Republican Candidate Debate: Round Infinity!

[JollyRoger]

So did Ron Paul win this debate?

He finished second to President Obama again.

 

[Whiskey_Lord]

Cain actually said he is against it, but water boarding is not torture.

Try having it done to you sometime and get back to us. It doesn't simulate drowning, it is drowning.

 

[Camikaze]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15710323

On waterboarding, Herman Cain and Michelle Bachmann, said they would reinstate the technique designed to simulate drowning.

It is simply beyond my comprehension how any credible candidate (or candidate perceived by a large percentage of the population as credible) in a functioning and healthy democracy could support restarting waterboarding. It boggles my mind.

 

[amadeus]

Here's the stats on the televized first hour:

Perry - 5 questions, 2 follow ups
Newt - 5 questions, 1 follow up
Cain - 5 questions, 1 follow up
Romney - 4 questions, 1 follow up
Santorum - 3 questions, 2 follow ups
Bachman - 3 questions
Huntsman - 2 questions, 1 follow up
Paul - 1 question, 1 follow up

More evidence of a ███ ████ media blackout?

 

[useless]

Ron Paul; irrelevant as ever it seems.

 

[amadeus]

"Irrelevant" or not, I'm still voting for the guy that doesn't think he has the authority under the Constitution to blow up whoever he wants under the guise of protecting America so long as a secret committee gives him a rubber stamp.

 

[useless]

You're voting for an open white supremacist then.

Someone who believe in freedom and liberty, only for white, christian, heterosexual people.

 

[Azale]

Ron Paul; irrelevant as ever it seems.

Ron Paul is waay more relevant than Rick Santorum.

 

[carmen510]

I loved how basically every Republican candidate stated that they would conduct covert operations to sabotage Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities and support insurrection ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

 

[JollyRoger]

Ron Paul; irrelevant as ever it seems.

Ron Paul is waay more relevant than Rick Santorum.

Ron Paul; irrelevant as ever it seems.

 

[ParkCungHee]

Ron Paul; irrelevant as ever it seems.

Listen, if relevancy starts becoming the standard for how many question you get, they wouldn't even have a debate.

 

[bombshoo]

I loved how basically every Republican candidate stated that they would conduct covert operations to sabotage Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities and support insurrection ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

I was thinking this too.

Imagine the uproar we would have here if an Iranian presidential candidate talked about how they planned to infiltrate and sabotage American nuclear facilities on internationally broadcasted television.

 

[JollyRoger]

Given that Rick Perry has already proven himself the best debater in the GOP field, he is trying to expand the list of his debate victims:

Rick Perry has challenged House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to debate him next week about his plan for a part-time Congress.

In a letter to Pelosi (D-Calif.) obtained by The Hill, the Texas governor wrote: "I am in Washington Monday and would love to engage you in a public debate about my Overhaul Washington plan versus the congressional status quo.

"I think it would be a tremendous service to the American people to see a public airing of these differences," he continued. "Let the people decide. If Monday doesn't work, perhaps we could find a time in Iowa over the course of the next month to discuss these issues in front of the people of America's heartland."

"Should you choose not to respond or engage in such a healthy discussion, I will take it to mean you will continue your obstructionist ways in the face of much needed Washington reform," Perry wrote.

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/194187-rick-perry-challenges-pelosi-to-a-debate-his-part-time-congress-plan

Obstructionist member of Congress? Potential debate foe? Does Perry think Pelosi is a Republican?

Anyway, Pelosi shows that they would be evenly matched:

Nancy Pelosi rebuffed Rick Perry's debate challenge this morning, POLITICO's Jake Sherman reports, giving three reasons for her decision:

"He did ask if I could debate here in Washington on Monday. It is my understanding that such a letter has come in," Pelosi said in the Capitol Thursday. "Monday I'm going to be in Portland in the morning, I'm going to be visiting some of our labs. I'm in California in the afternoon, that's two. I can't remember what the third is."

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/68590.html

Getting trolled by Nancy Pelosi is a step up for Governor Goodhair.

Update:

The Perry campaign fires back in a way that just might make John Boehner cry.

Perry's campaign fired back at the Dem leader, writing on their official twitter account Thursday: "@NancyPelosi Perhaps the third activity that you have forgotten is the ongoing insider trading?"

The snap-back was in reference to a piece that ran on CBS' "60 Minutes" Sunday, which alleged that several lawmakers — Pelosi and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) were among those named —were getting rich by trading on information they only have access to by way of their positions — a congressional equivalent of "insider trading."

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/194265-pelosi-makes-fun-of-perry-debate-suggestion

 

[Antilogic]

Getting trolled by Nancy Pelosi is a step up for Governor Goodhair.

