Good afternoon, everyone. I'm back on-site here at St. Anselm waiting for the security sweeps to begin and waiting to hear from the CNN officials whether I will be permitted to photograph the inside of the debate hall. The logistics have gone from "definitely doable" to "maybe doable" thanks to a bad turn in the weather here. It has gone from a partly-sunny sky to a pea-soupy thunderstorm in a matter of 20 minutes, which has apparently complicated things for the people handling the logistics.
Let's hope the power doesn't go out -- the lightning and thunder outside are rattling the windows. In the meantime, I'm waiting here, willing and able. I've taken down some of the questions that were posted in two threads over at RedState, and I've uploaded two new photos that I took of the Tancredo campaign's unprecedented effort to win the War on Obscurity with an overpowering signage campaign. They're in my new set at Flickr.
I was also happy to make the acquaintance of Steve Grove, News and Politics Editor for YouTube, who was sitting adjacent to me when I arrived at the file center this morning. We introduced each other and exchanged emails, etc., and I look forward to talking with him in the future as we continue to do more politically-oriented citizen journalism. With a little luck the rain will blow over and I'll be able to capture some more video today. It's a little disappointing that the day started out so nicely in Massachusetts and turned so sour so quickly here in Manchester, but I've got my fingers crossed. I don't want to have to spend the entire afternoon sitting in either the Spin Room, my car (while the security sweep is being conducted) or the file center. But if that's the way the weather breaks, I'll use the time to strike up conversations with some fellow bloggers covering this event.
More to come...
Update, 4:00 p.m. The weather has shifted and now the sun is peeking through, but I'm still waiting for word about the trip to the debate hall. I'm going to wait about another half hour, and if it turns out to be impossible (the rain apparently caused quite a few problems) I am going to decamp for the outskirts and see if I can't get some photographs of various campaign supporters along the roads leading to the campus. At that point I'll try to shoot some video. You might be able to understand the source of the logistical problem by looking at this map of the campus. [Adobe PDF] The Carr Activities Center (#19, where the media are housed) is half a campus away from the Ice Arena (#13) which has been converted into full debate-hall set and exists in a separate "security bubble". The rain has apparently changed the timing of some of the security operations and other logisitics, which has thrown off some scheduling. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Update, 5:30 p.m. SUCCESS! I was able to sneak in gain access to the debate hall in order to take a few candid pictures of the venue before the VIPs move in. I have a secret to tell people who attend media events sponsored by CNN: if you need to get something important done, find Megan Mahoney and be nice to her. She was a great help and I'm very grateful for her help. I have about 2 dozen photographs to upload, as well as a group of video clips of the various campaign supporters that are being uploaded as we speak. I will alert everyone when that process is complete and I have a few comments.
Debate Liveblog
Here we go! ...
Mike Huckabee gets the first laugh. Nice one, Mike.
Romney Q1: Iraq. Troops. Security. Mistake? Romney?
Romney refuses to engage in the "if we knew then what we know now" question the way Wolf Blitzer wanted. That's a safe answer.
Giuliani is even stronger: "Absolutely the right thing to do." OK, now he's drawn a clear line between the Dems. and the Rs. That context is important. Good answer, Rudy.
McCain Q2: Did you read the NIE? A: Sanctions were breaking down, oil-for-food, Saddam's record of WMD usage. McCain repeats his longstanding mismanagement criticism.
Q2 to Brownback, same as McCain. A: I held hearings. But now we need a three-state solution in Iraq. We lack a political plan.
Q2 to Gilmore. A: "The interest of the United States is to create as much stability as possible in the Middle East." We didn't anticipate the further instability.
Q3 from WMUR: Approx. 100 troops/month die in Iraq. If Petraeus reports surge hasn't worked, what then?
A3 from McCain: Failure will follow us. We haven't had a chance to give the surge a chance. 5th Division isn't even over there yet. There will be chaos if we leave.
All of the Republicans are sticking to their guns on the war, with a few nuanced differences between their positions. McCain is the strongest statement: "We must succeed in this conflict." And now, of course, the tough questions begin, because what will it take. Americans really need to wrap their heads around the fact that giving this war a chance to succeed is the only path forward.
