Okay, I admit it – that was a troll headline. Nobody won last night’s debate. Well, that’s not true either. Everyone who watched something else won. And while there were no clear winners, Romney does get extra bonus points for mentioning Jeanine McDonnell’s services overseas in the debate.
If last night’s Republican debate made anything clearer for us voters, it was that we’ve had enough debates for one election season. I know I’m certainly tired of watching them, and from the way the candidates held themselves up last night, they’ve tired of performing in them. I was actually hoping that when John King asked his inane question of what one word best describes each of them, one of them would have been honest and said “tired.”
Because that’s how this whole process feels now. It’s tired.
Last night’s debate shed little light on issues that hadn’t been shed before. Ron Paul continues to double down on his hopelessly insular belief that the United States shouldn’t be involved in anything overseas, but if we do, we should at least actually declare war – as if declaring a war somehow makes everything else okay.
Santorum and Romney bickered like little children, going back and forth multiple times and talking over each other in a display that would have earned them a time out in most first grade classrooms.
Santorum made valid points about earmarks which will fall on deaf ears because too many voters have bought into the political pablum that all earmarks are pork barrel spending and evil. Unfortunately, Santorum’s points are all way too inside-the-beltway to resonate with folks. I can totally accept and understand his point about endorsing Arlen Specter, but it took him three minutes to explain why he did it. That’s not going to fly, Rick.
Romney scored probably his best point of the night when he reminded Santorum that Santorum endorsed Romney in 2008, Romneycare and all. It was also interesting to see Romney refer to Massachusett’s health care plan as “Romneycare” in the debate a few times.
Gingrich sat off to the side, mostly ignored, attacking Obama because he’s so far from being a front runner now that there’s no reason for him to waste energy attacking either Romney or Santorum.
Two things I noted – I was pleased to have the audience boo the idiotic contraception question. The whole idea that Republicans don’t support contraception is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard. Saying Republicans are for banning contraception is like saying Kim Kardashian deserves to be famous. It doesn’t even pass the laugh test.
It’s also both interesting and amusing to watch Ron Paul attack Santorum and ignore Romney. I can see why so many folks believe now that Romney has struck some kind of deal with Ron Paul (not VP – that would be insane.) Paul is the strongest counterpoint to Santorum, since he served in Congress the same time, and was consistent in his attacks on spending and the war. Whatever attack ads Ron Paul has run have been almost exclusively leveled at everyone but Romney, which makes me feel better about donating $10 to his campaign to get a copy of his cookbook – my cat wanted it for Christmas. At least I know that money didn’t go to attacking Romney.
In the end, we didn’t learn much more about these candidates that we didn’t already know, and there weren’t any major gaffes that will end up on Late Night TV or give Krystal Ball something to talk about on MSNBC as she tries to convince everyone she’s on there because she’s some kind of a “Democratic strategist.” Right.
As we limp slowly towards Arizona and Michigan, all I can say at this point is that I wish it was August.
