Lightning Strikes, but No Major Sparks Fly

The highlight of the GOP debates: God silences Giuliani during his defense of his abortion stance, after being compared to Pontius Pilate (in reference to the crucifixion of Christ where Pilate did not agree, but did nothing to stop the act). The building (or immediate area) was struck several times with lightning, cutting power to his microphone. Better yet, he acknowledged God's presence by saying that he was afraid of the timing of the strikes, and all the other candidates moved away, as if to let God do his dirty work. So for those of you who believe in coincidence only and not God, what were the odds of that???

Other than that, my take of the evening was pretty bland from the top tier.

McCain is a broken record... I understand the philosophy of staying on message, but you don't have to repeat the same phrase over and over. It is like listening to an elderly man who's memory is starting to go, so he tells the same story over and again!

Romney came off as the flip-flopping Republican version of 2004 John Kerry. As I recall, he was even called a flip-flopper by one of the audience members during the Q&A portion of the night. Not a good sign, Romney... And his response: I'll do what I have to do to get the votes... ummm, what? so instead of standing on your principles you will lie, cheat, and steal to get the votes... In the words of Trump, "You're Fired!"

And I think that Brownback got it right, when he told the audience that the party cannot be considered a conservative party if they nominate someone who is as socially liberal as Giuliani. There is moderate, and then there is a Liberal on the Republican ticket...

So other than McCain fumbling, Romney defending his flip-flops, and Giuliani defending his very liberal social issues, there was nothing helping the "head of the pack" candidates... i.e. their attempt to maintain the status quo (hmmm... sounds familiar - see my post about the Democratic debate).

What WAS amazing were the "others". Huckabee came across as the witty and confident underdog that he is, with great answers to open ended questions about the greatest moral issues in America today... and wonderfully, the rest of the field followed... In fact, whenever Huckabee spoke on any topic, the rest of the candidates seemed to try and build off of Huckabee's intelligent remarks, perhaps hoping that the audience will think that they came up with the thought... It was a series of great moments for Huckabee.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Republican Party has “lost credibility” said former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee when he was asked what happened to his party during the 2006 midterm elections, when the GOP was swept from power in
Congress.
“We didn’t do what we were hired to do and the people fired us,”
Huckabee said at Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate.
Citing the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina, corruption scandals involving GOP lawmakers and other issues, Huckabee said, “The Republican Party as a whole deserved to get beat. "We’ve lost credibility.”

And that is why Huckabee is the guy to fix the party... he stands for honest conservative values!

Paul is getting further and further out into left field... He has some very good moments, but all in all, he is OUT THERE!

Brownback did a good job in re-emphasizing the diplomatic solution to Iraq. Everything else was pretty forgettable from him.

And the rest... well, a few good moments surrounded by blandness.

I would score it as a Huckabee win overall, with the top tier candidates starting to lose steam.