The questions so far

I think the questions have been decent and already have touched on more issues than a normal debate. While I didn't like the slugfest over whether Mitt or Rudy had been more welcoming to illegal immigrants. I think Rudy's attack on Mitt for hiring a company that had hired an illegal immigrant was an unfair low blow. But for people who consider immigration the most important topic, they certainly got a chance to rate the various candidates on the issue. They got to hear a lot more about immigration than they've heard from the Democratic debates.

Thompson had the germ of a good line saying that he's sure that we all have hired people that we regret, but a lot of people might miss the jab at Giuliani for hiring and recommending Kerik. At least I think that was what Thompson was getting at.

My favorite question so far was the guy asking Romney if he'd continue subsidies for farmers thus increasing the prices that consumers have to pay for corn. I thought Romney's answer that we have to protect our food supply as we do our energy supply by giving subsidies to farmers was quite lame. Is he saying that we wouldn't have farmers raising corn if the federal government didn't subsidize the big agribusinesses?

And why did Thompson use his chance to run a freebie video-ad choose to attack Romney and Huckabee. I know he wants to bring them down, but for a guy who still needs to connect with the American people, he should have gone with a positive ad. Or at least stick with attacking Hillary which is what the Republican voters are interested in.

And McCain could have had a great cut at Ron Paul's desire to bring the troops home, but he went too far with resorting to the Hitler jab. He allowed Paul to make the legitimate point that there is a difference between being non-interventionist and isolationist. Though I would point out, that isolationism, at least in the 1930's sense doesn't preclude wanting to trade with other countries.

What I've liked so far is that the questions have been about issues that conservatives care about. They haven't come from a liberal mindset which is what I often feel about the questions that the journalists ask. I have to say that I wasn't a fan of the youtube idea, but I think the questions have been quite reasonable.

I was concerned that, due to the format that involved people having to submit questions earlier that we wouldn't hear a question about the Politico story about the Giuliani administration seemingly having used obscure New York city agencies to hide the costs of his security detail for the weekends that he was off perhaps visiting Judith Nathan, the woman who became his third wife. It doesn't sound like anything illegal, but certainly sounds suspiciously like he was trying to hide that he was visiting a woman he wasn't married to. At least Anderson Cooper took the liberty to ask Giuliani directly about that story. Rudy is sticking with the "I don't know anything about that" defense. Perhaps that is true. Perhaps there was someone on his staff who took care of this without telling the mayor. This wouldn't have happened by accident. Someone had decide to do this. But for a guy who's running on his record of being involved in every aspect of running New York, it doesn't look good to be accused of using accounting tricks to hide the funding for his security detail. I think this story could be a real ticking time bomb for Giuliani.

UPDATE: Well, the choice of the questions for the second half of the debate was more irritating. Just because someone submits a question that fits with CNN's image of Republican voters it doesn't mean that they have to run with the gun-toting guy, the Bible guy, and the Confederate flag guy (cheers to Romney for saying we have more important things to talk about). And what was up with that Mars question? They couldn't come up with any other foreign policy questions on Pakistan, China, North Korea, or Iran, for example? Was there nothing submitted on those issues in all of those 5000 questions that could have replaced the time wasted on asking about the Bible, Mars, or naming all the guns they have at home?