Debate Night in America [Final Result: FREDALANCHE!]

We’re just a couple minutes from teeing up another Fox News debate from South Carolina. I like the more discussion-oriented format and I like that Brit Hume is going to be moderating tonight. He’ll be a bit of a change of pace from Chris Wallace.

There will be six on the stage as opposed to the five from New Hampshire (Ron Paul’s playing tonight). It ought to be entertaining. And I’ll liveblog it all, or at least as much as I can catch. So stick around for the updates. They’ll go below the jump, most recent update on top.

Other’s blogging the debate are:
Michelle Malkin
Jim Geraghty
The Corner
John Hawkins (Thanks for the link!)

More livebloggers via Instapundit (and thank you for the link!)

Updates after the jump!

10:37 – It’s Fredalerium in the focus group room!

Oooh…maybe he was a little flip. That might have hurt him.

One of the FGers: “They [the candidates] are fast and loose with the facts and Fred will challenge them”.

Apparently Fred’s challenge of Mike Huckabee was a big hit. Well sure it was! Voters love when a candidate is emphatic about conservative beliefs. That’s how you get landslides.

And they almost entirely felt that Ron Paul was the big loser tonight.

10:35 – That’s it!

I think it’s clear that Thompson ran away with the debate. His answers, after the first one, were decisive, appropriately aggressive, and clearly conservative.

I’m really not sure who came in second. I’ll just say everyone but Ron Paul came in second. Fred Thompson was the Only Important Man on the Stage tonight.

Frank Luntz’s focus group scored overwhelmingly for Thompson. It looks like he swayed about 3/4 of the room. Well, he didn’t perform very differently from the way he did in New Hampshire. Different voters, I guess.

10:33 – No one should fear a police car, says Huckabee. Well, yeah. But folks will because they break the law. His overall idea is pretty high in the sky and doesn’t have details more than “secure the border”.

Giuliani says, rightly I think, that illegal immigrants should feel safe to report crimes. Okay, but then what? What else did he do to deal with illegal immigration? Not much, from what I can see. he says he reported every single criminal and criminal suspect that the INS aske dthem to stop reporting. Hmm…I’ll need a citation on that.

10:28 – Thompson on immigration (after McCain and Romney said what they said last time): “We need to be a nation of high fences and high gates and we need to decide when to open the gates”.

He wants to end sanctuary cities and move to enforcement by attrition (which, by the way, is working already. Well.). Jabs at McCain and Huckabee. Another very strong answer that gets a couple rounds of applause.

Paul on Immigration (this ought to be good): Enforce the law. Don’t have amnesty. Think of it as an economic issue (he things of economics too much, he says. I suppose so, what with his working theory that the Jews run the world’s economy, or so his newsletter said). Deal with the welfare state. Bring the border guards in Iraq home. Huh??

10:19 – Wallace asks Ron Paul a question about electability: “Do you have any, sir?”. That got a chuckle and Paul just looked small.

Paul’s a Constitution man! Says he’s the most conservative man on the stage. Oh, please, someone mention his 400 million dollars in pork. Please, please, please, please.

And did I get some crazy in my ears or did he just compare himself to Robert Taft because Taft didn’t want us in NATO? The only reason that Taft didn’t want us in NATO is because he thought it would keep us from being as involved in the United Nations. Taft also opposed the Nuremberg Trials, too. Hmm…a Ron Paul hero who opposed justice for the Holocaust? I sense a trend.

I really do hate isolationists, with a passion. It’s hard to find a more cynical, selfish worldview than to say that we should button up and seal outselves in our borders and let the world go to hell because it might cost us money. Someone should show Congressman Paul how small a chunk of our nation’s entire GDP Iraq has cost us. He apparently thinks that number is a lot higher than it is.

10:18 – A religion question to Huckabee on wives “submitting themselves to their husbands”. Huckabee says it’s nothing at all about being President and that he’s just not going to abandon his beliefs, simple as that. It’s a really strong answer all the way around.

10:!6 – Fred is absolutely killing tonight. Absolutely killing. If this doesn’t give him at least a moderate bounce tomorrow, I’d be very surprised.

