We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
We'll get another chance to rate the GOP candidates tonight as they appear on Fox News at 9 p.m. I'll be teaching tonight, so I'll drop in later after I scrutinize the taped proceedings, but feel free to blog live if you're watching.
posted by gatorbob @ 11:49 AM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
2 Comments:
OK, Eric's finished for the night. I've been watching a bit of this and I can't for the life of me figure out who's ahead. Talk about a retrograde bunch.
The anti-immigrant bunch are particularly hairy knuckled.
I agree, Gooner. It was a really uninspiring group of reactionaries up there last night. That speaks volumes to the degredation of the Republican brand during the Bush years. These guys are mouthing the same talking points but fewer people are buying it.
Like the MSNBC debate, this was a revealing event. Maybe more so. Among other things, the first debate revealed that three of the candidates (Brownback, Huckabee and Tancredo) don't buy the reality of evolution and that Tommy Thompson feels it just fine for employers to sack their gay workers (although he did apologize on the basis of malfunctioning hearing aid and weak bladder later).
Tonight's debate on Fox News showed an interesting and deadly dynamic in the GOP field. While you can imagine the top Democratic candidates (Hillary, Obama, and Edwards) doing quite well appealing to different parts of the Democratic base in the primaries) the top candidates in this field will struggle early on. The main action tonight was the bombthrowing at the big boys from the second tier who are desperately trying to prove their "conservative" bona fides while showing the inauthentic quality of "Rudy McRomney" (in Jim Gilmore's words). The best line of the night, then, was Mike Huckabee's - "I trust a conversion on the road to Damascus more than one on the road to Des Moines."
At the same time, the one moment that may be played as a clip on news shows is Rudy's indignant response to Ron Paul's very sensible analysis of 9/11 as "blowback" for American foreign policy. It got a huge response from the crowd. The only other line that got a similar response was Huckabee's (anyone think he's been heavily coached?) about John Edwards spending money in a "beauty shop.")
So the big boys were forced to answer questions about issues that they're uncomfortable about (Rudy - abortion, McCain - immigration, Romney - flip-flopping). It's still too early to tell whether the GOP base will prefer a true believer, a flip-flopper or someone like McCain or Giuliani who is relatively honest about differences in opinion. To my ears, McCain was probably the most eloquent in explaining his views, but then again I'm not voting for him and I'm not sure the GOP base is willing to listen to his reasoned ideas on immigration or campaign finance reform.
My hunch is that Sam Brownback is looking better and better to the base and I expect his numbers to climb in the next few months. He and the rest of the second tier are a frightening bunch, though. The ridiculous "terrorism scenario" pitched by Brit Hume at the end of debate, for example, revealed that 8 of 10 support the use of torture (or "enhanced interrogation techniques"). Tancredo was particularly hairy knuckled (in Gooner's words) on the issue by saying that he'd be looking for "Jack Bauer" (the character played by Kiefer Sutherland on the odious torture porn show "24") McCain again distinguished himself by patiently explaining that those like him who've actually been tortured take a dim view of it, but I'm not sure the base is listening to him any more.
Anyway, that's my initial reaction and I'd love to hear what the rest of you thought.
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