This might be the first time I'm legitimately proud of Pelosi. One of our lab members was giving a presentation and pulled the same rhetorical trick on the outline slide.

 

[JollyRoger]

I saw enough criticism of our wartime Commander-in-Chief to justify the secret detention and waterboarding of several people.

Yet that would be absurd:

Bachmann was asked by member of the editorial board: “If you think it’s not that bad, would you ever willingly submit to it, just to see what it’s like?”

“Well I think that would be absurd to have the President of the United States submit themselves to waterboarding,” Bachmann responded — but of course, she is not right now President of the United States, though she is running for the office.

Of course, it should be noted that people who have been voluntarily waterboarded declare in virtually unanimous terms that it is torture, such as Christopher Hitchens or the conservative radio host Eric “Mancow” Muller.

Another example is the eccentric former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, who has discussed how he was waterboarded as part of his Navy SEAL training (which the military does in order to teach its elite troops to resist torture techniques). Ventura famously declared: “I’ll put it to you this way: You give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and one hour, and I’ll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.”

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/11/bachmann-it-would-be-absurd-to-get-waterboarded-to-prove-its-not-torture.php?ref=fpa_beta

 

[CaptainF]

Torture!

I knew something was missing from the Republican talking points all these past months. A Republican who doesn't talk about hurting people in one form or another just doesn't register.

Moderator Action: Please read the forum rules:

• Extending a negative issue to a wide group of people. For example, if one member of a group, religion, political persuasion or ethnicity does something bad, a post that implies that all members of this group, religion, political persuasion or ethnicity are similar, this is considered trolling.

Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[say1988]

Torture!

No it isn't, since the US doesn't torture people everything it does is therefore not torture.

 

[useless]

Racist dogwhistle comment much, Perry?

Rick Perry says President Obama, the son of a teen mother who frequently was absent from his life and often was stretched financially, grew up the easy way. It’s the latest in a series of winks at conspiracy-minded conservatives deeply suspicious about the president’s background.

Perry’s comments came as he discussed his new ad attacking Obama for saying US policymakers have grown “lazy” about honing America’s competitive edge, a comment that Republicans have inaccurately suggested was aimed at American workers. Asked by FOX News host Sean Hannity about the spot, Perry launched into a highly personal attack on Obama.

“It reveals to me that he grew up in a privileged way,” he said. “He never had to really work for anything.”

He added that “we need a president who has been through their ups and downs in life, and understands what it’s like to have to deal with the issues in our economy that we have today in America.”

It’s a tough sell considering Obama’s actual life story. Obama’s father moved away almost immediately after he was born, leaving him to be raised by his mother and grandparents in Hawaii and Indonesia. He’s frequently brought up his mother’s sometime reliance on food stamps to support the family. Later he worked his way up to becoming the first black head of the Harvard Law review — a feat that made national news at the time and secured him a book deal — en route to a prodigious political career. And Perry, whose aides insisted he get more sleep after a series of disastrously listless campaign appearances, ought to know better than anyone that presidential campaigns are a pretty tough slog.

But Perry’s latest attack is part of a recurring pattern. While Mitt Romney has mostly eschewed attacks on Obama’s biography, the Texas governor has frequently raised questions about his origins. He called for Obama to release his college grades, a popular meme on the right that emerged from birther circles. The obvious unstated implication, of course, is that Obama got into Harvard based on his race instead of his academic achievement. If that didn’t give the game away, Perry started openly musing about whether Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery before backing off the suggestion.

From a strategic perspective, there’s some sense to these tactics as a last-ditch gambit to turn around the Texas governor’s toxic poll numbers. If Perry can bait Democratic critics into accusing him of racially tinged attacks on Obama, he can cast himself as a victim and rally conservative media and Tea Party activists behind him. So far it hasn’t worked, but it certainly isn’t for lack of trying.

Remember when Gingrich directed some weird comment towards Obama shortly after he entered the race, to the effect that Obama wouldn't be President if only there was a "level playing field"?

Seems to me that Newt's comment was a racist dogwhistle directed towards affirmative action, based upon his own personal resentment of it and this is very similar.

Perry's not even being subtle about it anymore, he's outright blowing on that dogwhistle, and to him it's probably a case of "A black man attending Harvard? Must be because of affirmative action, not hard work!".

 

[JollyRoger]

Yep, Rick Perry is surely dealing with today's tough economy - Texas taxpayer's are only chipping in $10,000 per month for his housing and his family is only getting one taxpayer-funded subscription to Food & Wine magazine.

 

[Cutlass]

""If there is one guy out there that is the next George Washington, the only guy that I could think of is Rick Santorum""
— Glenn Beck