Thompson came alive, on cue, as I expected, to fulfill his role as son-of-the-South spoiler for a evangelical push to take over the WH again. It was supposed to be Romney he was blocking, but it looks like he focused his cue-card screed on Huckabee, who now seems to need some money for opposition research.
THE GOP INVENT A FICTITIOUS, HUMANE PLACE CALLED "END OF THE LINE" FOR IMMIGRANTS
South Carolina is so rabidly anti-immigrant that, as I recall, some group set up an absolutely horrible, no holds-barred website to attack their own Senator Lindsey Graham, a website that, of course, Michelle Malkin couldn't resist linking to from Hot Air.
Barely 1% of the population in S. Carolina is estimated to be "illegal" and legal immigrants accounted for just 1 in 10 of S. Carolina's recent growth. The fear and loathing of 'the other' in the South is a world in its own...
Romney and Huckabee appear to be taking up the mantle of "Stampede The Immigrants!" Only Ron Paul mumbled something about looking at the economics of the issue. Romney and the rest got a 'free pass' from FOX on that.
GOP BLISSFULLY UNAWARE HOW MUCH THEY HAVE WEAKENED AMERICA
At a time when the military itself is pushing 'soft power', the GOP candidates have nothing except proposals, like Romney's, to build-the-military, just because Reagan did so, driving the USA into a monstrous debt.
Indeed, only Ron Paul seemed reflective enough on stage to put it to "seasoned" McCain that his notions of 'bring home troops with only victory' have costs. ("We borrow $10B from the Chinese to give to Musharaf, while fighting a conflict in Iraq to spread Democracy..." (paraphrase)).
With the Pax Americana very, very long in the tooth and no room to cut taxes, the GOP playbook starts to look like a Broadway 80s revival, at best.
Update: the Press didn't ask this question of John "My friends..." McCain.
Update2: Best question of the night to Colms: (paraphrase) "[Senator McCain] how do you say that the surge is working if 6 of the 10 metrics designed to measure it are negative" Answer? Change the metrics, viz: '[McCain:] Thousands of people celebrated New Year in Baghdad'.
Friday, January 11, 2008
GOP Debates FOX in South Carolina
