GOP Debate Liveblog

We will by liveblogging the Republican Presidential debate throughout the evening.  Keep refreshing this page for new content!

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So to wrap up, how did people do?

Giuliani: F.  He sounded good at times, but if I was a pro-life Republican, I’d be pretty disgusted by him right now.  His abortion policy is not pro-choice–it’s completely incoherent.  And if anything, he managed to muddy the waters more.

McCain: C-minus.  Through much of the debate he seemed lost.  He sounds old, and he sounds worn out.

Romney: B.  Generally sounded and looked the most superficially presidential.

Brownback: C-plus.  Certainly didn’t inspire enough confidence to vault to the upper tier.

Tancredo: B.  Oh, he sounded crazy, but he’s really just running for the elimination of Mexicans, and he did a good job of pounding that theme.

Hunter: B.  Looks oddly like a young Chris Dodd; I think his pounding on protectionism could be a good tactic.  But he also still has no chance.

Gilmore: My notes say Jim Gilmore participated in this debate.  I can neither confirm nor deny that, as I have no recollection of his participation.

Huckabee: B-plus.  Probably the most impressive of the second tier candidates.

Tommy Thompson: F.  I honestly still don’t know what Thompson thinks he’s doing, unless he’s hoping to be confused with Fred Thompson by voters.

Paul: B.  Had some good moments, and should lock up 100% of American libertarians.  Unfortunately, that means he has 1% of the vote locked up solidly, and the other 99% of the vote pretty freaked out by him.

Chris Matthews: B-minus.  Questions were tough, but actual questions.  Didn’t have the “random baseless assertion” section that Brian Williams decided to go with last week.  Still Chris Matthews, so still periodically so annoying as to make you want to jump off a cliff, but for Chris Matthews, pretty good.

Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich: A.  Not showing up won’t hurt them.  Indeed, not showing up may be their best strategy for some time.

George W. Bush: F.  Look, the GOP field can’t get too down on the Commander Guy because hey, he’s the Commander Guy.  John Hinderaker would plotz.  But they were as hard on him as they could be.  Clearly, the Republicans know that this is a bad period for them.

And finally, the last word goes to Fred Thompson, who tells Minnesota Monitor, “By God, if you call me Harry once more, you’ll be busting counterfeiters in Alaska!”

See you next time!

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8:15–Sam Brownback, do you hate Rudy Giuliani?

Brownback: No!

Mike Huckabee, what mistakes has the Bush administration made that you won’t repeat?

Huckabee: Well, I won’t let jobs move overseas–I’ll tell you that!

Tom Tancredo, yes or no, will you work to protect women’s rights?

Tancredo: I will work to protect women’s rights, unless those rights include abortion.

Tommy Thompson, do you know how many Americans have been killed and injured?

Tommy Thompson: Not exactly.  But I’m at least in the ballpark.

Fred Thompson, do you have a followup?

Fred Thompson (from “Days of Thunder”): You ever heard of a “Japanese Inspection?” Japanese Inpsection, you see, when the Japs take in a load of lettuce they’re not sure they wanna let in the country, why they’ll just let it sit there on the dock ’til they get good and ready to look at, But then of course, it’s all gone rotten… ain’t nothing left to inspect. You see, lettuce is a perishable item… like you two monkeys. You trade paint one more time, you so much as touch, I’m gonna Black Flag the two of you, and tear apart your racecars for three-hundred laps. Then, if you pass inspection and you put your cars back together, I might let you back into the race. Now, just to show there’s no hard feelings we’re all gonna go to dinner together.

So, everyone, should we have a national ID card?

Romney: Why not?

Brownback: Actually, no, not really.  Secure the border.  We have the Social Security number.  Isn’t that enough?

Paul: Absolutely opposed.  This is the opposite of what a free society is about.  The government’s job is to protect the privacy of people?

Tancredo: We don’t need an ID card, we need a verifiable tax ID number.

Matthews: Would you pardon Scooter Libby?

Romney: Not until the judicial process is complete, but boy, was it bad for Pat Fitzgerald to prosecute him.  And national IDs for aliens only!

Brownback: Hey, Bush can do whatever he wants to do.  No law was violated!  I mean, he was only convicted of perjury!

Gilmore: ID cards for brown people only.  Pardon Libby only if you can make the case for impeachment.

Tom Tancredo: Pardon him, and pardon those border guards who shot someone in cold blood.

Paul: Guess what?  Scooter was guilty, guilty, guilty, and so was the rest of the Bush administration.  And you can suck it.

Teri Schiavo–family decide, or Congress?

Romney: Why do you ask such terrible questions.

Brownback: I believe the family should decide, and by “family” I mean “not her husband.”

