do so. Gingrich responded by saying his father was in the military, and that he worried for his father’s life day in and day out, and that at the time, he was married with a child. The best quote of the night goes to Dr. Paul as well. In response to Newt’s claims, Paul fired back:
“When I was drafted, I was married and had two kids, and I went.”
Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Mr. Speaker. For that, Paul received one of the rare applauses of the night.
Many believe that the other candidates did a poor job of going after Mitt Romney, succumbing to the popular belief that he will become the Republican nomination when November rolls around. In my opinion, Romney’s last few debates have been unimpressive. He is constantly dodging questions, responding with some sort of wish-wash that gets him out of answering a question he simply does not have an answer for. Romney, along with many of the other candidates, are constantly criticizing the Obama administration, which they obviously have every right to do, and if were smart would take advantage of doing so. I’ve noticed, however, that every time one of the candidates criticizes the President, the do so in an incoherent, non-concrete manner. Instead of proposing what they would do differently, they decide to just keep pounding Obama’s decision making and insist that he is always wrong.
It will be interesting to see who places 2nd in Tuesday’s primary, and how far behind he is behind Romney. I’m still a little confused as to how Romney even became the front-runner, but one thing is certain: Romney’s chances of winning the nomination will continue to increase if the other candidates don’t go into attack mode.
The link for the Newt-Paul debacle is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDHjPL3Pfoc