Let me share a few thoughts about last night’s debate. I hinted at this last night. But I thought Rick Perry had a better night than most people thought, though opinion seems to have somewhat shifted around to that thought by this morning. Yes, at some level, Romney continued stomping on Perry — even putting his hand on the shorter Perry’s shoulder (lot of alpha male stuff there). And Perry would have had to literally fall asleep on stage to miss the incredibly low expectations people have of him. But he did go after Romney in a big way and didn’t have any of those brain freeze ‘Where Am I?’ moments that have become his unwelcome trademark on the national stage. Read More
He may be off selling books most of the time. But event with a light campaign schedule Herman Cain is storming into leads in South Carolina and Florida, i.e., where it counts.
999 Plan means tax cuts for everybody! (Who makes over $200,000.) See the chart.
Here’s the key exchange from last night’s debate that set the tone for the whole evening.
On the surface it sounds kind of funny. But it’s actually about a grim but little discussed injury suffered by military personnel. A British company, BCB International, is doing a thriving business selling body armor for soldiers’ genitals because the standard issue protection they get from the DOD doesn’t fully protect that part of the body.
Miss the debate? Or want to review its finest moments but have only 100 seconds to spare? Don’t fret; TPM’s got your back. Just click here for some of the finest political fisticuffs outside of a Taiwanese parliament scuffle.
9:43 PM: This is starting to remind me of those Ali fights my dad and I would watch in the 70s. 15th round, both fighters exhausted, hanging on each other. But this time it’s not just Perry who’s pooped. You’ve got Herman Cain saying he won’t release our hostages. Santorum saying he won’t negotiate with hostages. I mean, it’s gettin’ ugly.
9:23 PM: Looks like Perry’s hit his 90 minute time limit and he’s in the midst of turning into a pumpkin.
9:26 PM: Remember Michele Bachmann? That was weird. Wonder what happened to her.
9:27 PM: Awesome: Bachmann: “He put us in Libya. Now he’s putting us in Africa.”
9:31 PM: First, a policy of not negotiating with terrorists. Second, get real and figure out whether to negotiate.
9:39 PM: Awesome, Cain says he’d never release the hostages we’re holding in Gitmo.
Romney: “You can’t have any illegals working on our property. I’m running for office, for pete’s sake, we can’t have illegals”
This is a classic case of gaffe as excessive candor — not ‘that’s outrageous, you can’t have illegals working on my property’ but ‘dude, I’m running for office, hiring illegals will kill me’
Video after the jump … Read More