McCain: Okay, not really.

Giuliani: Can you tell me why we have courts again?

Matthews: Good for America to have Bill Clinton back in the White House?

Romney: No, he’s icky.

Brownback: It would be bad because Hillary is a Democrat, not because she’s a Clinton.

Everyone else: Uh, have we mentioned that we’re Republicans?  And we’re running against Hillary Clinton?  Yeah, we’re not big Clinton fans.

Every president was elected to correct the problems of his predecessor.  How do you fix the mess Bush created?

Romney: I believe George W. Bush is teh aw3sum.  And where I disagree with him, it’s only because he hasn’t gone far enough.

McCain: I wouldn’t have mismanaged the war.  I would have managed it well!  By doing…uh…different things.  Oh, and actually I came up with the surge.  So…nothing.

Gilmore: We need more government intervention in people’s private lives.

Huckabee: States’ rights yes!

Hunter: We need to rebuild our industrial base, and I believe in massive protectionism.

Brownback: Partition Iraq.

Tancredo: No Child Left Behind and the Prescription Drug Bill.  (Bet you thought I’d say immigration, didn’t ya?)

Tommy Thompson: I’d boldly not be elected President.

Giuliani: 9/11.  9/11.  9/11.  9/11.  9/11.  9/11.  9/11.  And in conclusion, 9/11.

Paul: Robert Taft was a great man.

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8:10–Duncan Hunter, what does America do poorly?

Hunter: Brown people are coming into America to eat our brains!

John McCain, do you believe in evolution?

McCain: (After a long pause)  Yes.

(There were three hands raised saying they don’t.  I believe Brownback was one.)

Mitt Romney, do you like families?

Romney: Yes.

Rudy Giuliani, do you know the difference between Sunnis and Shi’a?

Giuliani: Yes, I do.  (And he actually does.)

Jim Gilmore, why do the other candidates suck?

Gilmore: Well, they just do.

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8:02–Mitt Romney, your health care program that was forced on you by the Massachusetts Democratic party?  Why don’t you love it.

Romney: Oh, but I do!  I just don’t highlight it anymore because it’s not politically expedient.

VandeHei: John McCain, just admit you’ve flip-flopped on the Bush tax cuts.

McCain: It’s spending that’s the problem.  It wasn’t a problem in 2001, by cracky.  Flip-flopping?  Impossible?

Matthews: Tax cuts, what do you like?

Romney: Zero taxes on capital gains for “middle class”

Brownback: I have some crazy minimum tax policy.

Gilmore: I don’t have any, so I’ll mention a car tax that I cut when I was Governor of Virginia.  Oh–wait–I just remembered the AMT!

Huckabee: Eliminate the IRS!  Restructure the system!  A flat tax that is a fair tax!

Hunter: Eliminate manufacturing taxes. 

Tommy Thompson: I’m excited to answer this, because I vetoed a whole buncha stuff in Wisconsin!  Oh, and in answer to your question, AMT.

McCain: Line item veto.  AMT.  Also, tax credit for health insurance.

Paul: Eliminate the entire income tax, the inflation tax, and any other tax.  Shutter the government.  Who needs a government, anyhow?  Also, bring back the gold standard

Giuliani: Death tax!  Death tax!  That could affect up to three American billionaires in 2011!

Hunter: Repeal the sixteenth amendment.  Cut funding to entitlement programs.

VandeHei: You’ve said you’ll appoint a Democrat if elected.  Anyone other than Joe Lieberman?

McCain: Nobody specific other than Lieberman, but I’ll go find random people you’ve never heard of, and for all you know they might be Democrats.  Also, Joe Lieberman.

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7:48–John McCain, remember when you took a shot at Rudy Giuliani over the police/fire radio problem?

McCain: A shot at Giuliani?  No!  That was a shot at…uh…”special interests.”  And we lost in 2006 because we spent too much money.  And your crazy light system confuses and befuddles me.

How do we solve the problem?

McCain: Line item veto, pork barrel, yada yada yada.

Mike Huckabee, what’s the grade on the Bush administration’s conduct in Iraq?

Huckabee: I don’t want to give him an F, so I’ll tapdance.

Mitt Romney, pro-life?

Romney: Yeah, I want to make sure that people can occupy abortion clinics and force women to read misleading information about abortion.

Rudy, can you possibly square the circle on abortion?

Giuliani: I hate abortion, but think a woman has a right to choose, which I want to limit, but I don’t really want to limit it, but I do, but I don’t.

Tommy Thompson, is racism a problem?  How does the President solve it?

Thompson: I won’t answer the first half of the question, because the answer is obviously yes, and that doesn’t help me in the South.

