Debates Goin' to the Dogs

If you had a dog in last night's ABC presidential candidates debate, you probably thought they decently defended their territory.

Although, if you support Fred Thompson you may well be more than pleased. The bar for him has been set so low when he bestirs himself to make salient points it has the same startling effect as watching your favorite basset hound talk. He had his best night.

If you are into truth telling, you would connect with Ron Paul's performance. Feisty. Making his points like a terrier on the postman's pantleg. Really, his slogan should be.... "It's the economy, stupid" which won't get much better until we pursue peace. And he's right. But most of the other GOP presidential candidates don't want to hear it and resort to ridicule to keep him out of the pack.

But, maybe ridicule would have been better than the ambushes Mitt Romney encountered. Snarly John McCain, cheap-shop Mike Huckabee and fast-talking Rudy Giuliani showed their ugly pack mentality, especially McCain. Snapping at Romney with bared fangs. Lowering themselves to personal attacks merely elevates Romney and exposes their mean streaks. Not very presidential. Their behavior may come back to bite them.

Not that the Democratic presidential candidates were all tail waggy and "Oh Boy.... It's Bacon"ish. Hillary Clinton so far forgot herself in response to a charge of being part of the old guard that she barked at John Edwards and Barack Obama like a threatened junk yard dog. But her trusty Saint Bernard, Bill Richardson came to the rescue, diffusing the dustup with a keg of humor... one of the few light moments of a long night.

All in all, nothing much new on the policy front was gleaned. Perhaps the best moments came when the candidates from both parties were on the stage together, the idea being that regardless of their differences they wanted what was best for the country.

Big doggy treats to Charles Gibson and ABC for the debate format, the best yet. Tonight FOX news will conduct a roundtable with the same GOP candidates as last night's debate, with one notable exception.... Ron Paul wasn't invited. Too bad. A debate needs a smart terrier.

Fred's Debate Debut

His spinners have set the bar so low for Fred Thompson in tomorrow's GOP debate that his performance expectations are below a limbo bar on the final pass. Just showing up is enough.... appearances are more important than substance the whirly-giggers imply....

Really? Do voters really want another dimwitted Cheney pawn leading us down the road to perdition?.... doing Cheney's bidding as in Thompson's role as legal fund cheerleader for Cheney's convicted perjurer chief-of-staff in the "free Scooter" campaign.

It seems Republicans are looking to Thompson as the great caped hope of the GOP and that is why in the Register's recent survey of likely Iowa GOP caucus goers he finished second to the smooth Mitt Romney who has been covering the state like a warm bath.

But, the debate tomorrow night actually sets the bar very high for those looking to Thompson as the savior of the Republican party, a Ronald Reagan on steroids. And, if his performance at his fundraisers is any barometer of the heat Thompson will generate in the debate, his "Law and Order" fans, and those who have only read his press releases, are in for a loooooong night.

So..... wha' happened to allow Thompson to oust Rudy Giuliani and John McCain from the second place tie they held in Iowa last May? McCain is probably the easiest to figure out, his advocacy for comprehensive immigration reform.... amnesty.... hurt him among conservative GOP Iowa voters.

Giuliani's position on abortion makes him unappetizing to these same voters, but the fact that he hasn't campaigned much in Iowa further cools the reception of the used-to-being-wooed caucus goers. Maybe the Judi-pecked Rudy stayed away because he thought cellphone reception wouldn't be up to snuff in rural Iowa...... he might miss a "Yes dear" speech interrupter.

It would appear that the support for Thompson is more a message of "none of the above," and Iowa GOP voters are hoping he will emerge as their go-to guy

If Thompson makes a poor showing in the debate tomorrow this wide but undoubtedly shallow support may leak to Romney or Mike Huckabee who finished second in the Iowa Straw poll in Ames this August.

Forget the spin.... tomorrow's debate performance could make or break Thompson's run for the presidential sun.

It's the Legacy, Stupid!

When asked about Bush's domestic and foreign policies, the GOP presidential candidates chorus.... "Bush who?" But, like the pesky mutt that won't let go of their pant leg, the Bush bellicose and Constitution shredding policies will be hard to shake

Still, they are hoping to detach themselves from the monstrous ruin wrought by The Decider.... "Looking Past the Elephant in the Room, GOP Contenders Keep Distance From Bush Legacy." (WaPo)

Take GOP candidate Fred Thompson who pines for the good ol' days.... so much so he even thinks there is still a Soviet Union. Like GOP icon Ronald Reagan, he's a little vague on details. But, he knows things used to be better. "I think back to 1994," he rambles, "We need to adhere to the principles that made this party great and that made this country the greatest."

