CNN You Tube Republican Debate.....

[Guest swirlundergrounder]

Now if some held a gun to my head and a knife to my throat and made me vote Republican, then I would vote for the Mike Huckabee fellow....

He made the most sense out of anyone on the panel last night....

[Guest web_norah]

i prefer Giuliani if i had to vote Republican.

[Guest slamminshaun]

That debate was the biggest circus I've ever seen! From that disgraceful parody song to their blatant bias, CNN has proven once again why CNN stands for Clinton News Network. How professional of them to allow a Clinton campaign co-chairman to infiltrate the debate and grandstand for 3 minutes. The "most trusted name in news"??? I think not! No wonder their ratings are going down the toilet....It's bad enough Hillary is allowed to plant questions at her own rallies, now she's allowed to plant questions at debates for the other party????

What if Fox News hosted a Democrat debate (which is laughable since Democrats are too afraid to appear on Fox) and sneaked in Rush Limbaugh's brother as an "undecided voter"? Every newspaper in the country would be ripping Fox News apart as being a biased and illegitimate network. How come we haven't seen that here? Where's the outrage? Not only was a Clinton co-chairman allowed to ask a question, but several "undecided, Republican" voters actually turned out to be supporters of John Edwards and Barrack Obama! WTF??? So not only did you let one person slip through...you let four or five! Funny how things like this never happen to Democrats on CNN...

Great job CNN....it's no wonder people don't trust the media anymore. Don't believe me? Click the link below.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003678478

[Guest cire]

That was the first youtube debate I have watched and I must say I though it was very entertaining.

I'm with you Swirlundergrounder, if I was forced to vote Republican, I too would vote for Hucky.

It was interesting, I did think after hearing that the gay general was basically a plant by Hill's camp, that CNN kind of botched that. Overall though, cool, and I like way you could see the reaction on the chart they had. They could have moved it to the side of the screen as to not take away from the candidates though.

[Guest slamminshaun]

That was the first youtube debate I have watched and I must say I though it was very entertaining.

Since when are debates supposed to be entertaining? I thought they were supposed to be informative....am I missing something? Huckabee is too much a Bible-thumper for me. Maybe if they actually asked Ron Paul a fuckin' question, some of you would've seen why he's gaining so much support...the establishment is extremely afraid of him, so they ignore him as much as possible. For every question Ron Paul got, every other candidate received 4 or 5.

[Guest cire]

I believe there are things in life that can be informative and entertaining (vice versa), just my .02.

Huck is for the Fair Tax. And Ron has zippo for a personality factor and I think that is going to be an important characteristic for whoever wins the 'Pub nomination.

We'll see how things shake down over the next 2 and a half months.

[Guest yume]

ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA—Rising Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul emerged as the clear winner of Wednesday evening’s CNN/YouTube Republican presidential debate. 47 percent of CNN voters believed that the Texas congressman Ron Paul won the debate, according to CNN’s post-debate online poll and debate scorecard.

Mike Huckabee came in second place with 23 percent of the vote.

In addition to winning the debate, Congressman Paul placed first in multiple scorecard categories. 46 percent of CNN voters indicated they believed Congressman Paul knew “the most about the issues,” and 44 percent said they felt he had “the best response to user-generated content.” Additionally, 43 percent of voters declared that Congressman Paul’s campaign “got the biggest boost from the debate.”

“The Republican presidential candidates came out in full force Wednesday night, but only Congressman Ron Paul stood out as the clear winner,” said Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton. “The crowd’s enthusiasm for his responses on everything from the war and traditional non-interventionist foreign policy to the economy and his promise to eliminate the IRS shows that Americans overwhelmingly support Dr. Paul’s message of freedom, peace, and prosperity.”

The CNN/YouTube Republican debate featured user-generated video questions to which the candidates responded on-stage.

I started doing some more research on Paul and was pretty damn impressed. The guy is on fire. He went from a nobody to 4th in the New Hampshire polls. He's the only guy out of the Republicans who's fundraising is actually increasing rather than decreasing.

[Guest yume]

For those of you who think getting rid of the income tax is insane,

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-272.html

Also keep in mind that:

"All individual income tax revenues are gone before one nickel is spent on the services which taxpayers expect from their government." - President's Private Sector Survey On Cost Control A Report to The President (Reagan) : [Page 12]

[Guest coach]

Paul is from Texas and Huckabee is a bible-thumper... great candidates you guys are fielding.

