Florida Presidential Debate

I am beginning this entry as I sit down to watch the airing of the GOP Presidential Candidates debate on Fox News at 7PM CST on 10/19/07. I intend to review section by section the debate as it unfolds and voice my opinion and stance on issues throughout.

First, Giuliani was asked who he thought was more conservative — he or Fred Thompson. He commented on how he ran the most conservative government in New York in the history of the nation. Next, Mitt Romney was asked a similar question. He also commented on how he is the Governor of one of the most conservative run states.

Thompson was asked about Mitt Romney’s positions compared to Ted Kennedy. Thompson said he wasn’t aware that there was any room to the left of Kennedy, but he implied Mitt Romney was there; then he slipped and said he wasn’t aware there was any room to the right either. Yikes!

Overall, for the first 10 minutes Romney, Thompson and Giuliani argue about who is the most conservative. This type of question is the most absurd type of question that could be asked — leave it to Fox News to waste the candidate’s precious national media time on an issue like this. Granted, we are just 10 minutes into this, hopefully we’ll get to some real issues soon…

Carl Cameron asked Ron Paul why he thinks an amendment to the constitution banning gay marriage is wrong, to which he answered that it should be left to the state. Mitt Romney then said he believes it should happen and that marriage should stay between a man and a woman. Giuliani seemed to trip up on this question and stick his foot in his mouth about how he married 210 men and women — or at least “he thought” they were men and women.

Switching to healthcare, McCain is asked about his policy of switching healthcare from employer provided insurance to personal insurance. He wants to give a tax credit to individuals and abolish tax write-offs for corporations. Mitt Romney spoke about how he is pushing for legislation in his state to require everyone to have healthy insurance. Duncan Hunter later mentioned that Mitt Romney’s plan had so many requirements for plans that is actually would drive the price of healthcare up. Romney danced around a rebuttal, but he did admit that the legislation wanted to add more requirements than is even there today. I think healthcare should be totally deregulated.

Overall, this debate was much less provocative than the last. I think Giuliani and Thompson won this one together.

-Chris