CNN is hosting tonight's debate and I must say, Wolf Blitzer started off with a zinger of a question:
"Knowing what you know now, would you support (vote for) the war in Iraq?"
Ouch! He's not going to go easy on these guys tonight....thank God! Then again, nobody answered his question...
FINALLY! Twenty-five minutes into the debate and we're on to immigration! First question:
"What are the consequences if the immigration reform bill backed by President Bush becomes law?"
Congressman Tancredo opposes the bill across the board...no surprise there.
Mayor Rudy Guiliani is back on the whole "national i.d. card thing" which is well...stupid and spiritually unamerican.
Senator John Mc Cain (R-AZ) co-authored the bill and admits that "This is not the bill I would have written" but that doesn't mean he would have written a better bill. In fact, if he and his sidekick Teddy Kennedy had their way, everybody (including child molesters, murderers or basically anybody who could potentially vote for them) would likely receive automatic citizenship.
"What would you do with the millions of illegal immigrants here already?"
Romney didn't answer the question—he talked around it with the usual jargon "we need to enforce existing laws then we wouldn't have these problems" which is patently absurd.
Not surprisingly, Congressman Duncan Hunter had a harsher response HOWEVER he just said (more or less) that he would support an "amnesty type" situation for those already here if border security is strengthened first. Hmm...I wasn't expecting that for him!
Tommy Thompson is talking about securing the border before giving "legal status" to anybody.
Only Congressman Ron Paul (so far) is talking about the problem in detail: he opposes birth-right citizenship, welfare and free education for illegals. Bravo!
Next question:
"Should English be the official language of the United States?"
Out of the eight Democrats involved in the debate last weekend, only one (I don't know which) supported English as the officiall language of the United States. Of these ten Republicans, only Mc Cain spoke in favor over embracing other languages—the other nine were quite in favor of English.
Answering this question, Senator Mc Cain just mentioned that most of the illegal immigrants here today did not "sneak across the border" but rather overstayed their Visas. Well...that makes all the difference in the world!
You might realize that his answer has nothing to do with the above question but so far, Mc Cain has been speaking out of turn and off topic all evening. While I have rarely agreed with his opinions in the past, until tonight I was unaware of how rude and frankly self-serving this guy can be.
It was inevitable but the discussion has now switched to religion (evolution, abortion) and Governor Huckabee speaks very well on these subjects. You know how normally when this topic rears it's controversial head people either laugh, get angry or fall asleep? I actually listen to Huckabee and he sounds like a true believer—how refreshing!
Ooh! They just hit Romney with the Mormon question..."do you think your faith will hurt you with voters?"
Romney (of course) said no but that's like saying Roosevelt would have been elected if we watched him campaign as a cripple in a wheelchair. We might say it wouldn't have influenced our opinion but only because to admit that it in fact would sounds mean and I suppose, bigoted.
"Is it time to end the 'don't ask, don't tell' policy in the military?"
Governor Huckabee...oh rats, didn't answer the question but kind of implied that he would not change the policy.
Mayor Giuliani avoided the question as well.
ARGHHH!! I want someone to answer the question!
Supposedly, Romney used to support gays in the military but does not at this time. Senator Mc Cain (the man who never misses an opportunity to talk about his own military career) supports the current policy.
"If you were elected, how would you use George W. Bush in your administration?"
Tommy Thompson said "I certainly wouldn't send him to the United Nations." Hee hee...that's pretty good!
This was a good question:
"What's happened to the GOP?"
Huckabee summed it up with simplicity and accuracy: "They've lost credibility."
Next question:
"Would you pardon Scooter Libby?"
Giuliani said the sentence was excessive and wrong. Romney said maybe. Brownback said yes. Tommy Thompson said basically yes...
And now we come to the first break...I'll be back with Part II in just a few minutes!