Of course, Democrat Bill Clinton was president in 1994 as the GOP stormed into control of Congress. But Clinton kept a tight rein on that Congress... remember the famous budget standoff that led to the shutdown of government in November 1995?

Clinton refused to sign a bill to keep the government going because it required Medicare recipients to pay more for some premiums. GOP House Speaker Gingrich played chicken with Clinton, thinking Clinton would back down rather than close down government.... and, Gingrich ended up with egg on his face when he had to back down.

Hoping to make a quick getaway from the Bush years, Sen. John McCain is revving his Straight Talk for a more aggressive government. And, Mitt Romney suggests that the GOP has drifted into the embrace of "big government" and must return to acting as "change-Washington Republicans."

Well, actually John and Mitt, the problem is that the Bush administration has been too aggressive with their foreign policy, and the embrace the Bush administration has led us into is "big corporate interests."

The GOP candidates are finding it heavy going, trying to put distance between themselves and the Bush White House. It's like the old golf story about the guy who had a bad round of golf after his buddy passed out on the course... "it's take a shot and drag George."

GOP Four AWOL

They set places at the table, but the four GOP presidential frontrunners were no-shows.

Or, as Tom Joyner pointedly remarked in his opening comments last night at the GOP presidential candidate debate held at Morgan State, a historically black university in Baltimore, "Let me take a moment right here and now to say hello to those of you viewing from home: Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Senator John McCain, Gov. Mitt Romney and Senator Fred Thompson."

It seems there may be two reasons for their absence from this minority forum.... the quarterly campaign funding report deadline is Sunday and money hasn't exactly been pouring in over the transom, so they were fundraising .... and, they aren't ready for prime-time outside the comfort zone of the GOP privileged-white-men-only country club.

McCain in an ironic statement considering his empty podium.... and his Straight Talk Express idling on fumes.... lectured that the GOP is failing to reach out to African-Americans and Hispanics and needs to be reminded "that we are the party of Abraham Lincoln."

John, John, John.... you need to be reminded that Lincoln was famous for his debating.... his debates with Stephen Douglas are legendary and raised Lincoln's national profile. Lincoln would have been there last night.

Thompson continues to play the seven-dwarf role of Sleepy.... maybe he wasn't aware of the debate. After all, a major part of Thompson's platform in his run for Senate in 1994 was his support for the death penalty. Yet, asked recently for his thoughts on the recent landmark cases in his home state of Tennessee and Kentucky on lethal injection, Thompson drawled... "I hadn't heard that. I didn't know."

In Florida earlier this month Sleepy was surprised that oil drilling in the Everglades was a major state issue. Nor could he remember much about the brain-damaged Terri Schiavo case that stirred national debate. Even social conservative religious-guru James Dobson dismissed Thompson as being weak on the campaign trail and wrong on the issues. Fred, wind your alarm clock.

Maybe Giuliani didn't show up because cell phones were banned at the debate.... so he couldn't do his Fibber McGee and Molly shtick with his wife. Ring, ring.... And, Romney really missed an opportunity to muss his "Ken" persona a bit.

For those who did show up.... former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, Rep.Tom Tancredo of Colorado, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and the ever-opportunistic Alan Keyes, a former conservative diplomat.... the reduced participation allowed them more face time than usual.

Insofar as the impact of the shunning of the debate by the four GOP hopefuls, Travis Smiley who moderated the forum took dead aim: "Some of the campaigns who declined our invitations to join us tonight have suggested publicly that this audience would be hostile and unreceptive. Since we are live on PBS right now, I can't tell you what I really think of these kinds of comments."

Fred Jumps, Debate Slumps, Bush Pumps

Former senator Fred Thompson continues to make his presence known by his absence. In last night's debate on FOX between eight Republican presidential hopefuls in New Hampshire, Thompson was the Southern conservative Reaganish elephant hulking behind the curtain...dealt with by lame jokes such as Sen. John McCain's (AZ) "Maybe it's past his bedtime."

Meanwhile, "Fred Thompson Makes a Late-Night Late Entry" (WaPo) on Jay Leno's show laconically announcing he was joining the presidential wanna-be fray, and dismissing the debate with a backhand, "I'll do my share, but I don't think it's a very enlightening forum, to tell you the truth."

