Bit from my obversations (originally posted on GAF). McCain---> second paragraph
Guliani did quite poorly. Unlike Hillary - who went into the first Democratic debate as the clear frontrunner and came out the clear frontrunner - Guliani stumbled out of this debate harmed. As conservatives learn more about him, he'll lose support; Howard Fineman explained it perfectly by saying Guliani is more of an "unwrapped package", and as the wrapping comes off things go poorly. He looked nervous, he stumbled over questions, and some of his answers clearly have to worry conservatives. Especially with respect to abortion. It'll be interesting seeing what the conservatives on GAF have to say about this.
John McCain took a different approach. It seems like I can finally admit that the John McCain we all knew and loved is dead. Yes he's been this way for some time, but hearing him channel the GI Joe version of George Bush for 90 minutes really put things in clear perspective. He started the evening off in outrageous fashion, declaring he'd follow Bin Laden "to the gates of hell." His constant finger pointing and hardline talk came off as manufactured and quite forced. After delivering these lines he'd follow up with a smile, as if he was giving a non verbal "did I do well?" wink to whoever his puppet master is. Disgusting.
While Guliani was waffling and McCain was auditioning for a the main role in The Hulk, Romney ran away with the debate. He didn't have the best answers or the best ideas, but he perfectly articulated them while coming off extremely confident and calm. If the question is "which candidate looked the most presidential", Romney wins in a landslide. McCain tried very hard to portray himself as against big spending, but it seemed effortless to Romney. The only negative I noticed was that most of his answers seemed to text book perfect. But then again maybe that's because the other candidates were screwing up so damn much. I especially liked his answer on the faith issue. Many Americans don't know much about Mormonism, and it has a somewhat negative connotation; Romney sidestepped specific faith and stressed the importance of faith in general, thus attempting to level the playing field. Impressive.
Outside of the big three I was impressed by Ron Paul of course, as well as Jim Galore. Paul towed the conservative line at every possible chance, and this served to really show how out of touch many of the candidates were with true conservatism. He was also unafraid to critisize the Iraq war, and Bush. On the other hand Galore was able to articulate his positions with ease, all while stressing his experience as a governer.