[ryan2772]

Ron Paul has no personality??? Are you kidding me?? He's the most passionate one out there

[Guest cire]

Seems to old...He looks like if you slapped him he would explode with dust, like those mushrooms that grow in yards sometimes? I tend to lean towards candidates that are below the age of 70, I believe he's 72 and will be 73 by the time the election happens next year. That means by the time he is nearing the end of his presidency (should he be elected) he will be 77 or 78 years old. I'm not down with that, sooo...Plus he has no lips.

http://www.southerngrace.biz/bonnieblue/images/RonPaul_Constitution.jpg

[Guest slamminshaun]

I believe there are things in life that can be informative and entertaining (vice versa), just my .02.

I agree with you 100%...but debates on who should lead this country isn't one of them. Let's skip the bullshit such as what they look like, who smiled more, who was wearing their lapel pin properly, who was taller, who looked healthy, who used their hand gestures efficiently, who had the funniest one-liners, etc, etc.....

Whatever happened to voting for someone because of where they stand on important isssues??? Sure, Ron Paul may have small lips, but the words coming out of them represent positions that are far more substantive than anyone else's...and THAT should be what wins debates.

[Guest Clubhopper11]

My favorite quote of the night was when Ron Paul answered to John McCain's charge that his position of "isolationism" is what led to WWII. There is certainly a difference between isolationism and non interference.

However I have only seen or read, through the news media, on Sen. McCain's charge but never hear about Paul's response. Hmmm.

[Guest web_norah]

i love the republican candidates this time around.....they're making things way too easy for the dems to win

keep up the good work!

[Guest slamminshaun]

i love the republican candidates this time around.....they're making things way too easy for the dems to win

keep up the good work!

Huh? Check the latest Zogby poll...Clinton is the front-runner still for Democrats, but she loses in a one-on-one contest against FIVE different Republicans. Take your pick...

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1393

[Guest Krazyjuice]

Let's see if clinton is still in the lead when Iowa and New Hampshire are done with their primaries.

[Guest Adam Singer]

ron paul ftw

[Guest RzO]

i love the republican candidates this time around.....they're making things way too easy for the dems to win

keep up the good work!

It was indeed fun to watch, Guliani is pretty cool, too bad he has to be a silly elephant. With that being said I still think he may be our next president if any from that bunch, its quite obvious. As a straight ticker voter ill have to see what comes in November. The polls don't mean a thing until after the primaries. If Hillary and Rudy get the noms, ill need to see what the gallup looks like then.

Ron Paul sounds good, thing is hes a spoiler and a worthless vote and anyone with political knowledge knows this. The system has its ways and it is all or nothing respectively when looking at partisan politics.

[Guest slamminshaun]

Ron Paul sounds good, thing is hes a spoiler and a worthless vote and anyone with political knowledge knows this. The system has its ways and it is all or nothing respectively when looking at partisan politics.

I'd rather vote my conscience and "waste a vote" than sell my soul to the devil and vote for someone simply because I think they can win. I voted for Michael Badnarik in the last presidential election. A waste of a vote? Not in my mind.

[Guest web_norah]

It was indeed fun to watch, Guliani is pretty cool, too bad he has to be a silly elephant. With that being said I still think he may be our next president if any from that bunch, its quite obvious. As a straight ticker voter ill have to see what comes in November. The polls don't mean a thing until after the primaries. If Hillary and Rudy get the noms, ill need to see what the gallup looks like then.

Ron Paul sounds good, thing is hes a spoiler and a worthless vote and anyone with political knowledge knows this. The system has its ways and it is all or nothing respectively when looking at partisan politics.

i am fine with Rudy being nominated.

Ron Paul stands no chance but it'll be a Democrats wet dream if he in fact, gets nominated.

still haven't made up my mind on Democrats.

[Guest RzO]

I'd rather vote my conscience and "waste a vote" than sell my soul to the devil and vote for someone simply because I think they can win. I voted for Michael Badnarik in the last presidential election. A waste of a vote? Not in my mind.

Politics is the devil. If you can't beat em join em. If voting for someone with no chance makes you feel good then go for it. Its kinda like throwing money out the window, who knows where it will go but it sure was a waste of your efforts.

until the system changes (which will be never) there are only 2 candidates. This is pure and simple. As well as only 2 parties. That is why politically active people HAVE to pick one side and join, since playing the off candidates is like pissing into the wind, and that is never fun, unless of course you enjoy that kind of stuff.

Let the primaries start and end already we all know who is going to get the nods. although the turmoil within the GOP with Romney and Guliani is getting heated, Im all for the G so i truthfully hope his camp can dig up some better dirt in the coming months.

