Live Blog of Debate 10-11-2011
You can watch the entire debate HERE and follow it along with our live blog below.
UPDATE - Newt Gingrich in action: [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmmY9G9X_sw]
It will start here.
Hello all of my friends welcome to the show. Please forgive spelling errors as I will go back and fix them after.
Being a Bloomberg/Washington Post debate I expect several stupid/gotcha questions. I also expect questions that contain false premises. Do not trust the Washington Post fact checkers. But who knows maybe I will be pleasantly surprised. I hope Charlie Rose plays it straight.
One minute answers generate sound bites, they do not allow for answers that have much real substance. The one minute format helps the journalists to create conflict and drama and news. It does not serve the country well to have a debate with such short answers.
Herman Cain is asked how to stop the paralysis in Washington - Cain talks 999 and balancing the budget very soon. If you do that too soon you risk "Hooverizing" the economy. It will be a shock. It is better to do it in 4-7 years.
Rick Perry - ask the same question essentially - Perry goes energy independence, Declaration of Energy Independence.
Mitt Romney says that he would be prepared to be a leader. I fear Mitt does not have the spine to lead. In the last debate he was saying that one could not be too against illegal immigration, but just before the last election he was on Meet the Press talking amnesty - that isn't leading Mitt.
Rick Perry uses the word "intimidation" in reference to the Obama Administration on energy policy, Dodd Frank - etc etc. I like that Rick uses the hard word to describe this administration.
Michelle Bachmann is asked the jail question when it comes to Wall Street Execs. Bachmann is telling it like it is on how the government forced the private sector to meet rules that caused this problem. The Pinhead journalist tried to pin the "deregulation" lie and Michelle wouldn't have it. Her answer is a home run and is spot on. I am an expert on this issue all and if anyone doubts what she just said please ask me to explain in the comments section and I will give you as much evidence as you need.
Newt goes after Geithner and Bernanke and backs Michelle up on Dodd and Frank. Look at the journalists trying to excuse how it was the govt who caused this problem - their bias is showing and they are getting perturbed and Newt is like "hold the phone" and gives them a lecture. A good Newt moment.
My internet just paused me for 30 seconds but I got most of the Ron Paul answer about how the bailouts were misused. He makes a valid point.
Rick Santorum talks about creating a good business environment, energy and manufacturing. Low tax - smart regulatory environment.
John Huntsman backs up Rick Santorum's manufacturing answer, focuses on freedom of the marketplace to innovate. Says that DC is the gas capital of the world. "We are losing our ability to maintain a competitive marketplace today" . Good answer albeit obvious.
Newt is asked the end of life question on medicare - Newt does some name dropping of some doctor to increase his credibility and then creates an example to answer his question. Newt makes a very smart appeal to Palin backers, but then again Newt has backed Palin's view on ObamaCare from minute one (and I know because I covered it).
Bachmann goes after Obama for refusing to put a plan on the table to fix medicare. Bachman goes after ObamaCare's "Health Care Advisory Board" very thoughtfully.
John Huntsman goes right back to manufacturing and tax reform to create a good environment to make new production jobs. Huntsman hits a home run with his statement on a professional governing class and how people's privacy and their family is exposed (and trashed) if they even consider running for office. Huntsman is saying that we have a ruling elite in much the same way that Rush Limbaugh has talked about for years. Huntsman than talks about the smart parts of the Simpson/Bowles deficit commission which actually came up with some great ideas on how to increase government revenue by lowering tax rates and simplifying the tax code.
The problem with Herman Cain 999 plan is that it gives government a national sales tax on top of some other larger taxes now and that can be dangerous if the Democrats take power again.
A reporter is trying to lecture Mitt Romney on credit and what is a hypothetical question.... Mitt was right to treat her as a chirping bird. Is there anything worse than a young, half-educated reporter with a case of hubris? WATCH THIS - notice how Mit is on both sides of the bailouts issue. This is a problem with Mitt is that he uses so much language that is full of escape hatches and it is hard to nail him down on a policy issue and Charlie Rose sees it.
Mitt name dropped Greg Mankiw (economist). Seriously - most economists are a joke and I know as I have debated some noted ones, but Mankiw is the real deal.
Cain is correct about the bailouts and how they were implemented to increase the power of the federal govt and pick winners and losers. That money should have been used to buy toxic assets as we did in the previous savings and loan crisis and it worked out.
Ron Paul is correct about Keynesian economics, he is right that the conservative economists predicted the bubble (In fact Dr. Hayek won the Nobel Price for his work on Market Bubbles) , and he is right about "Moral Hazard".
OK BREAK TIME - This format makes it look like the GOP has real answers. I am glad that they are not being so rigid about the 60 second answers. This is turning out to be a better debate for the country than I was expecting.
A quick spell check and fix and we will continue after the commercial break.
So they are pulling "Reagan in compromise" video. The difference is that the Democrats in Reagan's day were LBJ/JFK Democrats and the Democrat leadership of today are Alinsky radicals. They got no where with Perry and now they are pushing Romney on "compromise with Democrats" - Washington thinks that "compromise" means that Republicans cave and do what Democrats want - never forget that. How come "Compromise" cannot mean that Democrats come and do what Republicans want?
The "super committee" is a joke and it will be demagogued and is useless and Newt is explaining why. This is a youtube moment.
Bachmann: We spend 40% more than we take in every day. We must cut spending because it is impossible to tax enough to pay for the current levels of spending.
