Republican Debate

Have to admit that I didn't watch the Republican debate live last evening as I was playing in a charity poker tournament for a great, great cause. The Children's Oncology Services "One Step at a Time" camps for kids with cancer. To learn more or to contribute, please visit http://www.onestepcamp.org/. Top prize was a seat at the World Series of Poker Main Event and in the 1st round 'shootout' I played stellar poker, but it came down to one last hand where the 4 next biggest stacks went all in and my 'Jack-6' wasn't enough to beat an Ace-high.

Now to the Republicans. I know I slight the Republican race a lot on this blog, but the highlights of last nights debate were an example why. It was lame. These guys are all so tough in ripping Hillary Clinton apart. But after the Dem's showed some guts to actually try to win their nomination the other night, the Republicans mostly showed no guts in trying 'not to lose' the Florida Primary in last nights debate.

• Can Pat Buchanan push Mitt Romney a little harder? I am surprised at the way Buchanan raved about Romney who apparently was given credit for doing little more than attacking Hillary Clinton. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfpSbWQg2ZM&eurl=http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video_log/2008/01/romneys_debate_highlights_2.html
• Think those that think Romney threw a softball to Rudy in the question section of the debate are right. Romney needs a strong Rudy to filter moderate Republican votes away from McCain and stay viable through Tsunami Tuesday.
• Think Huckabee is the best debater and most reasonable sounding of the group. I agree with little of what he says, but he is still very smooth.
• Feel that Huckabee also had the best clip of the debate when he said he was the only guy on the stage who two months ago wasn't a Republican sycophant on the economy.
• John McCain took a big step back in my opinion. His denial of a quote he made about not being as strong on the economy as he is on other issues will hang around the neck of a guy who claims to be 'Mr. Straight Talk'.
• Rudy Giuliani, who truly has to be successful in Florida, had very little focus in this debate. he was very scatter shot in his answers and think he had many opportunities to go make a stand after being a non-factor for the past two months.
• Ron Paul, Ron Paul, Ron Paul. At least he's raised a lot of money.

Whether or not you saw Barack on Letterman last night, have attached the clip. Personally, I loved the Nuclear new rule, and give Barack a B+ for his performance. A little too much finger point and humor is not his strongest suit. But think he did really well in spite of that.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=WnL9HRLNxIA