And, truth be told, it wasn't a very enlightening forum. A not surprising chorus of "Top Republicans back Bush Iraq Strategy in Debate" was the tenor of the evening. (WaPo)

Without the presence of Rep. Ron Paul (TX), it would have been a yawner although it was designed to stir things up....questions on immigration (at last) that elicited not very artful dodging from New York's "safe-haven city" former mayor Rudy Giuliani, and on the flip-flopping of disgraced Sen. Larry "Wide Stance" Craig (R-ID).

The debate was mostly a joust to the bottom... and Sam Brownback easily won that slot. While the questions on Iraq allowed McCain some expected chest-beating, it was Paul who showed the courage of his convictions by reminding his hostile cohorts that the decision to go to war was made by a handful of neoconservatives who hijacked U.S. foreign policy.

And, while the political climate was heating up in the U.S..... a half a world away, White House diplomacy was also getting a bit steamy, or unseemly. "In Australia, Rice stands in for first lady," (AP) the headline teases.

While Laura Bush stayed in D.C. with what she said was a pinched nerve, in Sydney "office wife" Condi Rice and The Decider were yucking it up. To quote Bush at a dinner in his honor: " 'She can be my date,' the president said, reaching out his left hand to touch Rice's arm as they stood before the cameras at a dinner hosted by Prime Minister John Howard and his wife."

The reason for the date....err.... trip to Australia was the Asia-Pacific Economic Forum attended by leaders from China, Russia, Japan, South Korea and other major Pacific Rim countries. So, with such a gathering in which to make his gravitas felt as the leader of the free world, what did The Decider do?

After lunch, Bush headed back to his hotel to change into biking gear and then his motorcade raced north to a track at the Honda training facility. After an hour Bush emerged and his motorcade returned to Sydney.

It has been reported that much of the advance work for Bush's trips involve the Secret Service ferreting out the best place for Kid George to ride his bike. Bush has become a joke and an embarrassment to us all.... the country's painful pinched nerve.

GOP Hopefuls Opine

The first Republican presidential candidates "debate" last night was in many respects a yawn.... but, it did have a crazy-aunt-in-the-attic moment for the ten Bush wanna-bes.

When asked for a show of hands for those who didn't believe in evolution..... the flat-earthers responding were Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado. These three definitely go to the back of the class with the slow-learners.

I kept looking for the apple that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney had on hand for MSNBC moderator Chris Matthews.... Mitt is such a perfect teacher's pet.... well prepared, face scrubbed, not a hair out of place.... just too perfect. We need a Mitt Romney doll, just wind him up and he delivers his focus-group talking-points to the background of Hail-to-the-Chief.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona was animated, although he had a momentary "deer in headlights" moment when asked directly if he believed in evolution. He did give the old straight talk answer of "yes".... before shifting into his Falwell pandering-gear by adding when he's in the Grand Canyon, he sees God's hand over the horizon.

Actually, what McCain sees over the horizon is Joe Lieberman's hand waving his Straight Talk Express into the lane for presidential race losers. When asked what Democrat he would have in his cabinet if he became president, McCain named Lieberman with the same passion usually reserved for a hot prom date.

A subdued former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani was the only one of the ten to hedge over whether the Supreme Court should overturn Roe v. Wade.... although he made it clear that he "hates" abortion, as if rival Democrats or anyone supporting a woman's right to chose doesn't hate abortion. The other nine took the GOP safe "overturn" path, each trying to out-forceful-reply the other.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the only one not supporting The Decider's troop buildup in Iraq, and actually mentioned GOP-abandoned items like upholding the Constitution and reducing spending. His biggest contribution, however, was that he made McCain appear young.

The former governor of Wisconsin, Tommy Thompson.... not Fred who kept his standing by not being in the lineup.... had the best Ronald Reagan brown-nose line recalling Reagan's optimism and "belief that America could be stronger and better tomorrow than it is today"... which is perfectly true as soon as we can rid ourselves of the Bush mafia.

California Rep. Duncan Hunter (great name) thinks he's the reincarnation of Patton.... but he didn't move his campaign forward much with so many other stage-generals trying to show their commander-in-chief mettle.

James Gilmore, former governor of Virginia didn't move the audience recognition needle much off 0.... what is it with former governors? Being a big fish in Virginia's pond doesn't equate to making a splash in the national ocean.

And that's how I saw it, the Republican debate. McCain perhaps summed up his party's "be very afraid" mantra the best.... "We must win in Iraq.... If we withdraw, there will be chaos, there will be genocide and they will follow us home."

No. A Democrat must win the election.... or, there will be chaos, there will be more war and corruption, and the GOP will follow us into our homes.