Romney with a good factual response to McCain.  “Facts are stubborn things.” Paul should use that.

McCain on oil dependency.  CNN flashes “McCain’s energy plan; go to CNN.com.” Think they’ll cite to any of the 100+ essays Paul has posted?

Romney.  No one’s talking about cutting the military; we oughta grow it! 

Fact: We’re the sole superpower, outspending the rest of the world combined.  Martin Van Creveld: “Soaking up almost $450 billion a year, the mightiest war machine the world has ever seen was vainly trying to combat twenty to thirty thousand insurgents....” Creveld, “The Changing Face of War,” 2006.

McCain’s answer disingenuious answer on views on immigration makes me think he can be just as slick as ol’ Slick Willie - at least when he manages to hold his temper.

Ron Paul gets cut-off on his Sandra Day O’Connor answer.  RP looks pissed off.

For a debate without rules, it appears the only rule that is being followed is… ignore Dr. Paul. What a disgrace.

RP was almost permitted to a sentence.

That should be “RP was almost permitted to finish a sentence.”

RP gets a softball and hits a homerun.  Best moment yet in entire campaign.  Cheers!!!!

Cameras panning to McCain’s shit eating grin while his opponents speak is getting old real fucking fast.

Thanks Justin- Superb commentary as usual. McCain is scary. Howmany
scary.  How many wars will he get us into if elected.

Another win for RP and another shameful and embarassing performance by the Media.

Anderson Cooper. What a twit! I turned off Bill Bennett. He is so stupid.

I don’t like the kind of people supporting McCain - Kissinger, for starters. There are these scheming types who really want empire, and combined with the aforesaid McCain ego, there are no limits on the wars we can become trapped in, the way we are trapped in Iraq with “honor” keeping us there. I thought Will Shakespeare had long ago proved the folly of such men. To what avail? Do Republicans read anymore?

I thought McCain’s attacks on men who work for profit was shameful: the sly dig about having fired people being especially interesting. As though only a monster fires bad employees. Perhaps in McCain’s world, lifetime military service is to be the new security. Romney seemed too witless to respond. He could have demolished his pretensions in an instant, but I suppose it would have implicated George Bush, the man who had a lot of trouble firing anyone. Interestingly, I believe McCain said that Bush had fired Rumsfeld. Were we supposed to know that?

As to the discussion of the gold standard - I think that in spite of gold’s performance on the world markets, the US public knows little about it. Of course Ron Paul’s statements were all consistent with his principles. For some reason in the current debate this appeared “academic” - perhaps it was the effect of the “twink” moving things right along. At any rate the “twink” performed much better than most, allowing intelligent or revealing things to be said. I felt chilled by McCain and cheered by Paul. I got the impression that Romney is not really blood-thirsty, just a bit of a follower. His sons are not in uniform, which means he clearly does not consider our being in Iraq vital to the national interest. The lack of enthusiasm for the war says it all. I shudder to think of what might happen to stir it, so that such a situation is reversed. Perhaps President McCain would have some ideas....

There is some good news per the Main Stream Media (MSM).  CNN had undecided voters hooked up to those meters and McCain scored very poorly.

McCain struck me as perhaps on the verge of losing it.  The rumors that McCain is unhinged look to have something behind them.  McCain’s demeanor was so off putting and as someone said “scary” that the thought of his being President is enough to make a vast majority vote for the unappealing Hillary.

You know, if we were to give McCain a shoe I’m pretty sure he would start beating a podium with it.

---For some reason in the current debate this appeared “academic”

--- I don’t see Ron Paul connecting his academic ideas to people’s real problems, such as the rising price of food, gas, and home energy. The reason I think is that he is really a nostalgic conservative and abhors debt of any kind.

Paul was simply great. He had to battle Cooper’s favoritism of McCain and Romney, but Paul managed to make all the key points he needed to make. He was intelligent, interesting, and dignified. McCain and Romney, on the other hand, were posturing and getting into trivial nonsense like whether Romney said such-and-such instead of so-and-so the whole night.

