Some early thoughts on the Republican debate

I'm currently watching the 8pm repeat broadcast of the Republican presidential debate here on MSNBC. The transcripts for the debate can be found here. What I want to do here is some quick observations on the candidates, as I'm watching the debates. I'll go through the candidates and the transcripts later on.

There are two common themes I'm seeing here at the beginning of this debate. The first theme is that the candidates are avoiding talking about George W. Bush's presidency at almost all costs. What I'm hearing here is more of an invoking of Ronald Reagan, and Reagan's "Morning in America" theme--and Morning in America ended in 1992! Of course, moderator Chris Matthews brought up Reagan's Morning in America for his first question to Rudy Giuliani.

The second theme I'm seeing is the war theme. They all want to continue pushing the war, only now the candidates continuing to linking the war in Iraq with the Great War on Terror. Senator John McCain was the only candidate to admit that mistakes were made, but never actually blamed President Bush with those mistakes. Instead what I've heard from these GOP candidates is that we're now on the right track for fighting the Great War on Terror, and we should continue the war in Iraq, and the Democrats want to lose the war in Iraq and the Great War on Terror. What is even more scary is that the candidates are now talking about going to war with Iran--Iran is building nukes! Iran is aiding the terrorists! We must go to war with Iran!

The abortion issue--all the candidates oppose abortion. They all want to repeal Roe verses Wade. Giuliani punted on the question of abortion, saying he really didn't care if Roe verses Wade was repealed or not. Mitt Romney threw in an opposition to stem cell research (he calls it cloning) as well as opposing abortion.

One big problem with the GOP candidates--they can't seem to SHUT UP after their time expired. The Democrats also went over their time, but once moderator Brian Williams told them their time was up, they quickly stopped. These Republican candidates just keep talking on and on and on, even to the point of ignoring moderator Chris Matthews. Then again, Chris Matthews doesn't seem to be doing a good job keeping these candidates in line.

Senator John McCain wants the line-item veto. It is not surprising that the Republicans want the line-item veto when their candidates are in office, but when a Democratic candidate is in office, then they don't want the Democrat to have a line-item veto.

Rudy Giuliani just can't seem to get away from waffling on the abortion issue. He respects the woman's right to choose, but also supports the ban on partial birth abortions. This is not a good position to be in for selling his candidacy to the Religious Right.

Sam Brownback, Huckabee, Hunter, Thompson, Ron Paul, all oppose federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Romney, McCain, and Giuliani support some type of funding for embryonic stem cell research. And it appears that they all do not accept any type of a nationalized public health care program. They all want to cut more taxes--yes, we're talking the failed supply-sider economic program. Brownback wants a flat tax. They are all continuing the Reagan mantra of cutting taxes, supporting the supply-sided economic theory, flat taxes, no capital gains taxes, cutting business taxes, eliminating the estate tax, and so forth. I have an interesting question for these GOP candidates here--with all this cutting taxes, how are they going to fund their continued war in Iraq, their new war in Iran, and their Great War on Terror?

Giuliani and Romney want a tamper-proof national identification card. There is no such thing as a "tamper-proof" national identification card--someone is going to find a way to create a false ID card, perhaps the same person or persons who would have created such a national card in the first place.

There is the Scooter Libby pardon question, and the candidates are trying to sideswipe their answer. They don't want to answer the question of whether Scooter Libby should be pardoned in a yes or no answer. But they seem to be taking the view that the prosecutor did not make a convincing case against Scooter Libby.

Terry Schiavo--Romeny says that Congress should not have gotten into the issue. Brownback says Congress should have gotten involved. McCain waffles on the issue. And Giuliani claims that the courts should have been involved.

They all seem to want to gang up on Hillary Clinton.

First impressions on these Republicans--I'm not too thrilled with any of them. The first thing I don't like about the Republican candidates is that we've had seven years of incompetence and corruption of this Bush administration, and of the Republican Party that is controlled by the neoconservatives and the Religious Right. What I find really scary about these Republicans is that they are continuing to push the war in Iraq--it is not about Iraq, but rather it is about the Great War on Terrorism. Giuliani has been constantly linking Iraq with September 11th here, and how he's the right guy for the president since he was the mayor of New York on September 11th. McCain was tossing the Iran bogyman out. The Republicans were pushing the big terrorist scare here, and we must continue the war and fight over in Iraq, or we'll end up fighting the terrorists here. There is too much pro-war here, even though I've been writing about how the war in Iraq has been lost. What is more, the war in Iraq is not about the war on terror--it is now an ethnic civil war between the Shiites and the Sunnis. The Republican candidates don't seem to get that, or they refuse to acknowledge that point, since such acknowledgment would essentially destroy their entire argument for continuing the Bush war in Iraq.

The second item that concerns me here is abortion. Abortion is going to be the main social issue for the 2008 election, since the next president will be selecting two Supreme Court justices over the next eight years. If a Republican candidate is elected president, the Religious Right will push so hard for that Republican president to select hard-lined conservative ideological judges (who would no doubt be male justices), that will be completely opposed to abortion. If the Republicans take the White House in 2008, then you can kiss Roe verses Wade goodbye. I certainly don't like that.

I'll post a more detailed analysis of the debate tomorrow.