Winners and Losers from the CBS News / National Journal GOP Presidential Debate – 11/12/11

The CBS News / National Journal GOP Presidential Debate from South Carolina just ended. It was interesting, to say the least.

Let’s comment first on the crazy idea to only televise the first one-hour of the 1 1/2 hour debate (except on the West Coast), and then send everyone at the same time to try and watch the rest of it using CBS News’ Online Feed. As you might expect, the stream was very iffy, with many people having a hard time getting it to play without lots of fits and stops. Let’s hope no other debates are planned this way.

National Journal’s Major Garrett did a great job with his portion of the moderation of the debate, asking very good and very short questions, for the most part. CBS News’ Scott Pelley did not do as well, but he did try to keep candidates from depriving other candidates of the chance to speak by not allowing them to filibuster. Sometimes, though, he jumped the gun in doing so, which Mitt Romney would not let him get away with.

As for the candidates, this debate focused on Foreign Policy and National Security. I thought Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney far and away did the best job of answering the questions well. Both seemed in command of the facts, and articulated their thoughts on the issues in a way that made sense. Gingrich was best, and once again displayed an ability to think about issues beyond the typical talking points. His candidacy is moving up, and it should continue to do so with this performance.

Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Santorum had some good moments as well, but none of them really did anything to break out of the pack and fundamentally change the trajectory of their campaigns. I don’t think they hurt themselves, but they did not really shine either.

Ron Paul once again displayed that he is in his own category when it comes to Foreign Policy. Paul is essentially an isolationist, and wants to treat terrorist leaders who are waging war on the United States as if they must be given due process if they are also American Citizens. Newt Gingrich did a great job of explaining that once they become an enemy combatant against the United States, they are subject to being treated as the enemy in a war, and being killed. All the other candidates agreed. Many who are drawn to Paul’s economic policies have to think long and hard about signing onto Paul’s Foreign Policy.

Jon Huntsman just comes across as a Democrat to me. I don’t see how he ever thought he could win the GOP Presidential Nomination. It’s just not going to happen.

I have to say that Herman Cain did not do well with the Foreign Policy questions. He seemed tentative and too careful with most of his answers, as if he was overly worried about making a mistake. This caused him to often sound like he did not have a full command of the issues that a President must face on the Foreign Policy front. He doesn’t sound that way when it comes to domestic policy. He gave some answers I certainly agree with, but he just did not shine as he has so often in previous debates.

So, where do things go from here? I would guess that Herman Cain’s numbers will continue to creep downward somewhat, with Gingrich rising and perhaps, Romney rising slightly too. I don’t think Perry will gain, or any of the other candidates significantly. At this point, it’s going to be a Romney, Gingrich, Cain race – and it very well may come down to a two-man battle between Gingrich and Romney. Of course, with all the twists and turns we’ve seen so far, something could very easily happen to change the dynamics of the race.

What’s your take?

Posted by Brian on Saturday, November 12th, 2011   |   10 Comments »
Tags: , , , , ,
  • bugspotter24

    1) Ron Paul is NOT an isolationist. Anyone who STILL pursue that line of thought after he has expounded on his NON-INTERVENTIONIST policy SO much, no moderators or or journalists or talk-show hosts bring it up again for fear of looking as stupid as Brian looks now for repeating it. Indeed, that’s engaging in deliberate criminal propaganda and nothing else.
    2) Ron Paul “wants to treat terrorist leaders who are waging war on the United States as if they must be given due process if they are also American Citizens.”
    Another malicious and deliberate distortion of truth. Ron Paul voted yes on going after Bin Laden (not an American citizen). It’s too bad the fake war-on-terror-to-acquire-opium-distribution American govt allowed Bin Laden to escape Tora Bora or many us soldiers would still be alive…
    Al Awlaki however, (not to mention his 16yr-old son, oooooo, scary terrorist coming to kill us, ooooo, 16yr-old boy) WERE American citizens, and therefore, subject to their rights under the US Constitution, something Brian apparently can’t differentiate, or doesn’t care to, criminal propagandist that he is.
    3) Truth of the matter, it’s not hard to “sign on to Paul’s foreign policy) A) it’s constitutional “no war without a declaration of war”. B) it’s humanitarian, and C) we can’t afford it. So either way, Ron Paul is bound to win the argument.
    How many of our liberties will we have left is the question.
    Another thing Brian cares nothing about.
    Why?
    Because he’s an enemy-collaborator and a criminal propagandist.
    Vote for a Free America. Vote for Liberty. Vote for the Rule of Law.
    Vote for the United States Constitution.

