Republican Candidates Debate 9-22-2011 (Rev 10-02-2011)

Best line of the night: “Not any type of sexual activity has any place in the military.” Rick Santorum on gays in the military.

Second best line of the night:  "You've got to put your air assets in the ground."  Rick Perry talking about how to secure the border.

Great news! My prediction about Rick Perry becoming our next president was wrong. Whew! That was close.

Rick Perry looked so bad that I felt sorry for him. He screwed up royally.., crashed & burned. He said that people who were against special taxpayer subsidized tuition rates for illegal aliens "don't have a heart."

Rick Perry put in place, as governor of Texas, a program whereby illegal aliens could attend schools in the Texas University System at a taxpayer subsidized discounted tuition rate unavailable to U.S. citizens in 49 of the 50 states. A lot of people compare this to the Dream Act, but it's not really like the Dream Act. The Dream Act is a proposed federal program that expressly prohibits students from receiving federal grants or subsidies. The Rick Perry plan is a state program that automatically provides state taxpayer money to illegal aliens.  I'm actually for the Dream Act....ONCE THE SOUTHERN BORDER IS SECURED!

Now, the last thing a conservative wants to hear from their representative is that they lack compassion. That's the same old tune that the liberals start singing every time that they want to expand government or create a new government spending program. And, it is insulting to both the intelligence and the character of the average conservative. And, we're getting really tired of being called racists and Nazis every time we express concern about out of control government spending and inappropriate government activities.

There was a new guy in the debate last night, the former Governor of New Mexico, Gary Johnson. He wants to cut our military budget by 43% and told a somewhat funny joke about his neighbors' dogs generating more shovel-ready jobs than Barack Obama. What was funnier than the joke itself was the fact that, as it turns out, he stole the joke from the Rush Limbaugh show. He's for the Fair Tax, which is great, but I didn't hear him say anything about repealing the 16^th Amendment which opens the door to having a federal consumption tax in addition to the current income tax. And I don't think we need to be cutting our defense budget by 43% across the board right now with the world being the most unstable it's been since the Cuban Missile Crisis.


Mitt Romney looked real good and got the highest approval ratings in the post-debate discussions on TV but today there are some questions in the media about whether or not he may have lied about previously advocating Romney-Care as a potential national plan. Also, there's a book out now called Confidence Men that seems to implicate Romney-care as the inspiration, if not the blueprint, for Obama-care. I predict Romney will take the lead in the polls for a while, but I don't think he's going to be able to shake this Romney-care thing. I don't think that he will win the nomination.

There was a teenage kid who asked a question in the last debate about how much of the money that he earned he should be allowed by the federal government to keep. A couple of the candidates mentioned how they were going to cut and/or reform taxes and basically said that he'd get to keep more if they were elected president. I said at the time that it was a trick question. The question was designed to reveal the true attitude of the candidates about the money that we earn. Do we really have any right to the money that we earn or for that matter, the property that we “own?” Or, does the federal government really own everything and just allows us to keep what it deems a fair amount, essentially making us all slaves of the state?

Michele Bachmann, sensing a missed opportunity, tried to capitalize on this last night by saying that she wanted to tell that kid that “you get to keep every dollar.” The only problem is that, under our current unconstitutional progressive tax system, he doesn't. What she needed to say was that she was for repealing the 16^th amendment (which was the real correct answer). Since she did not mention repealing the 16^th Amendment, I don't really understand her response. Is she planning on reducing the income tax rate to zero? Is she planning on giving this kid some kind of lifetime tax waiver? Obviously she was just making some kind of clumsy attempt to capitalize on an obvious opportunity without any regard to actual facts.  But, I don't want to go too hard on her.  At least she has some instinct for the direction in which the correct answer lies. 


Ron Paul mentioned that he had risen in the polls to third place. That shocked me. I thought for sure that his statement in the last debate about 9-11 being America's fault, chickens coming home to roost and all, would be his death knell. Apparently, there are a lot of people in this country who think that al qaeda was justified in attacking us on 9-11 or who don't think al qaeda ever attacked us at all. I liked a lot of what Ron Paul had to say about the constitution and limited government and even had a quote by him on my facebook profile. But, after I heard those comments, my attitude towards him changed and I removed that quote.

Herman Cain did really well last night. Wants to abolish the current EPA and start all over. Herman Cain is looking better all the time.

Newt Gingrich remained the steadiest and most affable presence on the stage. If I didn't know about him divorcing his wife on her death-bed, he'd be my favorite.

Did I miss anybody...? Rick Santorum still thinks that we can “win” in Afghanistan...dangerous nut.

John Huntsman wants to bring the troops home from Afghanistan, repeal Obama-care, and reform taxes. Sounds great but, oh yeah, he's a global warming - cap & trade - one world government kind of guy.

So I guess, for me, it's down to Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann.  I guess I could I could hold my nose and vote for Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney or John Huntsman if I had to. As for Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, I don't know if I could pull that lever even to get Obama out of office.  As for Gary Johnson, who cares?