Thompson A3: Thompson suggests an ultimatum to al-Maliki. He also suggests a version of Iraqi Federalism that's quite a bit different from the Joe Biden Easy Pieces scenario.
[Author's Comment: The Republicans are really discussing this as a group very well. I'm glad to see that most of their answers so far are not as combative between them but generally tend to reinforce each other. Except, that is for Ron Paul, which is no surprise to anyone. Paul has believed from the beginning that the invasion was a mistake and that we shouldn't be there. No surprise there. The sentiment is getting some moderate applause.
Wow, today's Ronald Reagan's birthday! Believe it or not, I hadn't realized that. I wish one of these guys would talk about the cause of freedom. I think we really need to talk about not just the difficult pragmatics of the situation but the ideals behind it. We're really not hearing that from our candidates right now. I don't think we can keep the effort going without it.
I worry that we're allowing whatever loftier goals we had for Iraq fall by the wayside in this debate. We're returning to terrorism and defensive measures, which are of course things we do in self-interest.
Brownback is really calling for dialogue with Iran. Of course, former Senator Gravel from Alaska (see the Democratic debate) doesn't believe a word of it. He thinks the whole thing is some devious Republican puppetry to have us invade Iran. At least so far even Ron Paul isn't becoming that unhinged.
There we go, Duncan Hunter! They're committing ACTS OF WAR against us! Sure, we need talk. But we also need action. It's about time someone mentioned that the Republic of Iran is killing our soldiers and so far we have not really responded.
I'm really very proud of all the candidates who have been responding on this issue so far. There is no doubt in my mind that they're showing the American public that the Republicans are more trustworthy on national security than the Democrats were. Contrasting this straight and reasoned discussion with the borderline schizophrenia and amazing apologetics of the Democrat debate should hopefully make the election, at least in terms of party, a much clearer choice for Americans on this issue.
Romney: People are testing the United States of America. And that is true. From the beginning, much of Ahmadinejad's bluster has been a deliberate provocation, and his proxy efforts to kill our soldiers in Iraq without provoking a response has been the slow bleed. Thank you governor Romney for mentioning it.
Question: Immigration! What's the story with this awful piece of garbage legislation? (That's the way I phrase the question, anyway.) What are the consequences? Good question!!
Answer: Tancredo: Tom Tancredo agrees with Howie Carr and I agree with him. The consequences are tremendous, and I'm very glad Tancredo is talking about it. I don't know whether anyone on the liberal side is rolling their eyes or not, I'm trying to look around the room. Tancredo may not make it through the primaries, and he has a lot of people who have criticised him (even on our side) but I am proud of him for bringing this up, and speaking out about it, and the applause shows that the audience agrees.
Answer: Rudy: It's a typical piece of Washington HodgePodge. ID cards and databases. Throw out the ones not in the database. He's right about the technology. Do we have the will to do it?
Oh, the Romney Flip Flop Follies. Here's one of those answers I told Leon yesterday I would be looking carefully at. Whew! Thanks, Mitt for being specific! And also thanks for not following John McCain's example of cheap attacks. A classy answer. Another round of applause for Romney.
Wow! It looks like several of our candidates on stage have better ideas than John McCain. Are they going to make it better five years from now?
Rudy points out another "fatal flaw" in the legislation. Romney brings up enforcing some of the laws that exist. I wonder what Deval Patrick in Massachusetts has to say about that, because a lot of liberals (and the ACLU) don't like the idea of State Troopers enforcing the law when they encounter illegal aliens. I wish Romney had mentioned that. +1 Rudy, +- Romney, -- McCain is my score on that exchange.
Once again we're reducing the immigration issue to a national security issue. Nobody is talking very eloquently or indepth about the cultural issues involved, which in my view are just as important as national security issues.
"It's a bad bill." 'Nuff Said. I think the Boston globe said it right and John McCain is being misleading. The Boston Globe pointed out that so much of the fire in Ted Kennedy's belly to get this monstrosity assembled was to get it out of the way before the summer campaigning began. Get it done, sweep it under the rug, don't let it affect the campaigning and money-raising process. What a horrible disservice to the American people. Why isn't John McCain willing to ask the House and Senate to work harder? What's their rush?
