I've finally had a chance to catch up and watch last night's GOP debate which took place in Dearborn, Michigan. This sixth gathering of the GOP candidates was centered specifically around the economy and also featured the first appearance of former Senator Fred Thompson.
There wasn't anything really special about this debate. Like the ones previous, there were too many candidates and it just wasn't a real debate. There's not even a decent sound bite, other than one of Chris Matthews being smacked down.
Before pressing play on my Tivo, I knew going in that the candidate(s) who had the strongest showing would be the de facto front runner(s). Everyone else would now be playing catch up in the remaining 90 days (give or take) before the New Hampshire Primary.
Without question, last night was "The Rudy and Romney Show." Giuliani and Romney are clearly the candidates that everyone is looking up at.
What does this mean?
Well, for Fred Thompson, it means that his having been coy in announcing his candidacy has hurt him significantly. He needs to place no lower than second in New Hampshire--and that's going to be a problem considering he hasn't been in the state for a month and just cancelled his next visit scheduled for this weekend. He won't win New Hampshire if he's not campaigning in New Hampshire. For someone who was supposed to be the candidate real conservatives were waiting for, he's not impressing anyone.
It also means that John McCain needs to place no lower than third in order to still be in this. If he's fourth, his candidacy is over for all intents and purposes. If he's less than third, the momentum won't be there and he will be lucky to survive "Super Duper Tuesday." McCain is not out of the woods yet despite what the MSM is selling.
Lastly, if anyone proved that they had absolutely NO SHOT at being President, it was Ron Paul...again. In a debate about the economy, every answer he gave was formulated around Iraq. It didn't matter what the question was, for Congressman Paul it was "all Iraq, all the time."
No matter how you slice it, Romney and Giuliani are the guys to beat right now and time will tell which of them winds up on top and whether or not Thompson and McCain can hang in there.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com
