Ron Paul: "All We're Doing In Iraq Is Saving Face"

Posted by Joe Sudbay at 6:40 AM on September 6, 2007.

This post, written by Joe Sudbay, originally appeared on AMERICABlog

Yes, the Republicans are debating again tonight -- on Fox News. Ugh. They are in New Hampshire at the University of New Hampshire (my alma mater, btw). Remember, there won't be a Democratic debate on Fox.

We'll liveblog as painful as it is...although the Republicans are usually good for a few laughs.

The candidates at the debate are going to be in a snit because Fred Thompson just announced on Leno that he's running.

If anyone says anything particularly inane, I'll try to get the video.

9:02 PM: The head of the New Hampshire Republican Party just thanked Fox for teaming up with them on this debate. Teaming up? Fox is the Republican Party channel.

9:04 PM: Brit Hume opens the festivities by asking about Fred Thompson - who blew off the debate for Leno. Gives them all a chance to take a whack at Thompson. McCain makes an age joke, yuk...and tell Fred "get out in the arena." Mitt is just laughing at his own stupid joke. God, he's annoying. Rudy thinks Fred did a pretty good job playing his part on Law & Order. What a bunch of clowns.

9:09 PM Wallace to Romney for challenging Giuliani on immigration...you couldn't even find the illegals on your front lawn. According to Mitt, Rudy's the reason we went from 3 million illegals to 12 million. Rudy also gets a question about "illegals." These Republicans are such immigrant bashers. When McCain gets an immigration question, he says American people have lost trust in us...because of Katrina. (When McCain says "us" he surely means the GOP, because they've failed at everything.)

They all keep mentioning keeping the borders secure...Huckabee said the government has ignored borders. Again, that mean the Bush administration has failed to keep our borders secure. Still.

Of course, Tancredo loves getting the immigrant bashing question. His whole campaign is based on immigrant bashing. Sounds like the GOP crowd in Durham loves the bashing, too.

Hunter gets a "viewer" question about building the border fence. He said he built the fence in San Diego...built the fence himself the way he makes it sound. And, Hunter takes a swipe at CNN.

9:20 PM...Carl Cameron even has a "man on the street" immigrant basher, too. Wow. Fox is leaving no immigrant bashing opportunity tonight. This clearly is the biggest issue for the GOP...over twenty minutes already. Mitt HATES AMNESTY and sanctuary cities. Got it?

9:25 PM. Wendell Goler asks Brownback about family values using the Larry Craig example, basically how can voters trust the GOP on family values when Larry Craig is one of them. Sam thinks Larry has taken responsibility, but Larry already "pulled the trigger" on leaving.

9:26 PM. Hunter gets an email question asking if Craig should leave immediately for the good of the party. He says yes...and thinks the GOP deals with these issues immediately.

9:28 PM. Romney gets an abortion question...he wants Roe v. Wade overturned, then allow states to ban it. That means Mitt would let some states still allow abortions and thus commit murder in GOP-speak. Huckabee wants a human life amendment.

9:29 PM: Goler asks Giuliani about guns using Fred Thompson's slam against NYC's gun laws. Fred is working the NRA vote apparently. (and lest we forget, Rudy has always been a strong proponent of gun control. He supported the assault weapons ban and wanted a national licensing system.)

9:32 PM: Ron Paul also gets a gun question...somehow Paul thinks there should be more guns on planes or something like that. He's hard to follow.

9:34 PM: The inevitable gay marriage question...should there be a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The person asking the question opposes the amendment. Brownback says yes citing inaccurate studies, of course.

HA..the ad during the break is from the Bush-backed pro-Iraq war group headed by Ari Fleischer.

9:39 PM...they're back. McCain gets a chance to attack Giuliani's lack of national security credentials. "I know war." Noting Giuliani still hasn't been to Iraq, Wallace wants to know if he'll go by the end of the year. Biggest lie of the night so far by Rudy: "I'm not running on what I did on September 11th." That's all he's running on.

9:44 PM Mitt gets a question about Iraq. His main point: "The surge has worked" but then says we're going to be able to see if the surge is working? HUH???

McCain picked up on that and said: THE SURGE IS WORKING....the great debate will take place in the Senate this month to see if we let the surge continue or surrender...we need to keep the surge going.

