Gloves Come Off in GOP Presidential Debate

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by: Colorado Pols

Last night’s Republican Presidential debate in Las Vegas got a bit heated, with Rick Perry trying to right his sinking ship and others trying to put a chink in Mitt Romney’s armor. Our friends at “The Fix” break down the winners and losers…with a focus on the “losers”:

* Herman Cain: For the first ten minutes of the debate, the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza was under near-constant attack over the specifics of his “9-9-9” plan. For the rest of the debate, he was almost nonexistent. Cain’s attempts to dismiss criticism of “9-9-9” – the apples, the oranges – weren’t terribly convincing and are ripe (wink, wink) for follow-ups in the coming days. And, when it came to foreign policy and national security, Cain seemed distracted at best and totally out of his depth at worst. His answer on the Guantanamo Bay prison was, um, not good.

* Michele Bachmann: Almost every answer the Minnesota Congresswoman gave was the dictionary definition of a non sequitur. Bachmann seemed intent on proving to anyone watching that she, more so than the other candidates on stage, really doesn’t like President Obama and wants to undo everything he has done. But, Bachmann seemed so intent on hitting her lines – she threw in the “we are going to make Barack Obama a one-term president” bit in a head-scratching coda to the debate – that it left the impression that she was participating in a conversation entirely apart from the one happening on stage. Just odd.

* Rick Perry’s bullying: Measured aggression in a political debate is a good thing. Unchecked aggression isn’t. And there were several times when Perry came dangerously close to stepping over that fine line. His repeated attacks on Romney employing illegals at his home were decidedly personal – although he did force Romney into an explanation of exactly what happened. Perry brought his swagger tonight but he may have applied it a bit too liberally at times.

The fact is, Herman Cain massively contradicted himself in his answer about potentially negotiating with Al Qaeda for Guantanamo Bay prisoners, a la the recent Gilad Shalit exchange between Israel and Hamas–between plainly ridiculous 180-degree gyrations on a critical foreign policy issue and the fierce takedown of his “9/9/9” tax reform plan by just about everybody on the stage, we’d say the Cain fad took a major, and most likely inevitable hit yesterday.

Less clear, as the report above notes, is whether Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s much more lively performance in last night’s debate will help him in the long run. He didn’t actually land any new blows on opponent Mitt Romney, as what he accused Romney of has been known since 2008. There were also a few moments, particularly when it was clear Perry was not letting Romney get a word in edgewise, where he looked less combatively presidential, and more like a jerk. That said, Republicans who want Perry to recover from his recent plunge in the polls needed reassuring that Perry was capable of something, anything more than his totally flatfooted performance so far. For good or ill, they got some volume out of him.

14 thoughts on “Gloves Come Off in GOP Presidential Debate”

nancycronk says:

October 19, 2011 at 7:05 pm

He thought Romney vs. Perry was more disturbing than the Tosh.O clips we saw next.

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ColoMod says:

October 19, 2011 at 8:28 pm

His unfettered bullying showed two things:

1) He’s starting to get desperate

2) There’s no chance in hell that he can take the pressure in a general election, let alone the Presidency

Romney’s looking good to give Obama a run for his money if the evangelical right can get past his Mormonism and the tea party pats can get over his relatively moderate fiscal policies.

Those are two big ifs though.

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1. ColoMod says:
  
  October 19, 2011 at 8:33 pm
  
  What else is new there though?
  
  Anyway, it worked in Romney’s favor as he appeared to be the adult in his convso both with Santorum and Perry.
  
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2. BlueCat says:
  
  October 19, 2011 at 10:13 pm
  
  and all of the loony evangelical Christian preachers in their corner are convinced that Perry is the one to save the country’s soul from…. we’re not mentioning names but Mormonism is a cult.
  
  If Romney wins, does that prove Mormons are the ones who are right with God and will the Perry’s and friends convert? I’m guessing no… they’ll just interpret it as a punishment visited on an evil nation because of gays, etc.
  
  Of course if Perry does win (bear with me) it will prove he’s God’s elect and we can all celebrate with an ice skating party in hell. Perhaps hosted by Cain, author of the upside down 666 plan?
  
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  1. ColoMod says:
    
    October 19, 2011 at 11:58 pm
    
    I thought that was pizza?
    
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3. dukeco1 says:
  
  October 20, 2011 at 5:02 pm
  
  Those are two big ifs though.
  
  strike “big” … insert “enormous”.
  
  I still believe that he is a heretic to both groups and they (most of them, anyway) will, if he is the nominee, sit this one out .
  
  If Mittens gets the republican sceptre, he will suffer one of the most crushing defeats in modern electoral history.
  
  Yes…I really did just predict that.
  
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VanDammer says:

October 19, 2011 at 9:13 pm

even when things got testy he stood his ground and definitely had the more reasoned and better rehearsed responses & rebuttals

Parry’s flop sweat desperation is showing. Cain’s ignorance of his own plan is glaring. Newt and Santorum and Bachmann are just along to add color to the debate. The more they talk the more distance opens up between them & Mittens.

I just love Paul for being Paul. In a way, he’s like a Kucinich for the right. He’s a man of conviction (rare in politics) and doesn’t shy away from what are some seemingly odd ideas but ones that sometimes deserve a listen.

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1. ArapaGOP says:
  
  October 20, 2011 at 2:27 am
  
  There is nobody left in this field to compete with Mitt Romney.
  
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  1. RedGreen says:
    
    October 20, 2011 at 4:51 am
    
    Which means 70-75% of Republicans won’t be enthusiastic supporters of the eventual nominee. How’d that work out for you last time?
    
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  2. ClubTwitty says:
    
    October 20, 2011 at 3:45 pm
    
    Pretty much sums it up.
    
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Aristotle says:

October 20, 2011 at 2:38 am

As they said over at SLOG, Romney’s campaign is all but calling Perry an idiot.

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1. DaftPunk says:
  
  October 21, 2011 at 1:36 am
  
  …SLOG?
  
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  1. Aristotle says:
    
    October 21, 2011 at 3:27 am
    
    http://slog.thestranger.com/bl…
    
    That’s a nickname for “Stranger Blog.” The Stranger is a Seattle-based weekly, probably best known as Dan Savage’s home paper.
    
    I used to link back to them when I was posting something I found there, but no one seemed to notice. So I just started giving them a h/t instead.
    
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Aristotle says:

October 20, 2011 at 2:51 am

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