Republican “Debate” Bleg

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Did anyone see the “debate” last night? I didn’t. I am in particular wondering how Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain did.

10 thoughts on “Republican “Debate” Bleg”

  1. Michael Barone saw it. I didn’t. My response to his column was this modest proposal:

    Skip the whole GOP primary business. Declare Mitt and Michelle to be the ticket by acclamation. Give them a day to write a platform.  On Wednesday have them and the whole rest if the GOP start campaigning.  Spend the next 17 months all day every day beating the living crap out of Barack Hossein Obama.

    Ha. Fat chance. Barack will run unopposed for a year+.

  2. Obama is increasingly running against his own record. Any reasonable Republican candidate may have a fighting chance to win for this reason alone.

  3. Obama is rock solid at 60 in Intrade.

    His record is well known, yet there it is.

    The GOP has a lot of discontent on its side, but Obama has the motivated rent-gatherers.

    Odds are Obama wins.

  4. I liked the Michael Barone assessment, having endured the full debate.  Mr Barone makes the point that it is not yet over.  He said some nice things about Michele Bachmann, including, at one point, comparing her to the late William Buckley.

    Given that it is President Obama’s to lose, this is likely a suicide mission.  Given that, perhaps the Republicans should nominate Herman Cain and Michele Bachmann, to make a strong statement as to who we are not.  And, last night they both did fine and either would be a step up for the nation.

    Regards  ””  Cliff

  5. 18 months is a long time. I don’t think a 10% edge on Intrade means much at this point. To win, Obama needs to form a majority from three main groups: committed leftists, rent seekers, and people who don’t pay close attention to public affairs. He’s got the first group and much of the second. The third group is probably decisive. A lot can happen to turn them against Obama in 18 months, in particular a continued weak economy. It is thus too early to declare Obama the favorite. His own behavior reveals that he takes the Republican threat seriously, since he is already campaigning hard (including by raising large amounts of money and moderating his stated policies). I agree with Limbaugh that he is easily beatable by the right candidate. He might even be beatable by a mediocre candidate if he continues to respond poorly to events.

  6. Obama is beatable, but certainly not easily beatable.

    A 10% edge today is meaningful. It is a realistic assessment. It is not hopeless for the GOP, but it is a steep hill.

  7. The 18 months are long enough for the middle east to blow up and I think that is a real possibility. Michael Totten’s piece today is very important. Lee Smith believes that Obama blew up forty years of US foreign policy.

    MJT: How will this affect the US?

    Lee Smith: There is little that the Obama administration, or anyone, can do at this point. Washington was effectively out of the picture the minute Obama called for Mubarak to step down. People say there was nothing Obama could’ve done to save Mubarak, so he just accepted reality. But Obama didn’t accept reality when he went to Cairo to make a speech in June 2009, did he? The reality is that American diplomacy, policy and strategy is ordered in terms of states, not amorphous blocs of people according to how they define their religious beliefs. But Obama spoke about the “Muslim world” and effectively undermined an American ally in his own capital: Mubarak was a bystander in Cairo that June morning and not the leader of an influential Arab state allied with Washington, because in Obama’s reckoning there were no states as such, only the Muslim world

    And so it goes.

  10. Michelle Bachmann did very well. Hermann Cain not so much. I DVR’d the entire thing. Send me an E-mail if you want me to mail you a copy. –John

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