The Great Debaters
Rogers Cadenhead picked up on some of the goofy questions asked of Ron Paul on the GOP debates last night. The one I found particularly galling was the question about whether he was willing to publicly repudiate supporters who subscribed to 9/11 conspiracy theories. Paul handled that one OK (particularly with the response "I'd like to respond to the same question the other candidates were"). Paul's questions regarding support for Israel vs. other Mideast countries were good ones (specifically with his question about why the US is giving money to both sides), and Huckabee and Giuliani immediately turned to stake themselves as staunch defenders of the Promised Land while completely ignoring the point that the US has a terrible habit of arming both sides of a conflict. Similarly, when Mc Cain tried to make a dumb quip about Paul tacitly supporting Al Qaeda, Paul shot back that the US Government already did plenty to arm terrorists by selling arms to Iraq and Afghan rebels. The major problem with Ron Paul is that in the end, everything comes down to money. "We can't afford it" isn't a good way to justify foreign policy, and very few people will vote for that kind of vision. Domestically, maybe, but not internationally.
Mc Cain came off the debates best, I think. He at least limited his chest-thumping to threatening to veto spending bills. Romney sounded fairly polished and rational. Huckabee sounded positively frightening talking about Iran. The candidates mostly said nothing interesting about Iran, and I wish that someone could reassure me that they recognized that the recent Iranian action against Navy ships is exactly the kind of harassment that North Korea's engaged in for 55 years now. Why should our policy be any different towards the PRK, particularly when Iran has at least a nominally democratically elected president, as opposed to dictatorship? Yet another elephant in a roomful of elephants. They can't even take a fair swing at the easy questions like the economy, let alone the really tough questions.
I swear, the GOP would vote for Reagan from the dead if they could raise him from the dead. The candidates were all furiously trying to channel Reagan him at least. It's no wonder there's a dearth of inspiration on the Republican side.