Did I see steam coming out of Romneys ears tonight? Maybe not. But there was obvious tension tonight between Romney and McCain. The two couldn’t leave each other alone. They were back and forth with each other all night. And it was a heated debate. Super Tuesday is right around the corner. Huckabee and Paul didn’t get nearly an equal amount of time as McCain and Romney. At one point, Janet Hook from the Los Angeles Times told Huckabee she was going to shower him with questions, Huckabee replied, “Well, good. I’d like to be here tonight.”
So what in the world were Romney and McCain going back and forth about tonight? The WAR, and a timetable for withdrawl. Read the entire transcript of the debate for yourself:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/01/30/GOPdebate.transcript/index.html
Or you can read a small clip right here:
“MCCAIN: Well, of course, he said he wanted a timetable. Before that, we have to understand that we lost the 2006 election and the Democrats thought that they had a mandate. They thought they had a mandate to get us out of Iraq.
And I was prepared to sacrifice whatever was necessary in order to stand up for what I believed in.
Now, in December of 2006, after the election, Governor Romney was won’t weigh in. I’m a governor.”
At the time, he didn’t want to weigh in because he was a governor, I was out there on the front lines with my friends saying, “We not only can’t withdraw, but we’ve got to have additional troops over there in order for us to have a chance to succeed.”
Then in April, April was a very interesting year (sic) in 2007. That’s when Harry Reid said the war is lost and we’ve got to get out. And the buzzword was “timetables, timetables.”
Governor, the right answer to that question was “no,” not what you said, and that was we don’t want to have them lay in the weeds until we leave and Maliki and the president should enter into some kind of agreement for, quote, “timetables.”
“Timetables” was the buzzword for the…
ROMNEY: Why don’t you use the whole quote, Senator?
MCCAIN: … withdrawal. That…
ROMNEY: Why don’t you use the whole quote? Why do you insist on…
MCCAIN: I’m using the whole quote, where you said “I won’t”…
ROMNEY: … not using the actual quote? That’s not what I said.
MCCAIN: The actual quote is, “We don’t want them to lay in the weeds until we leave.” That is the actual quote and I’m sure…
ROMNEY: What does that mean?
MCCAIN: … fact-checkers –
ROMNEY: What is the meaning?
MCCAIN: It means a timetable until we leave.
ROMNEY: Listen, Senator, let’s…
COOPER: Let me jump in, because the quote that I have…
ROMNEY: Is it not fair — is it not fair to have the person who’s being accused of having a position he doesn’t have be the expert on what his position is?
How is it that you’re the expert on my position, when my position has been very clear?
(APPLAUSE)
I’ll tell you, this is…
MCCAIN: I’m the expert. I’m the expert on this. When you said…
ROMNEY: This is the kind — this is the kind — this is…
MCCAIN: … “I won’t weigh in. I’m a governor.” You couldn’t weigh in because you were a governor…
ROMNEY: That’s a separate point.
MCCAIN: … back when we were having the fight over it.
ROMNEY: That’s a separate point.
MCCAIN: The fact is…
ROMNEY: That’s a separate point.
MCCAIN: … that I have fought for this surge. I have said we need to have this succeed. I know the situation in Iraq and I am proud to have supported this president and supported the fact that we are succeeding in Iraq today.
ROMNEY: There’s…
MCCAIN: If we had done — if we had waited and laid in the weeds until we leave, then al Qaeda would have won and we would be facing a disastrous situation in the…
It seemed like Romney and McCain got caught up in the media hype and what they really did was a diservice to the american people at home watching. Why? Because there is only a limited amount of time for them to discuss where they stand on issues such as the economy, energy and the environment, education, homeland security and foreign policy, poverty, civil rights. Feds cut rates again today. The economy is unstable. I know some of this was touched on but it seems to me that more time could have been devoted to these issues. Could different questions could of been asked to avoid this back and forth between McCain so more time could have been given to other issues or to Huckabee and Paul? Maybe.
The fight is on. They both are trying to clarify where they stand but it was definately obvious they were not going at this lightly. Not when Super Tuesday is only days away.
Huckabee on the other hand I think did well in the debate. He was the only one who gave his a different response at the end of the debate when Anderson Cooper asked: “
“Would, and if so, why — why would Ronald Reagan endorse you? Would Ronald Reagan endorse you? And if so, why?”
Here is what Huckabee said and how the debate ended:
HUCKABEE: I think it would be incredibly presumptuous and even arrogant for me to try to suggest what Ronald Reagan would do, that he would endorse any of us against the others.
Let me just say this, I’m not going to pretend he would endorse me. I wish he would. I would love that, but I endorse him, and I’m going to tell you why.
It wasn’t just his specific policies, but Ronald Reagan was something more than just a policy wonk. He was a man who loved this country, and he inspired this country to believe in itself again.
What made Ronald Reagan a great president was not just the intricacies of his policies, though they were good policies. It was that he loved America and saw it as a good nation and a great nation because of the greatness of its people.
And if we can recapture that, that’s when we recapture the Reagan spirit. It’s that spirit that has a can-do attitude about America’s futures and that makes us love our country whether we’re Democrats or Republicans. And that’s what I believe Ronald Reagan did — he brought this country back together and made us believe in ourselves.
And whether he believes in us, I hope we still believe in those things which made him a great leader and a great American.
(APPLAUSE)
It seems the debate was heated, the gloves were on, and the energy was a buzzin’ and although Huckabee didn’t get as much in as he would have liked…he got the last word in.
Tags: candidates, election 2008, huckabee, mccain, paul, politics, republican debate, romney