  • JOWDONES
  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_PFJWG2FJXBNZFUKQJ4BQOGDMDE GuyFawkes

    I see that CBS pulled down their debate poll because Ron Paul was winning by a HUGE landslide. There is a youtube video caught by a guy before they pulled it down. See it here wwbrihlXts – that is the video id number. Just put that into the youtube search section and you’ll see it.

  • John

    Nice job CBS for pulling down the Poll when Ron Paul was in the lead by nearly 2 to 1 against the next top contender.

  • Phillip

    If each candidate would receive a fair amount of time to answer questions, debates like this would have the opportunity to show the views of ALL candidates.  As an example Ron Paul had opportunity to answer 3 Questions in the entire debate and then one in the last half hour.  Although the moderators did an excellent job managing the clock they did a horrible job dispersing the question in a fair manor.  When you look at records of all the candidates there is really only two that stand out.  Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich.  Ron Paul is Consistent and always has been. Although Newt Gingrich sounds great he seems to follow trends of popularity and switches his political view to reflect his goal. In this case he want to be president.  Ron Paul if given fair time to answer some questions would surprise people watching these debates.  As far as the debate being bias as Michelle Bachmans campaign has announced today, it was! You can see who the media is supporting and favoring. It is unfortunate that the media takes this stance.  Each and every candidate should have fair time so the people can properly evaluate our next commander a chief.  I particularly support Ron Paul because of his ideals and his consistency.  As for the United States growing out of this recession the decision of the People will decide that so please don’t let the media direct their bias to the people of this country.  I advise any news station that hold a debate in the future to start being fair to all candidates.

  • Igmetron

    The Federal Reserve Bank
    enforces globalist strategies to be key instrumentally, in their long term goal
    of dismantling the middle class concept, that has been preserved by evoking the
    first revolution against the Bank Of England, who intended to subject us to
    British serfdom, yes feudal states, like the entire world before the existence
    of the rebellious Americans.

     

    It has been the Globalist (
    mostly Zionists), master plan to systematically dismantle the free state of America, by

     

     1.) in 1907, JP Morgan bought up all the media
    of that time. 24 newspapers,  so

          as
    to corral public opinion. Today, the three major networks are the

          continuum of this corralling of popular
    disposition. When JP Morgan died,

          80% of his estate went back to the Rothschild’s.

    2.) The re-establishment of
    the very thing that our forefathers, who revolted

          against the British over, the
    establishment of a fractional reserve central

          bank, which enslaves  a nation through debt, and is owned by
    foreigners,

          (mostly
    Zionists).

    3.) The destruction of our
    working middle class through the three pronged

          method of illegal immigrant
    workers(NAFTA), the destruction of our currency,

          and the purchasing of the majority of all
    our political representatives, with the

          good help of the media. The over
    regulation by government with ridiculous

          statutes and over taxation.

     

    There is so much stuff
    besieging us that the above is just the tip of the iceberg, with regard to how
    the American people are being reduced to the quality of a fourth world nation.

    The American people had best
    wake up when it comes to voting in their reps. This is a diabolic and spiteful
    development. The government can very very easily trim the budget simply by
    closing down just a portion of the 900 ineffective military bases that we have
    policing imaginary enemies globally, when the real enemy is our economic
    responsibility, or lack of, that is. To you understand that on top of the
    military bases, we build schools and fire houses in the remotest Kush
    mountains, in all the provinces, in all the countries that we’ve been in, not
    ruling out Libya either.

    Americans have their backs
    to the wall, we need a change from the atypical paradigm that has besieged Washington since the inception of The Federal Reserve System,
    in 1913. Clearly, Ron Paul will be the Next President.