Rudy is looking kind of flat and technical. McCain is great on national security but seems to be tring to tick off conservatives otherwise. Paul is…well…Paul. He shouldn’t be on the stage. Romney seems mostly invisible. He’s been really lackluster. Huckabee has flailed quite a bit, but he has scored at least a small hit or two. On national security, he’s hopeless.

10:10 – Huckabee’s ducking behind his state’s court decision on school spending like a kid running behind the corner to get away from the water balloon fight. It doesn’t play well.

And did he just quote Truckers’ Magazine as an endorsement?? Google doesn’t know that that magazine is, at least on the front page.

Thompson just banged Huckabee again and finally – finally! – touted his Right to Life endorsements. He’s now running down the conservative checklist: rule of law, low taxes, the American Dream. Man, it’s about time he got into this as hard as he had.

Huckabee’s coming back. Oh sure, Congress passed welfare reform but the Governors had to implement it. Which he did, he says. He’s governed which is something Thompson didn’t do. Huck scored on that one.

10:06 – Change vs. Experience.

Romney wants change. Well, he would, wouldn’t he? I really am tired of hearing his resume.

McCain wants change too, kind of. He hits the Dems on wanting to surrender in Iraq and changing to the surge. He wants change on earmarks. Again, can we get confirmation on his spending record?

10:01 – Huckabee turns on Paul. he says, rightly so, that Israel is the one ally we have in that region and he, as President, would not abandon that nation to it’s sworn enemies.

Paul retorts that Israel would be a lot safer if we just left them alone because we don’t treat them in an adult fashion. How silly.

Oh, as for the cat. She is purring and happy, after five minutes of head-scratching.

Here comes Rudy on Paul. The idea that Israel is our stepchild is “totally absurd”. The defense of Israel is of “critical importance to the United States of America”.

I wonder if someone will mention the anti-Semitic newsletters that have been published in his name for the past twenty years.

Fred jumps in on Huckabee. Of course our aid goes to their military. We trained their top general. It’ll be their military that fights al-Qaeda. That is true, but it’s worth noting that Pakistan’s military has its own Islamist problem, too.

Darn, I wish someone had hit Paul on the anti-Semitism that’s come out in his name.

9:56 – My cat needs my attention. Blogging will be suspended for five minutes.

9:55 – Fred Thompson is on fire. He just said, and I’m paraphrasing, that we know things in Iraq are going well because we hear so little about it in the New York Times and takes a jab as “the polls”. That gets a big laugh, even from the moderators. Bam.

Fred woke up on the strong side of the bed today.

FYI – My server is moving slow, due to the traffic increase. The updates will come. Bear with me!

9:51 – Paul says the Israel/Palestine situation would have been solved long ago if we had left the area long ago. he says also that Israel can negotiate with the “moderate” Arab nations just fine and that they could have taken care of Saddan Hussein by themselves.

Bull Hockey.

Saudi Arabia asked us to stay after we drive Hussein out of Kuwait specifically because they couldn’t handle Hussein, even after he was beaten down after the First Gulf War. Paul’s assertions are laughable.

McCain bangs him and Paul gets some cheap pop with a “bring them home” line.

9:48 – McCain is strong on the surge and says he’s the only one on the stage who supported and championed it.

Giuliani, in his next answer, points out that he supported the surge, too. McCain says that he condemned Rumsfeld, so there!

9:37 – Brit Hume comes out asking about the recent incident where Iranian ships “provocatively” buzzed American warships and the Commander held fire. Do the candidates think the commander made the right decision.

Huckabee: Yes. We need to make sure that if they take on the US military, they “see the gates of hell”. Nice, firm answer that gets applause and approval from what sounds like Fred Thompson. That’s a change from his rather limp foreign policy of earlier in the campaign.

Thompson: Yes, the commander made the right decision. Our enemies should be careful: “I think one more step and they would have been introduced to those virgins they’re looking forward to seeing.”

Giuliani: This should be a sign that perhaps the recent NIE on Iran wasn’t exactly accurate and that it makes us look weak.

McCain: I agree with the Captain’s decision. Brit’s follow-up asks him what he’d do if he were the Captain. McCain rightly demurs and notes that our naval Captains are highly-trained and supremely professional. he’s now talking about “freedom of the Sea”.