Super tuesday will be here before we know it.

[Guest yume]

Giuliani is starting to fall apart in my opinion. He's beginning to seem as uninformed and ignorant as Bush. I believe he said something in that debate to the effect of "terrorists bombed us because they don't like our way of life." What a crock of shit.

As was reported by the 9/11 commission and the director of the CIA, it is because of our foreign policy decisions.

I found this pretty funny (a good example of Ron's personality too):

Ron Paul's Reading List for Rudy Giuliani

[Guest slamminshaun]

This is the best commentary I've read about the CNN/YouTube "debate"....and written by the L.A. Times no less! This really sums up the credibility of CNN in one article.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rutten1dec01,0,4122002.column?coll=la-home-center

And by the way Rzo, you may buy into all that crap the Democrat party tells you about how you're wasting a vote by going to the Green Party, Socialist Party, or whatever left-wing independent parties are out there. As long as they are guaranteed to get your vote, they have no incentive to change their corrupt ways. By voting straight ticket, you become an enabler of this nonsense, and I know from talking to you that you are indeed smarter than that.

I went Libertarian back in 2003, and haven't looked back....if the GOP ever intends to get my vote back (some of their candidates earn my vote, but none are guaranteed to get it anymore), they have to make some serious changes, otherwise, they can lose elections for all I care. Then perhaps the Libertarian party will finally be recognized as the true conservatives in this country.

You said voting for someone who has no chance of winning is like throwing money out the window? Just the opposite...voting for someone only because they have a chance of winning is throwing your principles out the window. No thanks!

[Guest RzO]

This is the best commentary I've read about the CNN/YouTube "debate"....and written by the L.A. Times no less! This really sums up the credibility of CNN in one article.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-rutten1dec01,0,4122002.column?coll=la-home-center

And by the way Rzo, you may buy into all that crap the Democrat party tells you about how you're wasting a vote by going to the Green Party, Socialist Party, or whatever left-wing independent parties are out there. As long as they are guaranteed to get your vote, they have no incentive to change their corrupt ways. By voting straight ticket, you become an enabler of this nonsense, and I know from talking to you that you are indeed smarter than that.

I went Libertarian back in 2003, and haven't looked back....if the GOP ever intends to get my vote back (some of their candidates earn my vote, but none are guaranteed to get it anymore), they have to make some serious changes, otherwise, they can lose elections for all I care. Then perhaps the Libertarian party will finally be recognized as the true conservatives in this country.

You said voting for someone who has no chance of winning is like throwing money out the window? Just the opposite...voting for someone only because they have a chance of winning is throwing your principles out the window. No thanks!

no thing is i am smarter than that, come on bro i studied this shit at a top tier poli sci university, trust me i did alot of my research in this facet of politics. Its a waste and to argue that is just retarded. Empirical research doesn't lie, its factual by numbers.

again whatever one wants to do is all good, but it is just simply going to take away from what ideological platform one wants in office.

principals apart, cause believe me i used to think like that until i actually did the research for my thesis. It isnt changing, we live in a bi partisan system, if u think that a few people voting for libertarian, green or whatever is ever going to gain enough momentum to do anything but spoil, look at the historical data, simply wont happen. Think about it, the system is geared like this, its not like in europe where there are many parties whom have the steam to be elected into office, here there are republicans and democrats, again this isn't hard to figure out, just open you eyes....and see (ha had to throw the lil nalin and kane in their to keep within the scope of this board, heh )

super tuesday is going to be fun this year, with many of the primaries moved forward it will be the biggest to date. This is another direct correlation that bi-partisan politics reign, if one isnt registered as a dem or rep, they cant even vote in the primary. So that is the point if you are that active its one or the other or you have no say till november.

[Guest slamminshaun]

Rzo, your analysis of politics is like sports. It has nothing to do with your principles, and everything to do with winning. You certainly have drunk the Kool-Aid my friend. As long as this government can count on people to be a bunch of sheep and believe that we're stuck with the system we have, then you're right....nothing will ever change. But thankfully, 3rd party candidates have been more influential than you are giving them credit for.

Bill Clinton would not have defeated George Bush if Ross Perot did not run. Imagine how our country's history would've been different had the Reform Party never existed and Bush had another 4 years... If Ralph Nader didn't run in 2000, Bush would not have defeated Al Gore. Again, how would our country's history have been different after 9/11 with Gore in office?

Independent candidates can and do make a difference. The Libertarian party is winning elections nationwide and is currently the fastest growing party, or didn't they teach you that at your liberal school?