Tommy Thompson is saying what so many people (myself included) have been saying (actually screaming) on the phone to RNC reps. when they call asking for money. If they don't get that priority straight, and if Bush doesn't get behind that, I really fear for the Republican party in this election. I don't buy the idea that the opponents of the bill are a small segment of the public. When the public really realizes what this bill is going to mean over the next 25 years, they'll be outraged (and rightly so) that it was passed in this manner.
Ron Paul believes that immigrants have become the scapegoats. Is his solution a national guilt trip that makes us hand the country over to them instead?
McCain gets in a big thank you to the American Indian tribes. I was wondering when that was going to happen.
Dead silence. Well, once again, this is one of the clearest differences between the Republicans and Democrats. All anyone needs to do is look at the Democratic transcript to know the diffence.
Fred Thompson: Jim Gilmore is kind of working on the angle put out this morning by Richard Cohen of the Washington Post, of all people, who posited that Thompson was no Reagan because he didn't do anything really memorable or noteworthy in his Senate career.
Thompson: Thompson must have read that column on Thompson, too. I wonder if the Republicans were passing around Richard Cohen's column before this debate started?
I told you that the weather was bad here in Manchester!!!! But maybe The Lord seems has some ideas of His own about Rudy Giuliani's record on religion.
Romney is going to continue to have a hard time with abortion. He was right to talk about it quickly and change the subject. Not that that's going to placate the real doubters.
Wow. Mike Huckabee just threw down the God Gauntlet. Quoting the Bible and Martin Luther is going to be pretty hard to follow.
Senator Brownback on evolution. People might want to read Brownback's op-ed contribution in the New York Times for a fuller discussion on this. That's a great point, Senator: engaging faith and reason. I think that's a wonderful quote for this debate.
McCain's answer, "leaving it up to the school boards" is a good answer but probably a little complex for this forum.
Mitt Romney's answer! It was a good answer. Especially the "natural rights" part.
Ron Paul is very good on the basics of Federalism here. More of our candidates really need to start focusing more strongly on Federalism. It should be a very strongly held position that each of them should be talking about, especially John McCain. How is it that Ron Paul can talk so effectively about it and John McCain is missing it?
Romney is really hitting the nail on the head on refining. Wow! Romney is just a firehose of options. He's right. I agree with him completely. 'Nuff said.
Props to John McCain for talking about nuclear again. God this country needs to OPEN YUCCA MOUNTAIN and start building nuclear plants again. Our record on this is horrible.
Record ProfitsThank you Ron Paul for explaining the concept of profit to Wolf Blitzer. Have any of the Democrats ever read a balance sheet? Has Wolf Blitzer?
Here's the second parallel question from the Democratic debate: Gays in the military. Ron Paul is a constitutionalist, that's for sure. I'm glad the Republicans are handling this so well. They're really doing a much better job than the Democrats do. Oh, here come the gay and lesbian linguists question. Rudy Giuliani is really trying to stick a fork in it, and I'm glad. It's about time someone mentioned that the Democrat attempt to talk about the marginalia is incredibly stupid.
[Author's note: Boy, the Republicans are really standing together pretty well tonight. Aside from a few issues, I really am proud of them all. What a difference from the Dem. debate.]
Once again, a unified front and an incredible, antiparallel, diametrically opposite answer from the panel of Republicans on gays serving openly in the military. Here come all the editorials and op-eds talking about how mean and evil Republicans are for bashing gays.
THANK YOU SENATOR BROWNBACK!!!! 5++ 5++ star answer on Clinton's behavior during this administration. The guy has acted as though he never left the Oval Office.
How to rebuild the GOP. This is Newt Gingrich's answer and Huckabee is really being a proxy for the Gingrich here, because I think he'd say much the same thing. Maybe Gingrich is actually Huckabee's shadow campaign advisor, maybe Huckabee is trying to steal his thunder, but Huckabee missed a lot of the media treatment of Republicans. I wish someone would talk about it, but probably because Wolf Blitzer is running the debate, they're not going to.
