The GOP debate last night!!!!

Everyone says that the Grand Old Party doesn't have a chance to come back big. It had its 12 years of house and senate majorities that came to a screeching halt in 2007.

There are reports that the iraq war may have made the party unpopular in the red states.

The debate last night was interesting and filled with questions that may not have been asked in a plain vanilla debate. The "you tube" video questions were well made. some even went to the extent of making cartoons and animations, while others brandished guns and bibles.

The viewers asked all kinds of things from Vice presidential power to abortion, but there was only one single question about iraq. It's weird, but it appears that iraq does not really matter much anymore. Or were such questions cut out deliberately? who knows??

The front runners "Rudy Guiliani and Mitt Romney" both seemed slick and shallow in their own ways. Mitt romney had ready made answers for all kinds of things and he kept a bold poker face all through the debate. Rudy Guiliani came across like he was hiding a lot of things in his closet, and his jokes did not help.

Fred Thompson seemed too old and his statements lacked the firmness that would be required in a future president. Well, he at least took the time to chide both guiliani and romney on immigration.

If america ever needed another president with a weird sense of humor, guiliani would fit the bill perfectly. we could have a humor match between bush and guiliani, and i'm sure it would be a tight one.

The honorable John mcCain seems to have lost his sense of reality. All that work he did across party lines and the times when he took bold stances on issues not caring about his own party, seems so distant in the past.

Well, maybe he woke up to the reality that he cannot become a president without taking the middle line and doing about turns.

He did not seem to have a clear strategy on iraq and his stand that "we are there for the long run" does not seem to tune with reality. Well, Mr.mcCain still shows clairty when he says that he is committed to vetoing pork barrel projects and cutting down the federal deficit.

There's one candidate with lots of fire in the belly and guts, if any: Ron Paul. He had the boldest and the most sanest stand on a lot of issues. The argument between him and mcCain over iraq was interesting. Ron paul had some powerful statements: "Iraq is similar to vietnam. There was more progress made during peace time in vietnam, than the twenty years when we and the french were there".

Huckabee, they say is gaining ground with all the religious right backing him up. I'm sure the crowd would love him for he thinks that the IRS should be the first institution to chop down should there be a move to curtail federal spending in a big way. Beware of the next tax season...Mr.Huckabee.

Mr.Tancredo, known only for one thing and one thing only: His hate for immigrants. i'm sure no one thinks he'll go far. Not even for a Vice president nomination.

As was expected, everyone made sure that they kept the IRA and the religious right happy.

When someone asked "How many guns do you have at home?", guiliani was perhaps the only who said he had none. Well... he tried to woo the IRA a few months ago without much luck. He even seems to have tried a joke by having his wife call in during his address. Little wonder that no one smiled!!!

Everyone nodded that they believe every word of the bible, and not a single candidate took the side of the gay brigadier who asked a question. Well, they have good reason to. No one is expected to make it past the GOP primaries without the help of the religious right.

The good thing was most of the candidates almost went to the extent of promising that they won't rise the taxes, save for ron paul and duncan hunter who said it with some reservations.

It's interesting that the brigadier was actually related to the hillary campaign. Maybe, hillary is showing the GOP a taste of the "Swift Boat" tactics that they used to sink good old "John Kerry" as a flip-flop.


From all this, it does not seem that there there shall not be a credible candidate to take on Hillary after all. Well, if it's romney, then the democratic party may have a problem on its hands.

If Iraq was the sole thing that changed the fate of the republican party in the senate and house elections. And If Iraq does not matter much anymore, will the democratic party keep the high ground during the presidential election?