9:46 PM Great line from Ron Paul -- The people who are saying Iraq will be a bloodbath if we leave are the same people who said Iraq would be a cakewalk and we'd be paying for it with oil revenue. Why should we believe them now? Typically pro-war Wallace slams him by saying we should take our marching orders from Al Qaeda. Ron Paul fought back hard.

9:49 PM Brownback thinks we need a political surge in Iraq. The political process isn't working...and we need to recognize that reality.

9:51 PM Huckabee says we have to continue the surge. We broke it...we have to fix it. Great little exchange between Paul and Huckabee....Paul says we're losing elections over foreign policy...asks Huckabee how many more Americans he wants to lose to save face.

9:55 PM Hunter is a buffoon. Seriously. He is just a pompous, bloviating butthead. I don't even care what he says...and no one else cares either.

9:57 PM Tancredo just turned this into a war against radical Islam..it has nothing to do with Iraq. Oh, he's insane, too.

9:59 PM Creepy Carl Cameron is back with the person on the street interviews (from Young's restaurant)....a guy whose son is in Iraq lambasted Romney for equating the work his sons are doing on his campaign to military service. Romney stuttered, puffed out his chest and got into a war on jihad. And, he certainly hopes the surge is successful....Brit pushed to know if it is or isn't successful. Mitt thinks it is, but he's not sure. Huh? Mitt is NOT having a good night.

10:02 PM Goler asks Mitt about wiretapping...Mitt wants to wiretap mosques, but apparently wouldn't do it without approval. Okay, seriously, Mitt has no idea what he's talking about when he gets national security questions. He has platitudes and code words, but is so out of his league on these issues.

10:03 PM Tancredo still thinks torture like waterboarding is okay.

10:04 PM McCain gets the torture question. He quotes a general who said any info. we got from torture wouldn't outdo the damage it did. Those without military experience support torture according to McCain.

10:06 PM Giuliani: we can't close Gitmo. There's a reality that the liberal media and Dems. don't get. He wants an Iraq that will help us win the war on terror...now how that relates to Gitmo is unclear...but Rudy somehow mixed up the issues. Duncan Hunter also got a Gitmo question, but I refer to my comments above -- Hunter is a buffoon. Seriously, a buffoon.

10:09 PM Brownback wouldn't give his veep as much power as Bush gave Cheney.

10:11 PM Finally, a tax question so they can all outdo each other on who is the bigger tax cutter. Wallace wants to know why McCain won't sign the anti-tax pledge. McCain says the GOP has destroyed the confidence of their base by the rampant spending -- and notes the GOP corruption. But why won't McCain sign the pledge??? The pledge, the pledge, the pledge...that's all that matters. Why won't Rudy sign the pledge. It's all about the pledge....Mitt gets the tax question, too. You know Massachusetts is a Democratic state, right? He's going to get rid of the death tax which benefits the very rich, and which, of course, Mitt is.

10:18 PM Huckabee wants a fair tax.

10:20 PM Ron Paul. He's just fun to watch. We're sacrificing liberty for security -- and losing both.

10:22 PM Rudy gets a question about family values...because Rudy doesn't really have a great track record on family value issues. And, Rudy thinks private lives should be private. He's not perfect. Any issues in my private life do not affect my public performance. That was a lame answer.

10:28 PM Brit Hume asks an Iran attack hypothetical....these GOPers are looking for the next war. Ron Paul gets the question first and doesn't think we should launch a war..you know he's the only one. Paul says Israel has 200 - 300 nuclear weapons.

Tancredo and Hunter gave answers on this one, but they're nuts. No one cares what they think. No one.

WHY IS THING NOT OVER? IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE OVER AT 10:30 PM....it's soooo painful.

Brit Hume loves Brit Hume's hypothetical -- he's quite serious about it -- and wants the candidates to know just how real of a hypothetical it is. Fox probably thinks a war with Iran would be good for ratings.

Rudy answered the hypothetical but then said it would be foolish to answer a hypothetical like that.

Mitt gives some stupid answer about building consensus. He's not very good on the national security questions at all.

McCain thinks he is the only one on the stage who knows anything about national security.

Tagged as: brownback, election08, mccain, republican party, giuliani, hunter, romney, huckabee, paul, thompson, tancredo

Joe Sudbay is a DC-based political consultant with over twenty years of experience at both the state and federal level.