Almost-Live-Blogging the Republican Debate

Is live-blogging like pregnancy in that there's no "almost"? If not, then this feels close enough to live-blogging for guvmint work.

My political junkiness quotient has fallen precipitously in recent months and years. Part of it is my old standbys, Novak and Buchanan, are no longer on television much. I used to watch Pat B. on IMUS and of course IMUS is gone with the wind. Novak used to be on CNN but then Capital Gang got cancelled. ABC's This Week was great with David Brinkley, less so with Sam and Cokie, and is now unwatchable with George Stephanopoulos. The round table consists of George 'Socially Liberal'* Will surrounded by beltway liberals.

So it's not a case where I left politics but politics left me.

But I still cared enough to tune into some of the Republican debate on FOX News tonight. Congressman Paul, who I've thought something of a crank, certainly makes his points well. I liked his consternation about how the reflex action after 9/11 was not for the airlines to be responsible for security - such as allowing pilots to pack heat - but to create a huge federal bureaucracy and attendant mess. He said private companies manage to protect great gobs of money via armored trucks without mishap. True enough, but the airlines can't get the planes to run on time so it does weaken confidence in their ability to anticipate the next terrorist death-gadget. But I thought the whole point of a litigious society was that it made private companies very careful with things like security (since otherwise they'll get sued to the point of bankruptcy) and yet we're not getting any benefit it appears. [I've been advised by counsel that you should insert your own lawyer joke here.]

Romney is still likely my candidate though I wonder if he can beat "the Hill", even given his matinee looks. You know you got to think like a swing-voter, and who needs Fred Thompson when you got Mitt Romney? Romney plays a politician better than Thompson does. Sure he's probably a pander bear as far as flip-flopping positions but what can you do? Beggars can't be choosers and we Republicans are beggars these days - begging for leadership where none can be found. Hey but we had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun. The Republican party, like the Catholic Church, is likely now in pruning season.

Giuliani is like Achilles with that fatal flaw, that being his social liberalism. So he's a non-starter. Articulate and effective and smiling and yet so...flawed. Watching him in the debate is sort of like watching that South Carolina teen girl mess up that map question: so much beauty and potential wasted. (Of course the obligatory disclaimer applies in that she was nervous and cut her some slack and she's only 18 or whatever. Yes, yes. No pageant contestants were harmed in the making of this post.)

One of the third-tier candidates had a great line about how the difference btwn Republican and Democrat scandals is Republicans resign while Democrats promote them into leadership positions. He shoots, he scores! Truer words were never spake. I give you Bob Livingston and Ted Kennedy to name two.

Huckabee was better than last time but did nothing to inspire. He said (jokingly I assume) that immigration should be farmed out to UPS & Fed Ex, which can track packages across the U.S. while the gov't can't even keep track of who enters the country. Someone might want to let him know that packages, unlike illegal immigrants, accept having bar codes stuck on them and afterwards do not try to evade tracking. Alas, I always get trapped in nuance.

Brownback....hmm, I'm sorry but I can't stop looking at his hair. It's curly isn't it? When's the last curly-haired candidate for President? I think you really, really have to go back awhile. Can't count wigs or Whigs. This question might even stump Dick Morris.

Fred Thompson seems like a gal who plays hard to get way too long. Eventually you just lose interest, especially given that she never seemed that great in the beginning. The jury's still out on Fred though, pun intended.

...and now, maestro, a curmudgeonly song:

Boy, the way Hank Williams played
Songs that made the Hit Parade
Guys like us we had it made
Those were the days
And you knew who you were then
Girls were girls and men were men
Mister, we could use a man like Calvin Coolidge again
Didn't need no welfare state
Everybody pulled his weight
Gina Lollobrigida was great
Those were the days!

___

* - Speaking of social liberalism and conservatism, nothing makes me feel more fuddy-duddy and gnat-straining than turning down my sister's Walk for the ALS Association pledge request because ALS funds and supports embryonic stem cell research. Especially when the ALS walk is sponsored by her pastor. But, as the great Marty Brennaman often says, "it is what it is."