January 7th Republican Debate Review

For past debates we here at Steven Birn Speaks have gone through the debate candidate by candidate. We won’t do that for this debate because at least two of the candidates, Perry and Huntsman, simply don’t matter anymore. Instead we will look at how the front runners did and more importantly the absurd questions asked by the moderators.

Let’s begin with George Stephanopolous and Diane Sawyer. Stephanopolous is a former Democrat operative in the Clinton White House. Why Republican candidates agree to have him moderate a debate is beyond me. His questioning always hit from a left-wing viewpoint and it was clear his goal was to attack Romney. Whether that comes from Clinton or not remains to be seen but there’s little doubt of what Stephanopolous was up to last night.

The moderators spent a half an hour on the subjects of birth control and homosexuals. The birth control question was patently absurd, why would anyone care whether or not the candidates believe a state can ban birth control pills and other such products? No state is clamoring to ban contraception, so why would anyone, particularly Republicans, care about the candidates position? It’s a non issue.  As for homosexuals, Newt correctly pointed out the bias in the questioning. The media wants to paint Christians who oppose homosexual marriage as bigots while ignoring the fact that the secular bigots want to, for example, prevent Catholic charities from engaging in adoptions because they refuse to adopt to homosexuals. In the end, who in the Republican Party cares about this issue in the way the moderators want?

This is what happens when Democrats are allowed to question Republican candidates in a debate. They have their list of hit questions that are important only to far left Democrats who won’t vote for a Republican no matter who wins the nomination. No one in the GOP cares about contraception or birth control and the question was only asked as a gotcha in an attempt to make the GOP appear extreme. The homosexual issue is interesting but not when it’s asked from a left-wing viewpoint. A simple question about whether a candidate supports homosexual marriage is acceptable. Quoting some homosexual who gives us his life sob story in addition to a leading question is ridiculous. That the homosexual question was the only one posed by someone at Yahoo (read: the only question asked by someone who wasn’t a moderator) suggests it was a gotcha question.

As for the candidates, wasn’t Newt supposed to slam Romney during this debate? The attacks on Romney were few and far between. Romney looked good most of the time, he answered questions as he always does. But he wasn’t subjected to any serious attacks. If you think that attacking Romney because a few people lost jobs because of his investment firm that’s really old news that Romney has rebutted successfully. Where were the flip flopping attacks? They were nowhere to be found. Where were the attacks for being on stage with John McCain? You would think that attacking the McCain appearance would be wise at this point considering how much the party hates him.

Newt had a good one liner concerning Obama’s sincerity in his radical leftist position. Otherwise, did Newt do anything to separate himself from the pack yesterday? Santorum did nothing to promote his cause last night. In fact, he showed himself to be a johnny come lately candidate because he was so unpolished. When will he find an adviser to tell him to look into the camera?  He spent the entire debate looking down and shifting his eyes from left to right. Someone needs to force this guy to look into a camera. Otherwise, Santorum never attacked Romney, he never articulated a plan.

Watching the debate you would think Ron Paul was the front runner. No one got more attention from the moderators or the other candidates. Why is beyond me considering his third place finish and his inability to rise in national polls. Ron Paul is a libertarian and he espouses libertarian views. Anyone who is shocked to hear Paul call everyone a hypocrite hasn’t been following the campaign. That Paul glosses over the fact that he inserted spending for his district that he then voted against when the whole bill hit the House floor while he attacks Santorum as a “big government” conservative shouldn’t surprise anyone. Paul and his supporters, the Ronulans, have always glossed over his negatives.

Win: Romney because no one bothered to attack him.

Place: Newt got in a few good one liners and otherwise didn’t screw up.

Show: Santorum because he’s still relevant and made no major mistakes.