I’ve been offline most of the day but I will live blogging the remainder of the ABC News Republican Presidential debate. As usual, many of my comments should be taken as the impressions of an independent voter about how the candidates are coming across.
END OF DEBATE: Sort of considered a blah debate. Mitt Romney came out unscathed. Look for the band wagon to begin.
6:48: There he goes again. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich attacks the press again. But many Republicans — and Americans — hate the press.
6:52: Rep Ron Paul says he has no plans to run for a third party. Again blasts the press for pressing it. But says he doesn’t know why someone can’t reserve a judgement.
6:55: It’s so sad that so many GOPers have held former China ambassador Jon Huntsman’s stint with the Obama administration against him. He is quite conservative but the kind of thinking conservative who can’t be confused with those who represent the opposite to a “t” (or tea).
6:56. Mitt Romney looks REALLY good in this debate. He comes across quite well on television. Will be a formidable opponent for Romney.
6:59: Rick Santorum (agree with him or not) offers a lot of content in his responses. He doesn’t sound like he’ trying to remember talking points. Hey, the next question is for Texas Gov. Rick Perry. What a coincidence. Perry predict Iran will move back into Iraq and lives will have been sacrificed been in vain.
7:06: Santorum returns to talking points. Obama is a “Chicago politician.” So Obama practices Chicago politics? Since when do pols in Chicago play patticake? I was surprised Santorum didn’t throw in a line about Obama and a teleprompter
7:03 Good answer by Romney again on Iraq. But WHY do people say “in harm’s way” and not “in danger.”
Mitt Romney took hits from his Republican rivals on the economy in the New Hampshire Republican debate Saturday night, but the frontunner in the GOP presidential race appeared unruffled by the criticism and laid low as his rivals went at each other.
Rick Santorum, who has portrayed Romney as a cold, calculating, chief executive and not an inspirational leader, continued that line of attack tonight. He charged, as he has in recent days, that “business experience doesn’t match up with being the commander in chief in this country.”
“The commander-in-chief is not a CEO,” he said during the debate sponsored by ABC News, Yahoo! News and WMUR. “Business experience doesn’t necessarily match up with being commander-in-chief.”
Romney responded with a veiled jab at the former senator, saying, “I think people who have spent their life in Washington don’t understand what happens out in the economy.”
“People in the private sector aren’t successful because they’re managers,” Romney said. “They’re successful because they’re leaders.”
Newt Gingrich was also asked about Romney’s record at Bain Capital but largely left criticism in a recent TV ad by a super PAC aligned with his campaign to speak for itself.
The pro-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future recently teased a forthcoming film it produced — called “King of Bain” – featured interviews with former employees of company owned by Bain but who were later laid off, hammering Romney for having their lives turned upside down.
7:15: I increasingly think Romney looks toprate — one of a handful on the stage who seem (correctly or so) to have Presidential stature.
7:16 RATS! It just isn’t the same watching a debate without Michele Bachmann talking about “Obamacare” or her 28 children.
7:15: Huntsman looks so serious and thoughtful, someone who could bring in independents and some Democrats. Which means he doesn’t have a chance for the Republican Presidential nomination.
7:23: Sad about Rick Perry. He really looks good. He sounds solid. And he blew his moment.
7:24. SIGHT. Huntsman delivers a clearly scripted story about a voter he meant. All he needed to do was to say the phrase “Joe the Plumber.”
7:27: Romney has just delivered enough more boilerplate to serve three tables at the International House of Pancakes.
7:28: Gingrich suggest Romney represents a more establishment model.
7:29: OH NO! Hey, Rick Santorum, YES there are classes in America. He claims talking about classes is wrong. Get away from your $1 million bank acccount and you might see that there are indeed classes out there. A statement like that will chase away independent voter. If he’s nominated the Dems will run that statement over and over. And if Obama is smart he’ll quote Santorum.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.