The Republicans Debate – Well Except Newt Gingrich Who Doesn’t Want a Debate to be a Debate

Everyone Else Wanted to Debate Mr. Obama - Maybe He Should Have Been Invited

The first real Republican Presidential debate was interesting,  but maybe not in the way the candidates wanted.  Here are some insightful insights

1. Newt Gingrich just can’t help whining.  He used part of his time to attack the moderator for trying to get Republicans to debate one another.  See Mr. Gingrich, that’s what we do in elections.  We debate the issues.  You apparently want a coronation.  We had a Revolution against that sort of thing.

2. The belief that corporate income taxes are the major inhibitor of job creation is taken as a matter of faith.  Mr. Perry has avoided mentioning any specifics on tax policy.

3. Rick Santorum needs to chill out.

4. The audience is clearly about 100% Conservative Republican.  The biggest applause was for the the 234  exectutions in Texas. Maybe that’s all they let into the Reagan Library, they may even have a metal detector that screens out reasonable people.

5. Rick Perry seems to think that the federal government is preventing citizens in his state of Texas from getting health insurance.  Yeah, that must be the reason, couldn't be Texas's fault.

6. Mr. Romney continues to campaign against Mr. Obama.  Obviously his strategy is to become the nominee by acting like the nominee.

7. The jobs creation dispute at the state level is pretty much a tie.  Mr. Romney has made his case almost as well as Mr. Perry.  Mr. Perry could not explain why so many of the jobs in his state are very low paying, and nobody pressed him on it.  Note:  having low paying jobs is not a negative to Republicans, in fact for most of them it is a sign of correct economic policy.

8. Most of the candidates are using their memorized, canned answers, even if they don’t relate to the question.  The term “debate” may be overstated the case, “joint appearances” is probably more accurate.

9. One can see how Ron Paul was re-elected year after year, even though his ideas are nuts he comes across as a personable fellow.  Texas voters in his district apparently don’t care about the views of their Representative as long as they like the person.

10.  Michelle Bachmann is partly trying the “reasonable person” approach.  This will not raise her standing.  The media, which boosted her into a leading candidate has clearly moved on to Mr. Perry.  She was their darling for a while, but not they have a new sweetheart.  The media made Ms. Bachmann and now they will un-make her.  Sorry Ms. Bachmann.

11. Republicans have to believe in evolution. Somehow Ronald Reagan has evolved mythic character who deserves uncritical adulation by even the so-called independent press.  Eventually the myth will wear off and Mr. Reagan will be described as the President he really was, not the President Republicans and the media wish he had been.

12. On Social Security Gov. Perry is smart enough to walk away from his “unconstitutional charge”, but sticks by his Ponzi scheme charge, hoping to tie Social Security to Bernie Madoff.  Romney sticks up for SS as he is in his general election mode.  Mr. Cain brings up Chile, the audience goes quiet, note to candidatges for future debates, nobody cares about Social Security in Chile.  At some time in the future Mr. Perry may have to provide details on his solution to Social Security but for now he has dodged that bullet, as has Mr. Romney.  Not one of his 59 points mentions it and one would think that in 59 points there was room for at least one point on Social Security.

13. Mr. Paul, who is a physician says requiring vaccination against HPV is bad medicine.  Of course, everyone uses the term “forcing” innocent 12 year old girls be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease instead of describing this for what it is, a vaccination against a terrible cancer.  Ms. Bachmann says it’s a parent’s rights issue, and likens cervical cancer to education reform.  Mr. Perry comes off looking like a reasonable person on this, in large part because he has a reasonable position.  Conservatives apparently believe parent’s rights include the right to expose their children to cancer in order to exercise their rights.

          Mr. Romney is clearly on Mr. Perry’s side her, because it is the humane and decent position and    struggles through an answer that says this.  He would have been better off just saying that straight up, but he can’t because he’s Mitt.

14. Mr. Paul wants to take air conditioning away from the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.  He continues to come across as nuts and is losing some of his likeability.

15.  Mr. Perry is obviously knowledgeable about Texas issues, which he should be since he has been a Texas politician for decades.  His answer on Texas education is smooth.  Mr. Gingrich finally speaks strongly on education, praises Mr. Obama but let’s slip the Republican secret that public funds should be diverted to private schools.  He will be told to keep quiet on that policy.  If everyone learns that secret Republican prospects will go down for 2012.

16. The issue of immigration is where Mr. Romney is going to take the hard line.  This is the one area where he is pandering more to the Republican base than the general election.  No one will say what to do about the 11 million illegal immigrants currently in the country, many of whom are children or grown children who were brought here. Mr. Paul worries about a border fence keeping American in who want to leave.  Mr. Paul is nuts.

Ok, nothing should change.  Mr. Perry passed the first audition and gets to continue to play the role of leader in the road show previews.  Mr. Romney should stay solidly in 2^nd place.  Ms. Bachmann will become increasingly irrelevant and unless she becomes more aggressive against either Mr. Perry or Mr. Romney she will remain so.  Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Huntsman will continue to vie for the next to leave the race. Mr. Paul, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Cain will continue to enjoy their momments on stage, before the curtain closes on the second act and their roles no longer have speaking parts.

Programming Note:  Mr. Perry declared Keynesian economics dead.  The Dismal Political Economist will have the obituary later.  Stay tuned.