A few questions on McCain, given there is a possibility that he will be the next president of these United States.

1) Has he ever publicly thanked the government of Vietnam for the lenient and light sentence he received while incarcerated for capital crimes he committed while in that country?

2) Most felons have their right to vote taken away from
them, has McCain voted in elections in the last thirty odd years since returning to the US?

Had he been pardoned, or did a prescribed period of time take place, a probation, that he completed without incident that allowed his citizenship rights to be restored?

Or 3) have the criminality of his actions, the bombing of civilian properties and people ignored entirely, and all of those around him behave as if he were a normal human being within a normal context of social activity without even the wit to know Jack the Ripper himself would be of more sound and less Satanic company?
and less scurrilous company.

America want’s change and we will get it from Hillary
and McCain…

“Cameras panning to McCain’s shit eating grin while his opponents speak...”

Note how the lack of a hyphen slows the reader’s comprehension for a moment.  Instead of an adjectival “shit-eating” modifying “grin,” you get a phrase that initially reads like McCain’s shit is going around gobbling up a grin.

I love your righting’s, good job and thanks for the post.

“I thought McCain’s attacks on men who work for profit was shameful: the sly dig about having fired people being especially interesting. As though only a monster fires bad employees.”

I wish Romney had come back by pointing out that being fired was the worst that could happen to you under him, whereas, under McCain the chances are you would come back either in a body bag or shot up all to hell due to McCain’s mistakes.

It is bad enough to have a religious fanatic as president, if indeed that is the case with Bush. It is even worse to have elected someone who is an out and out fanatic like McCain. When Paul was trying to explain the results of the pursuing the course of action we are under now, McCain just looked at him with that evil look of a true believer.

McCain is too unstable to be president. I really believe he wants to kill large numbers of people for no good purpose and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with his imprisonment.

I keep watching these debates waiting for a question like “The recent events in Gaza seem to indicate that urgent action is needed to establish some sort of of stable Palestinian homeland; what would be your policy?”. But the question never comes.

Thank you for this summary, Mr Raimondo.

I stopped watching.  too much mcain and romney.  the best debate was the black caucus one because they just went down the line and asked questions.  Isn’t it a little rude to ask one person mor than another person?  if they are a frontrunner, why give them an advantage by letting them monopolize the thing?

another great thing about the black caucus debate was that none of the frontrunners were there.  they are so boring

with the exception of ron paul, all the candidates seem to be running for the president of the america of 10 or twenty years ago.  stayng on the offensive in the war on terror and giving americans health insurance are laudable goals but they are simply not feasible when we are

1.in the middle of two wars, neither of which look like they are ending soon.

2.  in a recession more or less

3.  have a joke-ola dollar that is not even as strong as the freakin vietnamese DONG

4.  have borrowed taxed inflated and otherwise spent ourselves into massive massive debt the likes of which the world has never seen.

the next president does not need to be uplifting, market savvy, militarily courageous or anything else.  they need to know how to cut spending and say no to people who have been receiving those government dollars.

Thanks for this commentary. It keeps me from running to the bathroom and throwing up every time I think about that “debate.”

Ron Paul is so far above them all.

I thought it looked like a political version of the Jerry Springer Show.  I was expecting to see a paternity test before the end of the ‘show’.