Tom Tancredo, if not you for President, who?

Tancredo: We’re all nice guys, but I’m the only one worth voting for.  Have I mentioned that I hate brown people?  I do.  I hate them a lot. 

McCain: I actually don’t hate brown people that much.  They’re okay with me.

Duncan Hunter, have you seen An Inconvenient Truth?

Hunter: No, but you know, Gore’s not totally crazy, and maybe we could actually try to get energy independent, for security if for no other reason.

Ron Paul, have you ever made a sane decision?

Paul: I’m a doctor.  Have I mentioned that?  Yes, I’m a doctor.  So I can make decisions.  By the way, no war in Iraq.

Jim Gilmore, a question.

Jim Gilmore: I’ve addressed things about that question.  9/11.

Matthews: Nancy Reagan is in favor of embryonic stem-cell research.

Romney: I’m going to say I’m in favor of it, but I’m not really in favor of it, because I’m actually opposed for embryonic stem-cell research, I’m for altered nuclear transfer.

Brownback: Adult stem cells, si, embryos, no!

Tommy Thompson: Yes?  No?  What are these words you speak of?

McCain: You know, if embryos aren’t going to be used, then what the heck are we arguing about?  Yes.

Paul: We should eliminate the government.

Giuliani: Sure, because I’m pro-choice.  Except when I’m pro-life.  And I like Norm Coleman’s bill. 

Everyone else: Nancy Reagan can eat it.

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7:42–How do you win without moderating?

Hunter: Build a big fence on the Mexican border!  That will end all crime!

Jim Gilmore, is Karl Rove your friend?

Gilmore: Hey, it’s Bush that sucks, not Rove.  Wait–that’s not what I meant.  And Rove is not important, and I resent the implication that the fact that I like Karl Rove and want to bear his children has become an issue.

Tancredo: Karl Rove is too fond of brown people.

Rudy, is it good that there are a bunch of crazy Christians in your party?

Giuliani: Yeah, sure, let me ignore that question and say that I can win in New York City, and if I can make it there, I’ll make it anywhere.

Matthews: Tommy Thompson, I don’t care enough to ask a question.

Tommy Thompson: I don’t care enough to formulate a coherent answer.

Sam Brownback, there are a bunch of criminals in your party?

Brownback: There are Democrat members who are bad too.  Okay, there’s just one.  But bad people should go to jail.  And how do we build a stronger culture?  Have you ever read a book called The Handmaid’s Tale?

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7:36–How awesome is Reagan?

Various answers, including “Awesome,” “Totally awesome,” “More awesome than awesome,” and “Pretty f—ing awesome.”

Tommy Thompson, gay rights, pro or con?

Thompson: Con.

Mitt Romney’s Mormonism–horrible?

Everyone: No!  Of course not!

Romney: Everyone’s wonderful as long as they belong to a church.

Brownback: Yeah!  Atheists suck, everyone else is awesome!  Mostly the Christians!

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7:29–Overturn Roe v. Wade?

Everyone but Giuliani: Yep!

Guliani: Pass.

Mitt Romney, do you want to just admit you’re a flip-flopper?

Mitt Romney: Yes, I’m a flip-flopper, and right now I’m pro-life, and I will stay pro-life so long as it is politically expedient for me to do so.

Sam Brownback, could you support a pro-choice candidate?

Brownback: Yeah, I guess so.  But not really.

Rudy, you were in favor of killing funds for bad art, but you’re for taxpayer funds for abortion.

Giuliani: No, I’m not.

Matthews: Yes you are.

Giuliani: No, I’m not.

Matthews: Yes you are.

Giuliani:  All right, I guess I am.  But I am not.

McCain, you want to ramble incoherently for a while?

McCain:  We can’t bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is to tell ‘em stories that don’t go anywhere — like the time I caught the ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on ‘em. ‘Give me five bees for a quarter,’ you’d say.

Now where were we? Oh yeah — the important thing was that I had an onion on my belt, which was the style at the time. They didn’t have white onions because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones…

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7:24–Rudy Giuliani, when did you stop hating black people?

Giuliani: Well, I wouldn’t say “hated.”

Mitt Romney, what do you dislike most about America?

Romney: Absolutely nothing!  We live in a perfect society, and none can gaze upon us without being blinded!

Mike Huckabee, what about global warming?

Huckabee: I’m not saying it’s man-made, but it’s man-made.  We have to be good stewards of the Earth.

Tom Tancredo, how do we solve the problem of the shortage of organs for transplant?

Tancredo: No.  And no jokes about harvesting them from immigrants.  And I hate cloning.

Duncan Hunter, I have a question?

