Newsweek: Thanks to Ron Paul GOP Iraq Debate More Robust Than Democrats'

By Howard Fineman - Newsweek | Ron Paul

Some observations about the state of the Republican presidential race after the Fox debate from the University of New Hampshire:

They came to bury John McCain by praising him, but in doing so they resurrected him—at least for a night. There was an air of nostalgia in praise other Republican candidates heaped on him. The shrewd Mike Huckabee led the way, saying McCain "understands the word honor." Question: has the bidding begun for what everyone assumes will be a McCain postwithdrawal endorsement?

Rudy Giuliani was better prepared than ever—at least in the view of the Mitt Romney campaign aides with whom I watched the debate here. He had plausible defenses of his liberal New York immigration policy, his lack of foreign-policy experience and his refusal to sign a no-new-taxes pledge. "He's done a good job working on his answers," said one of Romney's top people here.

Huckabee is a shrewd dude, and once again did himself good by focusing his folksy answers on big problems in a plausible way. He was especially smart to get into a shouting match with Rep. Ron Paul, the GOP's isolationist libertarian. The Romneyans were jealous. They wanted to mix it up with Paul but didn't get the chance.

Go to full story

Posted on Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 10:51:05 AM
Comments(0) | Trackbacks(0) | Send to a Friend | Related |

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

‹‹ Previous ··· Main ··· Next ››