I tell my friends when I was growing up, during the 60’s, gas prices were anywhere from sixteen cents to thirty cents per gallon.  Our Constitutional money was backed by silver at that time until 1964, and paper currency by gold until 1971.  Most of my friends look at me as if I am nuts, when I tell them that gas, today, is still around a quarter a gallon.  To prove it, my brothers and I, used to mow yards.  We were paid at that time, at one yard, 2 dollars.  Now, after buying one gallon of gas, for a quarter, for the next days work, we had 1.75 left.  Now lets say I had thrown the Constitutional change of a silver dollar, a silver half dollar, and a silver quarter totaling, 1.75, into a drawer and while at the same time placing 2 paper dollars in the same drawer, forgetting about both for the 44 years from 1964 to 2008.  Here are todays, 01-30-08, closing prices of silver U.S. coinage, not collectible coins, just silver change that was used in everyday circulation.  This if from the website http://www.coinflation.com/ The 2 paper dollars would only buy 2/3 of a gallon of gas, with today’s price of regular unleaded at 3.00 a gallon.  This is where the wisdom of the Founding Fathers come in.  The quarter is worth 3.02 today, the half dollar 6.04, and the silver dollar, 12.91.  The combined total of the silver backed Constitutional money is worth 21.97 today, and this is only for the silver content.  This is not due to any type of rarity or condition of coin.  Only due to silver content of 90 per cent silver.  Now at 3 dollars a gallon, you could purchase over 7 gallons of gas.  That is why money must be a store of wealth, to be able to retain its buying power power, even after 44 years, so that it does not lose its value to inflation. 

Now, lets say in 1964 you saved 1,000.00 dollars and for the following 9 years you also saved one thousand dollars each year.  So between 1964 and 1973 you had saved a total of 10,000.00 dollars.  If you saved those 10,000 paper dollar bills, at the end of 34 years, those 10,000.00 paper notes will only purchase 10,000.00 dollars worth of good in 2008.  But if you had 10,000 silver dollars in 1973, those same 10,000 silver dollars in 2008 would be able to purchase 129,100.00 dollars worth of 2008 goods.  That is how your wealth is stolen from you by the printing of un-backed, un-Constitutional paper Federal Reserve Notes and that is for only 10 yrs of work. 

That also does not even go into the concept of silver being severely under valued at this time, versus its historical ratio to gold. 
That is how a regular quarter, backed by silver, would still buy a gallon of gas today, and then some. When Dr. Paul speaks of a sound currency, this is what it means.

Eric Dondero is an idiot.

Just sayin.

My friends and I cringe everytime McCain opens his mouth.  We’ve nick’d him “The WWS”—whitewashed sepulchre—taken from Mathew 23:27

McCain’s sadistic smirk while others speak is a sign of what kind of ruler he would be.  I am amazed that so many Americans want this slug to be in charge of anything. His positions make him dangerous.  His personality makes him far more dangerous.

Words have meaning.  A “SURGE” is just another way of saying “ESCALATION”.  ESCALATION became a very dirty word during the Viet Nam war.  Lets all start defining SURGE as ESCALATION on all our posts!
And tie the Al Sadr and Kurdish controlled areas of Iraq into another Korea with two DMZs, at best.

While I took the line as a joke I’d just like to correct you on one thing.  Mormonism has quite a wide appeal outside of Utah, especially as evidenced by the fact that there are more members of the church outside of the US than within.

On another note, any Mormon with half an understanding on the church doctrine and the US Constitution will not vote for Romney.

--- Paul was simply great---

Sorry - Ron didn’t do well at all - except for everyone in this room.

He has been successfully boxed out of every “debate”. He has been mocked, interrupted and ignored. He is off the radar of the Average Voter. The Internet - Under 30 crowd can continue enthusiastically populating the polls, but that’s been turned by the MSM to heap more ridicule and justify the removalof any postive comments - or complaints - about him. And the Under 30 demo is notorious for not showing up on election day. Just ask Kerry.

When Cooper cut Paul off at the beginning of the debate, I was appalled - not only at Cooper’s obviously biased, rude and unprofessional action but also at RP for not asserting himself. By the time that happened, Cooper had already given the majority of the questions and response time to Rmoney and McCain. And this came after Cooper’s “there are no rules or time limits” opening comments. That statement alone gave RP all he needed to remind Cooper of that statement and keep on talking. A number of RP financial supporters in the room where I was watching were angry and disappointed. One said: Well, if he doesn’t want it badly enough to allow himself to be pushd around by an ******* like Cooper, that doesn’t present a very good presidential image when he may have to deal with Iranians, N. Koreans, Russians who get off on stomping on those they perceive as weak.
Many in the room agreed.

