Chris Miller

I am beginning this entry as I sit down to watch the re-airing of the GOP Presidential Candidates debate on MSNBC at 8PM CST on 10/09/07. I intend to review section by section the debate as it unfolds and voice my opinion and stance on issues throughout.

Economy

First, what on EARTH is Maria Bartiromo wearing? Okay, enough about that. The first question was to Mr. Thompson about whether or not we are heading toward a recession. He seems VERY uptight and nervous; this is not the Fred Thompson I know. I’m sure he’ll lighten up as we move on.

The second question goes to Mitt Romney. He seems very relaxed and is quickly throwing around his policy ideas. He also cracks the first joke.

The third question goes to Rudy Giuliani. He talks about his ideas for free market and comments on baseball. He brings up legal reform and 2.2% of GDP being spent on frivolous lawsuits. Not sure where he got this figure, it seems ambiguous. His economic responses seem very standard of a moderate republican. Ron Paul brings up currency issues and tries to align with middle-class america, saying things such as how only the lower- and middle-class are feeling the “recession” but everyone else is not. He is pushing for the study of monetary theory.

Speaking about how the wealthy are disconnected, John McCain comments on how “wealth creates wealth.” He continues to speak about how people in the midwest are feeling different affects. The main question thrown to him was “is the system fair.” His response was “yes,” but that there are things that need to be fixed: social security, medicare, etc.

Later, Huckabee is talking about his fair-tax platform. I am a HUGE supporter of this policy. Duncan Hunter also comments on how he sponsors this policy, but he quickly changes the topic to other items. I feel he doesn’t really want to talk about the fair tax. Huckabee talks about how it would make exporting more simple and more fairly tax the people on the bottom and on the top of the income spectrum.

Thompson discusses free and fair trade. He seems to be a big supporter of free trade with the Chinese and mentions how he has supported it. I am happy to see his support of free trade.

Brownback has a short answer for whether or not he will raise taxes: he will not. He is a supporter of the flat tax. He says 16 countries around the world have supported the flat tax. He was asked where he would cut spending and he seemed to be able to quickly respond. Tom Tancredo also discusses his urgency of cutting spending at the federal level, specifically Medicare and Social Security.

Romney and Giuliani really got into it over tax cuts. Primarily, they are fighting over their support of the line item veto. Giuliani believes that it is unconstitutional, Romney believes it is. Personally, I do not support the line item veto.

Later, McCain speaks about things he needs to fix: healthcare, social security, medicare, trade with china.

Other Topics

After the first commercial break, Fred Thompson is immediately hit with whether Bush’s policy in Iraq is right. His response was that we have a window of opportunity to turn this around and need to understand this is a global war and. He comments that “this is front on a much broader war.”

On the topic of drilling in Alaska, Florida and the Grand Canyon, John McCain seemed to have a good response: he wouldn’t drill in any of these places unless the people in those areas were okay with it.

On the topic of farm subsidizes, Mitt Romney said he fully supports domestic farmers and I gather he would continue the farm subsidizes that are in place today. I think the current subsidizes need reform and they are a mistake as they are implemented today. Ron Paul later commented on how he thinks the subsidizes are a mistake because it’s the tax payer who pays for this; I agree.

Thompson is asked how he will handle the specifics of Social Security. He supports privatized social security — YES!

One thing that really scared me was how Giuliani responded to: “Should we have an agency like the FCC to monitor the Internet?” His answer was “if it gets worse.” My feelings is that this ABSOLUTELY should NOT happen — EVER. The Internet should remain free!

Final Round

In the final round, Thompson was asked “what are the disadvantages of a weak dollar?” He wasn’t able to respond quickly or very well; it seems his foreign exchange economic knowledge is limited. John McCain was asked if Ben Bernanke has cuts interest rates enough. His answer was that he doesn’t know. Both of these answers were disappointing, as the President should have enough economic knowledge to answer a questions like this.

Fred Thompson was asked who the prime minister of Canada is and he immediately answered. That is VERY respectable that he was able to do that so quickly.

Closing Remarks

Thompson closed the debate out with a comical remark about how he didn’t enter the race too late and that it was getting boring without him. I feel this left a good mark on him to round out the debate.

In the end, I think Thompson mostly aligned with my beliefs and I consider him to have “won” the debate. In a close second would be Mitt Romney. Although I didn’t agree with all of his platforms, he held his place well within the debate. I’ll be interested in hearing how his battle with Giuliani worked out regarding the factual basis of their arguments regarding tax cuts in their respective districts. Overall, here is how I think the top candidates stack up with regard to this particular debate based on how they held up against their platforms and how they responded to the questions:

1st Place: Fred Thompson
2nd Place: Mitt Romney
3rd Place: Rudolph Giuliani
4th Place: Ron Paul