Hilary Rosen
I disagree with 90% of what was said on the stage tonight so take my review with that in mind. I am judging the performances by who made the best presentation of their beliefs, who looked most presidential and who articulated clear plans for his presidency.
I would have thought that Rudy Guliani would have been able to demonstrate more skill in this format. But Romney and McCain were the clear winners tonight.
Gov Jim Gilmore beat the pool of second tier candidates.
Credit to Romney, Brownbeck, Huckbee and McCain for responding to the question by focusing on on the Hillary Clinton as President rather than the spouse
I like how Chris is encouraging people who may disagree with an answer that someone just gave to speak up. It is a good way to realize that there are differences between these guys.
And I like the way he is trying to get them to actually answer questions they want to dodge. A gentler version of Hardball. Because he knows that if they really want to dodge a question, that is something the viewers should see.
Well John Chambers, Chairman of CISCO will get lots of attention tomorrow. He is also one of the most aggressive CEO lobbyists on behalf of favorable tech policies.
Is Guliani even in this deabte? This "I was a Governor and therefore I....." is very interesting. Lots of credential flashing tonight.
That didn't happen much in the Democratic debate. Here it has put Romney and Gilmore out front with more confidence.
McCain is keeping up. But Where is Rudy??
When Pat Buchanan and Bob Shrum agree so definitively on something - what else is there to say?
After the first question, there was some space between them on their answer to a question about how they would respond to a domestic terrorist attack. Obama expressed concern that we carefully deal with international colleagues. Clinton made it clear that retaliation against the enemy would be right in her sights if the blame could be clearly identified.
I thought it was going to stand that way and he would be viewed as more reserved in international aggression.
Yet this didn't stand, Obama needed to come back and use another question to assure people that he thinks that a serious military response is sometimes called for.
Then he gets in a fight with Kucinich and he is the hawk. No, it isn't your imagination. He aligned himself purposely with the views of Hillary Clinton.
After the first question, there was some space between them on their answer to a question about how they would respond to a domestic terrorist attack. Obama expressed concern that we carefully deal with international colleagues. Clinton made it clear that retaliation against the enemy would be right in her sights if the blame could be clearly identified.
I thought it was going to stand that way and he would be viewed as more reserved in international aggression.
Yet this didn't stand, Obama needed to come back and use another question to assure people that he thinks that a serious military response is sometimes called for.
Then he gets in a fight with Kucinich and he is the hawk. No, it isn't your imagination. He aligned himself purposely with the views of Hillary Clinton.
Chris Dodd made the case for same sex marriage so eloquently and then said he was against it. Too bad this issue didn't go down the line with other candidates. I'm sure there will be other chances for them all to finesse this issue.
Abortion - everyone but Dodd was OK (He said he didn't regret voting for the not-so - secret right winger Justice Roberts). No throw to Hillary was disappointing given the importance of the issue to women. Obama did a good job on the big picture and Biden was the only one who took on Brian's theory that the American people support limits on abortion.
Guns - frankly, everyone was vague. They should have talked about how the Republicans let the assault rifle ban lapse.
Edwards should have knocked this one out. He didn't seem to have a focused message for the tax versus funding of healthcare issue.
Clinton used the opportunity to turn around Brian's attack on her popularity as a call for change on domestic issues. Effective.
Obama skirted the issue of funding of his priorities and instead made an effective case for more health care by using personal stories.
Clinton spoke with final authority on health care. Can anyone really match her knowledge on this?
On these Domestic issues, everyone is playing nice with each other's ideas and experience.