Hunter: I’m going to ignore you and talk about Iran.

Ron Paul, eliminate the government?

Paul: Yes.

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7:21–Oh, goody, questions from the people.

John McCain, you totally disagree with Tom Tancredo on immigration.  So would you make him your head of INS?

McCain: No, and let me talk about bin Laden.

Matthews: Should we make it legal for Arnold to run for president?

Several: no. 

Huckabee: After I win, I’ll be happy to make the change.

McCain: If he endorses me, yes.

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7:16–Matthews: Fred Thompson says Iran has already attacked us.  Do you agree, John McCain?

McCain: Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran.  Which is a cultured society. That needs to be bombed.

Matthews: So what makes you kill ‘em?  Nukes?  Chemical weapons? Not Without My Daughter?

McCain: Well, I mean, if they got nukes, we’d have to nuke ‘em to keep ‘em from nuking us.  Hopefully, we won’t have to destroy the country to save it.

Matthews: Tom Tancredo, Israel wants to bomb Iran.  Are you in or out?

Tancredo: In!

Matthews: Rudy?

Giuliani: Well…that’s a bit crazy.  But remember, the Iranians were so scared of Reagan they just gave up the hostages immediately!  Have I mentioned that I’m like Reagan?

Matthews: Jim Gilmore, should we go after bin Laden?

Gilmore: Yeah, but let me talk about a lot of other tangentially related stuff.

Matthews: Multiple choice Mitt?

Romney: It’s very important we get bin Laden.  But it isn’t really all that important.

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7:02–First question: America sucks.  How do we fix it?

Giuliani: Security!  Safety!  Optimism!  And Lebensraum!  We have great health care that is flawed and needs to be fixed.  Also, don’t retreat in the face of terrorism!

Matthews: So, John McCain, how do we win in Iraq?

McCain: New general, new strategy, strategy can succeed.  Says if we can bring about security, we can win in Iraq.  (But can’t we walk freely in the streets?)  And surrender bad!  Victory good!  Oh, sure, the war’s been mismanaged.  But new strategy, and new general.  Win.

Tommy Thompson: Uh, referendum?  Also, I look like I’ve taken a 2×4 to my head.

Hunter: Says some stuff.  I give him points for not mentioning that his son is in Iraq right now.

VandeHei: So Mitt Romney, people want out of Iraq.  Why can’t we leave?

Romney: Strength! Why, if you let the people have a voice, then they make decisions!  We need to support strength and stability.  And strength.

Matthews: Sam Brownback, Muslims hate us.  For God’s sake, why can’t any of you just admit this is a debacle?

Brownback: Hey, some Muslims like us!  And those that don’t, we’ll marginalize until they hate us more.

Matthews: Can we win the war without getting Muslims to like us?

Brownback: No, not really.  But that doesn’t mean we can’t attack some brown people.

VandeHei: Mike Huckabee, would you have fired Rummy?

Huckabee: Yes.  That’s the President’s call, and he really screwed up.  He should’ve listened to the soldiers.  (But I thought Bush was the Commander Guy?)  Iraq’s a disaster, we never should have invaded, but it will be worse if we leave.

Matthews: Shakeup in the Bush administration: good or bad?

Gilmore: Admit it, until the chyron popped up, you didn’t have a clue in the world who I was.

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7:01–So Matthews is running the show tonight.  Is that just for fun, or is that because Brian Williams was so gawd-awful last week?

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7:00–Oh, good, Politico’s co-sponsoring the debate.  Well, that’s just swell.

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6:52–Am I the only one whose image of the city of Simi Valley is eternally wed to the Rodney King case?  There’s odd symbolism there.  Just sayin’.

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6:47–Yay!  It’s a bunch of middle-aged white guys!  Woooooooo!

It’s almost embarassing.  At least in 2000, they had Liddy for a fig leaf.

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6:29–So why does the GOP get their debate wholly in prime time?  Good question.  I will say that the march of the daddies on MSNBC was such an over-the-top bouquet to the patriarch set that I was surprised they didn’t ritualistically deny a woman a raise while spanking a kid. 

Olbermann noted how there was an air of regalness to the procession.  Well, yes–but America was founded on a rejection of the monarchy. 

And Pat Buchanan is bemoaning the influence of the neocons on the GOP.  And he’s backing Ron Paul.

Tonight should be interesting.

While we wait for something to actually happen, if you want more info, here’s our preview for tonight.  And stay tuned between 7 and 8:30 for our liveblog.

VandeHei: Ron Paul, you actually voted against the war.  Why are these guys idiots?

Paul: Yeah, and 70% of Americans hate it.  I’m in favor of isolationism.  That’s pro-America–pulling out of the world.