Thoughts on the ABC debate on 1/5/08

After watching the Republican debate last night, I have a few thoughts. First, the debate seemed much like having leftovers again. Many of the questions covered much of the same territory that had previously been covered. Most of the candidates, with the exception of Ron Paul, had the same, though slightly varying, positions on the issues.

Probably the biggest benefactor of the range of issues covered in the questions was Rudy Giuliani. There were no questions relating to two key issues: abortion and the definition of marriage. I guess for ABC these aren't important issues, at least not to be discussed from a conservative point of view.

With that said, there didn't seem to be much revealed that hasn't already been revealed. John McCain still believes in a pseudo-amnesty for illegal immigrants. It was unclear to me that Rudy Guiliani isn't in the same camp. Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney, and Mike Huckabee were more clearly taking a non-amnesty position.

All the candidates support improving our health care situation by private sector solutions while decreasing the involvement of government in the process.

The comments by a number of the candidates regarding Mitt Romney's change of positions and his negative ads took away from the debate, but nevertheless left a strong impression regarding these facts concerning Romney. My preference would have been that the candidates who partook in this also hurt themselves. And I would have strongly preferred that Mike Huckabee hadn't gone there, but he is also in a position where he has to take whatever opportunities present themselves to refute the misrepresentations attributed to him by Romney's organization.

So, who was the winner? I don't think there was any clear cut winner. No one stood out to me. I thought Fred Thompson performed better than he has in the past, so I thought he exceeded expectations. However, since the questions and the format were conducive to pretty much deal with issues on which there was general agreement, I don't think it would be expected that one candidate would stand out. One thing, though, is obvious. Any of the Republican candidates, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, would make a much better President than any of the Democratic candidates.