At the end, the concensus of 20 fans was: worthless. McCain looked like the Grumpiest Old Man (and least stable), Romeny, the whining rich kid, Paul, the 98 lb weaking with all the right answers but unable to deliver except to the Mensa crowd and Huckabee, affable, reasonable and maybe slick enough to pull it off he can get some bucks.

Compare/contrast Ron Paul’s constant comments about the Gold Standard with Huckabee’s folksy style on bread ‘n butter issues. Go out on the street and find 10—no, 2 people - who have any clue what the hell the Gold Standard is. Hell, just ask them if they’ve ever heard of Ron Paul. And except for the Military/Industrial/Media complex, do you really think “maintaing our Empire” resonates with the average voter?

Suggestion to RP campaign managers: Watch the first 30 minutes of “Man of the Year”. Maybe you’ll get some good ideas.

Correction: ...but that’s been turned by the MSM to heap more ridicule on him and justify the removal of postive comments - or complaints about them.

Mcains performance inspired me to a creative endevour: check out my Onion style parody:

http://www.politicalcrossfire.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=98002

Please stop showing the photo of Ron Paul and Reagan. We all know that Reagan was just a vicious fraud. It’s sad that Doctor Paul was suckered into supporting him.

Both Big E and Bruce Williams both have perspectives on the problem inherent in the Ron Paul campaign: Big E has the ability to relate economic information in simple terms that ordinary people can understand, including those who think today’s stock market or the home they own is a place to store value for the long term.  You come to understand that what is “rare and collectible” is actually the run of the mill silver coinage we took for granted before the guns and butter era.
Bruce Williams for his part understands that even though people wish Ron Paul could be seen as the walking embodiment of sound principles, there is something wrong with how the message is being sent. It has as much to do with decades of conditioning the viewers to a certain way of taking in information, as it has to do with the campaign itself.

Just as the silver quarters in the drawer do not diminish in value, the principles of a man like Paul do not either. The problem is to achieve office with a standard-bearer of that message. Dr. Paul is getting the message out, and he isn’t vainglorious about it. Although he hasn’t achieved the poll numbers, someone else might come along who will. There are of course parts of the US where looking at things his way has a more Democratic side (Vermont, New Hampshire). And of course, Kucinich and Paul have much in common as well. Something new needs to be created.

Was it the third answer that Ron Paul knocked out of the park? That was his best moment of any debate so far. That and the “blowback” exchange with Da Ghoul. OK. Second best moment but still very good.

As for getting cut off by the CIA “twink”, I do often wish Ron would chug a couple beers before these events or do wind sprints or side kicks or something.

A “Hey, Junior Vanderbilt!...Disco duck! I ain’t done talkin’ so shut the hell up!” would have been a great vote getter.

that was THE BEST “Reader’s Digest” version of the debate I’ve read!

Why can’t YOU being writing for the national publications?!

I am continually amazed by the lack of attention and respect that Ron Paul receives.  he is the ONLY one with (a) anything of substance to say and (b) the only one who is making any damn sense!  IS IT JUST ME?!

Can’t wait till after Super Tuesday when Huckabee runs out of money, McCain gets a little “humble pie” fed to him (also with all-but-broke coffers) and it’s down to the only two with campaign monies to compete- Ron and Mitt (self-financed Mitt).  Should get REALLY interesting at that point!

I have to disagree that Ron Paul’s message is all that hard for the average American to understand. Big E pretty much summed it up.  Who hasn’t bought gas lately?  I have also noticed a distinct hostillity coming from the twit Cooper toward Dr. Paul.  He alsost became visibly ill when the Ron Paul people cheered in one of the earlier debates.