     

    Simply and honestly,

    all he is asking for is
    prudent clarity and focus in your logic by, reducing the size of over bloated
    government, pork barrel lobbying politics, our global military presence (and
    the exorbitant billions of spending that go with it), more States rights, the
    return of the gold and silver backed dollar, and the elimination of worthless
    printing of the present inflated fiat Federal Reserve Currency. and last but
    not least, by ending the illegal presence of the neither Federal , which there
    are no reserves, because they print currency out of thin air then bill the
    taxpayer for it, to END THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK !!!

     

    Who actually owns the Federal Reserve Central Banks? The ownership of the
    12 Central banks, a very well kept secret, has been revealed:

    1.             
    Rothschild Bank of London

    2.             
    Warburg Bank of Hamburg

    3.             
    Rothschild Bank of Berlin

    4.             
    Lehman Brothers of New York

    5.             
    Lazard Brothers of Paris

    6.             
    Kuhn Loeb Bank of New York

    7.             
    Israel Moses Seif Banks of Italy

    8.             
    Goldman, Sachs of New York

    9.             
    Warburg Bank of Amsterdam

    10.        
    Chase Manhattan Bank of New York

     

    By the way, get this, the FED actually owns part of the
    majority of these companies, e.g., it owns, %12 to %15, of Goldman Sachs.

    The Apocoliptical vision of a serpent devouring its own
    tail, comes to mind.

     

     

  • Igmetron

    US Military Effectiveness

         It seems to me that our foreign policy, or
    our military foreign policy has created more opportunities for terrorists than
    it has for Americans. Yet, we, as taxpayers fund over 900 military bases
    through out the world, in order to protect our way of life. In truth, the ends
    are justified by the means, after all, when major corporations profit from the
    tools of the trade, it seems that the way of life that we are protecting is for
    that of the stock holders of Halliburton, General Dynamics, etc. When we
    ponder  our Constitution, and we think of
    things like freedom of choice, for instance. We have to accept the convoluted
    reality  being very expensive and
    bizarre, For example:

     Just think, an Afghani, or a Pakistani,
    standing on a hill with an RPG in his hand, has more of a choice than you or I.
    As he follows the Humvee with the sights of his Soviet made RPG, he ponders his
    choices. He can either blow up the Humvee, kill every American  in it, be celebrated by his fellow Al Cida
    terrorists, OR, he can release his finger on the trigger, lay down his RPG in
    the sand, go to his local airport, get on a plane to America, and take
    someone’s job away from them because the bleeding heart liberals in this
    country have constructed a policy whereby minority foreigners get job
    preference over unemployed Americans, that poor soul
    from Pakistan deserves an opportunity, no?

     

    RON PAUL 2012

     

  • http://perryjones-investinginthefuture.blogspot.com/ starfleet1

    America, Down and Out?
    Can anyone help? I feel this message is so important and so needed right 
    now that I want to get it  to everyone in America. 
    CBS, CNN, ABC, OWN, NBC, FOX, AMC, whatever, wherever, whomever. NY Times, Washington Post. 
    If you know how to get this message there, please let me know.
    “America, Down and Out?” 
    Things don’t get done in Washington D.C. or in the halls of Congress or in Times Square 
    or on Wall Street. Things get done over the kitchen table, things get done in cafes and diners, 
    things get done in the hallways and around the water coolers of every great place in America. 
    Things get done where it counts, not in places where high priced lawyers pulling million dollar 
    salaries debate over where to place a comma; things get done in the Mean Streets where we’re 
    trying to decide how best to pour the cement.

    http://pjpoliticsandpolicy.blogspot.com/2011/11/america-down-and-out.html

    If this is inappropriate to post, please disregard.

  • Mtherialt

    Ron Paul WILL win the Presidency, just not with the frickin’ Neocons. As an independant, Paul will win in a landslide. We know it, the goddamn media knows it and poor old Romney and Osama know it. Play politics all you want little people in the news….

    you’re done.

  • Swsuits

    how can anyone trust THIS writer he is a pure idiot RON PAUL IS CREEPING UP ,WATCH OUT


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