What Did You Think of the Debate?
January 25th, 2008 Posted in Debate, Debates, Democrats, Florida, Hillary Clinton, MSNBC, Mitt Romney
Everything I’m hearing on MSNBC is extremely positive. Chris Matthews can’t stop talking about Mitt’s sound bites, his demeanor, his answers, his “Presidentialness,” his hits on Hillary. They’re also ripping on John McCain. What are you guys hearing, and what do you think about the debate?
January 25th, 2008 at 12:59 am
Glory be. Mitt won the telephone poll one point ahead of Ron Paul. That is significant.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am
I didn’t see the debates, but I just got home a googled the news on the Florida debates and found a blog at which many were saying there was a question asked of Romney, and then you could hear a whisper which said, “Don’t raise taxes,” and then Romney said, “I will not raise taxes.” This group was saying this will destroy Romney’s campaign. May I assume this is complete non sense, did anybody see what happened and can you comment? Thanks.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Terrific job on Romney’s role in the debate!! I thought the Truth Squad’s research on the abortion issue was incorrect. I thought it was a legal issue to include abortion on that bill. Am I right on that? Way to go, Mitt!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:03 am
Hi Stephanie,
This was Mitt’s best performance to date! I think he just won Florida! And the nomination….
January 25th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Mitt Romney looked and sounded like the great president he would be. He knows how to surround himself with knowledgeable people, to listen to all sides. He demonstrated how he would unite those on opposite sides of issues by bringing them together and arriving at consensus. Mitt Romney is the best thing to happen in presidential politics since Reagan.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:04 am
Schuster, who can’t stand Romney, implied that Romney lied when he spoke about his record on abortion and brought up the issue that his health care program provided for abortions. Romney has explained it was required by the court. It is an issue that comes up often. I wish the media would report the facts correctly. After this experience I will never believe anything I hear in the media. They DISTORT the facts because they are bias.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:07 am
Matthews and Rich were right on the money tonight Mitt was great hands down. Tucker Carlson and Andrea Mitchell must of watched another debate. They were very disengenious on there assesments favoring Huckabee and McCain.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Mitt will win Florida with this debate performnace the question is by how much. Is it enough to knock McCain or Rudy out. Huck was effectively finished tonight!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Mitt will win Florida with this debate performnace the question is by how much. Is it enough to knock McCain or Rudy out. Huck was effectively finished off tonight!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:10 am
I heard the whisper, but all I heard was “Raise taxes.” It was a curious incident, but the idea that Mitt was being coached is ludicrous…and I think all attending the debate, including the commentators, would agree. No one was being coached, but someone might have been trying to make it look that way.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Joe,
Something about taxes was whispered, but it was either from Brian Williams to Tim Russert or vice versa.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:28 am
At what point in the debate did the taxes whisper happen?
January 25th, 2008 at 1:29 am
It’s pretty much a consensus that Romney won hands down tonight, which is incredibly advantagous. Hopefully this will catapult Romney to not only a victory in FL, but also in garnering over 30% of the vote, which would be remarkable.
I am still contantly bothered by the pundits who say that McCain is “leading the polls.” McCain’s lead has completely shrunk and now has officially been eliminated. These people need to relaize that Mitt is not only the candidate with momentum…he is in the lead.
Mitt is in a great position to pick up a win now in Florida. There won’t be any more state-wide visivility of the candidates until the election, and all Floridians will hear is how Mitt dominated this debate. And you can bet that his several zingers will be played over and over again in the national media over the weekend. ‘Tis a happy time with Team Romney!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:33 am
Romney is going to be the greatest prez in modern history. Let’s do our part & hit the blogs! Anyone know of a list of highly read Florida blogs?
January 25th, 2008 at 1:33 am
I wasn’t able to watch it, but followed a few different blogs and recaps of it. Between Michelle Malkin, Matt Lewis, Hugh Hewitt and the video clips I cuaght, it look like Romney scored big on that question about Iraq, easily took care of the fundraising question, and brought his economic points home clearly. He continued his dominance of economic issues, rose his standing in foreign policy issues, didn’t lose anything on social issues and showed he has some fight for the Dems.
Many said the debate was uneventful, but with the childish display the Dems put on a few days ago and Romney’s recent rising in the polls, uneventful could be good. I’ve seen several voice their beliefs that Romney was treated like the true frontrunner in this debate, and that his handling of the difficult situations brought to him by the media cemented that fact.
January 25th, 2008 at 1:45 am
The whisper deal was simply someone from the MSNBC team close to a microphone having a conversation. I also heard another whisper/conversation right before they went to commercial (I think they said something to the effect of “did you hear that”). This sounded like the same voices, either the hosts or perhaps some of the crew.
I love conspiratorialists, they love to take something so simple as a technical glitch is turned into some big issue - lol. Some pathetic people will take this clip and try to paint a picture. But anyone with half a brain will just ignore this. In any case no one will be talking about this in a day or two. Mitt Won the debate by a landslide tonight - McCain’s performance was pathetic and Giuliani was out in the sidelines.
The text message vote asking who Won had Mitt at 41% - McCain, Giuliani and Huckabee were all in single digit. Ron Paul was 40% but you expect this since his support base is all about the net.
Mitt Romney has now Won Florida … but I already knew he would. Let’s do our part now to make sure he wins BIG!
January 25th, 2008 at 1:53 am
Florida is the launching pad into Super Tuesday…. We may have our Nominee before the Democrats, and what a BOON that would be! If we can start running the general election campain why they are sorting out their nominee, they’re toast!
January 25th, 2008 at 2:24 am
GREAT COMMENTS ALL!
Did you see that look on McCain’s face when they cut to him when GMR was answering a question? GMR’s answer was quite articulate, intelligent, and he used a couple of big words. McCain had that look like, “I have no idea what the heck you are talking about!”
