FNC Republican Debate: Write-ups…
The AP’s Libby Quaid writes about last night’s Republican presidential candidate debate on FNC…
The debate occurred roughly four months before New Hampshire holds the first primary of the 2008 race.
Thompson clearly hoped to upstage the event — airing the first advertisement of the campaign on Fox News during a commercial break, and formally announcing his candidacy on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” after the debate.
He was not disappointed. Brit Hume, the debate moderator, opened up by asking each of the eight candidates to respond to the newcomer’s presence.
“I was scheduled to be on Jay Leno tonight, but I gave up my spot to somebody else because I’d rather be here in New Hampshire,” joked Huckabee.
Foster’s Michael Goot interviewed FNC’s Chris Wallace before the debate…
A potential drawback for Thompson, Wallace said, is that the rest of the field has campaigned during the summer and worked out kinks in their performances.
“Their answers are more precise. They’ve got their points down. In terms of defending themselves, it’s like anything, you need to practice,” he said. “The problem is the exhibition season for Fred Thompson is going to happen when everybody else is in the regular season. He doesn’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and have everybody miss it because people are paying attention. It definitely puts more pressure on him.”
My debate snapshots: Tired of Huckabee’s “aw, shucks” shtick; tired of Rudy’s “what I did in New York” comments;
tired of waiting for Romney to tighten up his message;
embarrased for Tomcredo’s bumbling; sick of Ron Paul’s hate America theme. Proud of Duncan Hunter. Relieved to see McCain do better. And Fred who???
But what’s a lady to do? I still haven’t picked a candidate.
Comment by Cella — September 6, 2007 @ 10:01 am
I really thought McCain did very well last night. He was the clear winner. It wasn’t even close. I would have liked to have seen Fred in the debate.
And I still wish the coward Dem candidates would come on FOX. It would be the most widely watched debate of the entire campaign, and they would finally have to answer some tough questions.
Hume, Wallace and Goler all did well, as usual. As did Carl Cameron. And the post debate stuff was good as well, with Hannity & Colmes interviewing the candidates.
Comment by bigred — September 6, 2007 @ 11:01 am
Huckabee had the best moment. McCain won hands down.
Comment by erljr — September 6, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
lmao the neocons got raped, RON PAUL won the fox poll AGAIN
Comment by BOB — September 6, 2007 @ 1:25 pm
After the comments made by the Frank Luntz group,Hannity tried not to make much of their remarks. I fact he tried to ignore their comments. They said they were disappointed in Rudy and tired of his comments saying that he was the greatest thing to happen to New York. They never went back to the group after their remarks. They just didnt tow the Sean Hannity line.
Comment by ali — September 6, 2007 @ 3:28 pm
Thanks for the incisive commentary, BOB. You seem to be as mentally stable as your heartthrob, Ron Paul.
Comment by Amused — September 6, 2007 @ 3:42 pm
Actually, Ali, I only heard one woman say anything negative about Giuliani and she was whining that he kept talking about what he did in New York. Did she want him to discuss nuclear physics instead? Or maybe the complete works of Walt Whitman?
Comment by Amused — September 6, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
Cella: After doing so many debates all of the candidates seemed relatively quick on the draw.
If he had appeared last night, Fred Thompson who naturally talks slowly and who hasn’t yetdebated would have looked awful by comparison.
Comment by Ira — September 6, 2007 @ 7:44 pm