Rudy was a prosecutor. I'm glad he's stopping Wolf Blitzer's attempt to railroad an answer on this. SCORE ONE for Rudy. Excellent answer.
Dang. Romney picks up on it. Thanks to Rudy Giuliani for stopping the railroading of this question. And finally, Brownback says it. But WHERE IS SANDY BERGER'S PRISON CELL?
[General observations: Listening to this debate, I'm really very proud of all our candidates. I kind of wish that we could combine several of them into one candidate and elect the amalgam. This isn't really a debate: it's more of a sequential Q&A session. Funniest line of the night so far: "I wouldn't send him to the United Nations." Judging from the laughter in the media file center here at St. Anselm, most of the reporters here found that very funny. It was bigger than any laugh during the Democrat debate by an order of magnitude.
Duncan Hunter: THANK YOU for using the word "Freedom" in connection with Iraq.
Question for the spin room: How does Brownback's loose federal coalition differ from dividing Iraq into Joe Biden-shaped pieces?
John McCain's answer was about as good as I could have asked for. Have at it!
Ron Paul: How is leaving an incentive. This is where Ron Paul really, really, really expresses his Minority Report opinion. I'll leave it at that.
Rudy Giuliani: "We created that responsbility for ourselves when we overthrew Saddam Hussein...but we didn't accomplish the second step." THANK YOU RUDY GIULIANI for making the REPORTING of success (if Petraeus says it is) an issue. Finally. [Am I channeling these people?]
Newt Gingrich brought up environmental Conservatism in a post on RedState several months ago, and Tom Tancredo is picking up that baton. I happen to agree with him.
Wow, Rudy is talking about giving tax breaks to pay for health insurance. I hope we talk about this particular exchange a lot more in the next few weeks. "What the Democrats suggested on this stage the other night was socialized medicine." Thank you Rudy for being the champion of free-market medicine. Another point for Rudy.
[Author's note: Rudy Giuliani is doing a great job tonight. His strongest debate showing yet by far.]
I'm so very happy that the Republicans are united at least on the concepts of free markets regarding health insurance. Again, we are really going to have a lot of fun discussing these last two answers in the next few weeks.
Tommy Thompson: We spend 2 trillion dollars a year on Health Care!!! It's true!! It's going to go up!!! And Tommy Thompson is talking about TOBACCO. Imagine that. I remember talking about that same subject on RedState a few days ago... Not tooting my own horn, but let's face it folks, he's on to something.
Now Romney on healthcare: here's his chance. He's not getting many arguments from me on his health care plan. It's really up to Deval Patrick now to screw it up badly. Romney is being unfairly criticized by conservatives on his health care record IMHO. Once again I wish we could put together a few of our candidates right now.
Uh Oh...a morality question from a philosophy professor....
Huckabee knocked that one out of the park.
I can't wait for the transcript of Ron Paul's answer so that we can blog about that from now until next Christmas.
Brownback is really standing up for something I think Conservatives and Republicans need to think about. It's a tough thing to hear from a candidate on stage. It's the right thing to hear. We need to remember that the President we elect is the leader of this Party, not just the leader of the United States.
Oooooh. Trick immigration question for Romney. He started out good and then lost it when he started talking about Asia. Stick to the question, Mitt.
Boy, the Republicans are really suffering from the spotty microphone coverage tonight from CNN. It's getting a lot of laughs here in the media center.
[Liveblog Terminus: Ok ladies and gentlemen, as I did the other night I'm going to cut my liveblogging short at this point to collect my materials and decamp for the Spin Room. I'll have more comments when I receive the official transcripts. Overall this was a very strong performance for the Republicans. The microphones dropping out is getting ridiculous. But the Republicans have done a great job on stage tonight.]
We're looking forward to your coverage tonight Sundays liveblog coverage was a huge hit here at TMR with people checking in from Swords Crossed, Red State, The HinzSight Report and other blogs to follow the action.
I'll be sending out notes to let people know about your coverage
Keep up the good work and don't let the weather get you down!