Look for my post in a few minutes on the debate.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:28 am
I heard the whispers as well, but I am sure that nobody was being coached, how silly to even think! I heard another whisper that said something to the effect of ” here is something for you to laugh at”. I am sure that it was the MSNBC cew near a mike.
The “raise taxes” whisper seems like it was the moderators talking amongst themselves on how to follow up a question with another, by pointing out that Reagan raised some taxes, Mitt however took the wind out of their sails by not buying into their entrapment.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:35 am
Since so many have participated in early voting in FL, we can only hope that those votes went to the early leader, Giuliani, which clearly gives Romney the advantage with his more recent rise in the polls and Giuliani’s dramatic drop. However, if the early votes were cast during the McCain rise, it could ultimately take the current lead from Romney. Overall, it’s a great time to be a Romney supporter! What a brilliant, accomplished man!
January 25th, 2008 at 2:36 am
Good work, Mitt. I think you just won Florida.
January 25th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Chris Matthews was saying Mitt Romney was taking his talking points from Obama. Mitt Romney has been saying the same thing for a long time and Chris just tuned in.
January 25th, 2008 at 3:34 am
I watched the debate as I had all the Republican debates, and I must say that this was Romney’s best performance, and the best of any candidate tonight. The moderators were actually trying to pin him with questions, at one point he was asked three different questions in a row!!! and therefore, he had the most airtime of any candidate. Romney turned that to his advantage; he was ready and had the right answers. After the debate, Joe Scarborough, as always, was very pro-Romney; and he’s from Florida too. I think it helps Romney to have someone in the media (MSNBC) and from Florida speak well for Romney as Joe does. Tucker and Mitchell are typical liberal media, hence, McCain advocates. Personally I know that Mitt won convincingly!
January 25th, 2008 at 10:17 am
Finally! Romney gets his due. The media was determined to ignore Mitt and focus on McCain and Huckabee but the primary voters are those who really care about issues and the future of our country. Now that it is obvious he will win Florida and go on to Super Tuesday with a huge momentum, they are foaming at the mouth to be his best buddy. I knew the tides had changed when I saw Brian Williams from NBC high tail it right over to Romney, Ann, and the boys to do a little get to know you chat. Hopefully, he apoligized for that idiot question about a poll showing 40% of Americans won’t vote for a Mormon. Did they run a poll to see how many people won’t vote for a Jew? How about a Baptist Minister? What about a black man? No, I didn’t think so.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
We should do a poll about media trust and which commentators we trust the most.
January 25th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Just FYI - I have been closely following the market based polls on Rasmussen and Intrade and both of them as of a few days ago had Romney & McCain in a dead heat. The day after Thompson bowed out Romney went up by 10 points and now after the debate both of them have Romney up by over 30 points. They are both about 62% Romney 30% McCain and 8% Guliani
There was a lot of positive about last night that went well. I was completely waiting for snide attacks from any angle from any of the candidates and the just didn’t come. Huckleberry tried to use jokes in about 50% of his responses and after the first few ended up looking like a joke himself.
Does coming out and saying that he was afraid to state a difference of opinion when somebody that could beat him up is standing close to him, even in the form of humor, make the public look at him and wonder why he didn’t make that stance at the time more solidly? He keeps pulling this hands off responsiveness to the junk that the people that surround him are saying. It has gotten old and people are starting to pick up on it.
McCain’s attempt to back track on something that he had said a while back was classic. The quote that he has Greenspan’s book in order to understand the economy is a killer.
The pundits even said that that would be used as a huge bullet against him if he were to get the nomination (which he won’t at this point, but I’m just saying, he has been making his bed for a few weeks now and may very well be laying in it soon)
Romney blew everybody away, and when he got the Liberal pundits (or at least most of them) to admit that he ran away with it he really did nail it.
Tucker is a schmo that really really really needs a haircut. Almost as bad as I do. But his insistance that Huckabee put forward concrete answers to things was a stretch and a pathetic attempt to make sure that he didn’t stand with the rest in admiting that Romney won hands down.
Onward and upwards from here. Remeber to assist with the phone calling this weekend if you have the opportunity.
A BIG win in FL would almost ensure the nomination as we roll into Super Tues.
I still think that Romney could put the nail in the coffin on that day as he has the opportunity to take AZ from McCain due to McCain’s amnesty stance.
January 25th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
When John McCain was asked on the January 24, 2008 Republican debate by Tim Russert about his knowledge of economics he challenged the question and said he didn’t know where that quote came from. There was not a follow up by Tim Russert and the point dropped. Does this mean that the New York Times Paul Krugman is lying or misquoting the statement or did it in fact happen? Is this all wrong or did Tim Russert have it right and no one caught it?
Maybe Tim can clear it up on Meet the Press?
QUOTE
The New York Times’ Paul Krugman noted recently that, in a moment of candor, John McCain admitted economics isn’t his thing. “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should,” he said. But, “I’ve got Greenspan’s book,” he assured the audience.
If any needed evidence of McCain’s weakness on the economy was needed, simply witness how he has dealt with the need for economic stimulus. After last week’s debate in South Carolina, U.S. News wrote that the question of whether the economy needs a stimulus “vexed” the GOP front-runners, who “appeared unaware of the fiscal stimulus debate currently happening in Washington and being closely watched by Wall Street.”
At that debate, McCain said:
“I don’t believe we’re headed into a recession,” he said, “I believe the fundamentals of this economy are strong and I believe they will remain strong.”
In the course of seven days, McCain appears to have reversed course, offering his own stimulus package:
“The fact is we have some tough times ahead,” McCain told supporters in Columbia. But he said the U.S. economy will rebound. “We will get through this rough patch,” he said.