Thoughts on the ABC Debate

Note: This post was written in a state of emotional distress due to the horrible debate arranged and moderated by the ABC.

The best part about the debate? It’s over.

In the debate, we spent an ocean of time discussing an issue such as contraceptives. Who cares?! I mean, seriously, with a record number of people on food stamps, government spending out of control, no efforts from Democrats to deal with the deficit, a debt larger than Mt. Everest, and so forth, we are going to talk about whether it is okay or not to use contraceptives? I am sure that the issue of contraceptives will play a huge role in 2012.

Voters that are interested in hearing more about the economic plans that the candidates have to offer came away with almost nothing. We had a minimal amount of time dedicated to how we are going to solve the economic woes of the country and the disastrous management of the economy by the Obama administration. When the economy got discussed, it was mostly vague stuff like: “We are not going to become a European welfare-state”. Fair enough, but please give me something more. Why is your economic plan better than your opponent? What’s in your plan? Will you lower taxes? If so, which? I could go on.

I’m not sure what I expected since the moderators obviously belong to the liberal camp, but I was hoping that the candidates  themselves would place focus on those issues and bring them to light. Alas, no cigar.

Here’s a quick scorecard:

Mitt Romney: The frontrunner won this evening. Hands down. No one attacked him, and even though he has a tendency to go into parts of his stump speech that makes me zone out he still came out on top.

Rick Santorum: A lot of face-time for Santorum, which I think he needed. Didn’t make a fool out of himself and said things that middle-class voters and blue-collar voters probably like. Good on foreign policy. Might have helped himself some since more people now can pick his face out of a crowd.

Newt Gingrich: Not his best performance. He scored a couple of “Newt-points” after a weak start. Don’t think he hurt himself, but probably didn’t help himself much either.

Rick Perry: Had some really good answers but minimal time to actually speak. I like that he brought up the senseless defense-cuts, how the Obama administration is losing Iraq to the Iranians, and he also managed to squeeze Texas jobs record in there somewhere.

Jon Huntsman: I really like Huntsman when he’s talking about anything but foreign policy (and global warming). I think he has a China-fetish that renders him blind to the dark sides of the Chinese Regime.

Ron Paul: Nothing new to see here, move on.