Paul: Let’s be careful and not “start World War II over this”. They has three small speedboats that couldn’t hurt a US Naval vessel. Can someone remind him about the USS Cole that was seriously damaged by a small speedboat.

Brit follows up by pointing out that everyone else said they supported a passive response given the situation. Someone on the stage is laughing. Maybe Giuliani? Thompson just tried to jump in. Paul’s saying we shouldn’t throw this situation “out of proportion”. The crowd is rumbling.

Romney: Paul shouldn’t be reading so many of Ahmadinejad’s press releases. Boos from the Paulnuts and some applause, too. This is a hot issue and the candidates are all on point. We need a comprehensive strategy with our friends and others we could “pull into” this to pressure Iran. He’d also put his trust in the commanders, of course.

9:35 – First break and the scorecard is…muddled.

9:31 – Short Chris Wallace: “So, Ron Paul, what about all those Troofers you have shouting your name from the rooftops. Will you disavow them?”

Short Ron Paul: “Not really”.

He wants in on the Reagan part of things. That gets him a little applause from the tin-foil hatters. Still, he had another chance to put the Troofer contingent to rest once and for all and he refused. So there you go.

Okay. That’s not entirely fair. Basically he shrugged and said what amounts to “I don’t believe it, but I can’t stop them, so what can a guy do?”. Well, he could be decisive on the issue, for starters.

9:24 – Whoa. Fred just grabbed 90 seconds to turn a flamethrower on Mike Huckabee and got a huge round of applause.

Holy. Crapweasel.

Huckabee says he’s “over the target” which is why he catches flak. That gets him a little return applause. Huck’s basic answer is that he was really faithful to Ronald Reagan. Honest and for true because he, like Reagan, governed.

His “greatest affirmation of all” is that his people re-elected him. Well, they re-elected Bill Clinton, too. That’s not a rousing endorsement.

Round One to Thompson.

Michelle Malkin’s reaction: “YES, YES, YES, YES!!”. Yep. That’ll work.

9:23 – It seems that pesky issue of subsidized abortions keeps getting in front of Romney at every debate. He can’t seem to put it to rest (and I think there’s a good reason he can’t).

Wait. Reagan said we needed strong families? I think I missed that speech. I know he favored strong families, but I don’t ever recall it being a big deal for him.

9:21 – Man, McCain is hammering away on earmarks and spending. But then he veers into Enviroland and talks about Global Warming and Teddy Roosevelt (obvously he’s not up on his Jonah Goldberg)

9:19 – Short Carl Cameron: “Hey, Huck! What’s with you breaking up the Reagan Coalition?”. Short Huckabee: “I loves me some Reagan. It’s Bush I can’t stand!”

9:17 – Fred! Oops…sorry about that. Fred just gave a big attaboy to Rudy’s plan saying it was his plan all along. Okay, Fred, tighten up your answer. You’re getting lost here.

Ugh. That was a terrible answer. It rambled and wandered around the point.

9:16 – Ron Paul just said the houseing market is in a depression. I don’t think that’s true. He’s going on about monetary policy. I wonder if we could follow up by asking him whether the Jews are depressing the world money supply.

9:14 – And McCain seems to have backed off his earlier belief that we should repeal Bush’s tax cuts, which was a big deal early in his campaign. Another reversal without much of an explanation, it seems.

9:11 – Whoa! Wait. Did I just hear Mike Huckabee say that he wanted to “eventually” go to a Fair Tax? That’s been a major part of his campaign. If he’s backing off of it enough to make it an “eventually” kind of thing, that ought to be news.

His economic populism is really annoying. I’m trying to figure out how a multi-year program to get us “off of foreign oil” is supposed to help a recession that might happen in a year or so. Is he really saying that his new energy plans will drop the price of oil, or mitigate it, that quickly? I want to hear that plan if that’s the case. He has a miracle in his pocket.

9:09 – There’s been a lot of McCain on the economy. He’s hitting earmarks hard. I wonder what his record really is on earmarks. I’ve heard it’s good, but is it as good as his boasting merits?

9:05 – Game on! The topic is the recession and it goes to Romney first. Nice initial answer – we could be heading for a recession but we don’t have to be. Seems fluffy but it’s not.