Thoughts on the Republican Presidential Debate

We watched the Republicans duke it out last night in Michigan. The debate focused on economic issues, which left some of the second-tier, single-issue candidates with little to say. This one was moderated by Chris Matthews and Maria Bartiromo. I don't watch CNBC, so this was my introduction to Ms. Bartiromo, and I was not impressed by her moderating skills. Perhaps it was the generally poor acoustics of the auditorium, but none of the candidates seemed to understand her staccato-delivered questions the first time she asked them. Matthews was his usual shrill self, though I prefer his moderation style immensely to the poor attempts of Wolf Blitzer in the earlier debate sponsored by CNN.

The most interesting exchange was between Romney and Giuliani: The Press suggests they were battling about which was more of a tax cutter, but my following of the exchange had Romney attacking Giuliani on the line item veto, while suggesting their positions on taxes are similar.

To us, the biggest non-story of the debate was Fred Thompson. We're used to the Arthur Branch pontifications that made him somewhat endearing on L&O, and none of that spirit was evident in the debate. To me he appeared tired and off-balance as he rambled in and out of focus on the issues. At least he knew who the PM of Canada was.

In relation to my previous post: Perhaps Fisher-Price TiVo reads this blog and is unhappy with my slamming it: Several times when we paused or rewound the debate to catch a missed phrase (the acoustics and microphones really were awful), the screen would go black for a few seconds, then gray, as though FPT was toying with us, before returning the somber political visages to the screen. This is a new thing, so stay tuned.