Now Charlie Rose is setting the table up to get the people there to go after Herman Cain with that video. Cain production drives the economy, confidence encourages growth, the 999 plan can be plainly changed with one rate. The reporter saying that people will spend more for bread and beer is just wrong. When you consider all of the inflation that is caused by so many hidden taxes that will be removed under 999 the 999 plan does work out and things will not cost more, in fact they will likely cost less. Cain is right on that point.
Bachmann points out that the 999 plan exposes people to a new tax and that Democrats could later convert that to a value added tax which would be a disaster - and she is correct as that is the Achilles heel of Cain's 999 plan. Bachman says "turn 9 9 9 up side down" - wow.
Huntsman is right about the trade war scenario with China, we need to pressure China but we need to fix our environment at the same time.
Romney: American leaders have been played like a fiddle by the Chinese - that is VERY true. This is an area that Mitt Romney understands very well. I just hope he will follow through if he becomes president.
Perry - we need to be focused on how we will get America working again. I like Perry's common sense approach. We need a governing philosophy, not a magic missile policy.
Santorum warns about the pitfalls of 999 if/when Democrats take power and how they will abuse it. Repeal ObamaCare "Business owner says that he will hire no one till he understands how ObamaCare will hurt him"
Romney says that ObamaCare has to be replaced with something.
Huntsman just cost himself a TON of votes by saying that the ObamaCare mandate wills tay and parts of it will stay as repealing all of it is "unrealistic". That needs to go viral folks. I have not trusted Huntsmann since he misrepresented Reagan's comments at Liberty Island and what he just said about not being able to repeal Obamacare is VERY indicative (I bet he regrets saying that already). Remember that Huntsman worked in the Obama Administration as Ambassador to China.
COMMERCIAL BREAK II
A special hello to my friend Olga Mancuso :)
Bachmann goes after Perry on his former Democrat days - He should be prepared for that. Lets see. Rick Perry used Micheal Reagan to defend himself - BRILLIANT - Perry was ready for the Debt question. Wow great answer. texas went from the 6th lowest debt ration to the second lowest.
Cain to Romney - can you explain to use simply what your 59 point economic plan does?? Cain makes a good point, that the Romney plan maybe too cryptic. The problem with cryptic is that it allows "escape hatches" that we discussed earlier. If you are for 59 things what are you really for, you don't have to say much.
Newt on Obama's class warfare. Newt is going after Romney on individual points of his 59 point plan and that is again another weakness of it.
Huntsman goes after Mitt for the mediocre performance of Massachusetts in job creation when governor. Mitt had inherited a much worse problem with a worse legislature than Huntsman did. So Huntsman's question wasn't exactly fair.
Ron Paul goes after Cain on the Federal Reserve - Cain stays on message very smartly.
Perry goes after ObamneyCare - Perry calls RomneyCare his "signature legislative achievement" - a good backhand indeed. Romney is getting in the weeds of his plan and again this is a weakness of RomneyCare.
Romney asks Bachmann what do you do to get Americans to get back to work "expand on it" - This question is a political calculation. Mitt knows that evangelicals are split between Perry and Bachmann so Mitt is trying to prop her up and divide that vote so the "establishment" can have Romney.
Santorum - question on economic freedom and TARP. Santorum points out that you can't be both for TARP and be pro business and keeping govt out of the economy because it creates an opening that you can drive a truck through. Rick Goes after Cain on TARP. Rick made a valuable point about government intervention in the economy.
Commercial Break III
Spelling errors fixed and ready to go.
Healthcare - Perry says get the states more money to run state Medicaid programs and let the states do more experiments to see what works and what doesn't. Why do we need a federal health care bureaucracy and each state have one as well. It is redundant, confusing, creates conflict, and crushes freedom.
Cain is asked about the Federal Reserve and say that the Federal Reserve must have its mission narrowed and that he has the names of two people in the wings to replace The Bernanke.
Ron Paul is right on about how Greenspan ushered in the mortgage bubble.
Small Business owner asked about how to free up credit and get the govt off the back of small business. Romney says that Frank-Dodd is the wrong bill with hundreds of thousands of pages of regulations, and it was written by the wrong people. Frank and Dodd were two of the worst perps in the economic mess.
Bachmann - Dodd-Frank is the job and small bank destruction act. More consolidation (Do a search on this site on the word "Consolidation" and learn something important after this debate is over).
Ron Paul is right about the need to repeal Sarbanes-Oxley. Well said.
Perry - the Federal govt should not be involved in Solyndra or getting involved in the private sector to such a degree.
Rose shows the video of Bush from his ownership society speech:
Speaker Gingrich: Gingrich goes after Obama/Carter on malaise. Newt - China could not compete with us in 100 years if we got our act together in this country - ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!@!
Cain on the protesters - more of what he has said all week.
Romney - he blasts the Obama Jobs bill as stimulus two, the green jobs boondoggle etc etc. In order to create jobs you need to understand how employers think.
Pinhead reporter tosses Perry the "disparity" question and misrepresents the facts. Perry hits it out of the park. "The reason we have so much poverty is because we have a President who is a job killer"
Rick Santorum - collapse of the family has been its own economic disaster and he is spot on about that and any plan needs to address that.
OK Charlie Rose is asking each person to make a closing statement.
Bachmann - the best solutions are the ones that are closest to home. We don't need big government.
Cain - I was po before I was poor. I know hat that means, we need to work the right problems, with the right priority and have the right people work on them and we need a bold plan.
Newt - We all have a sense of the pain level in the economy and the people want to know how we are going to salve it.
Ron Paul - If you care about people you need to restore liberty in America.
Santorum - when manufacturing left the middle class started to leave as well. We need to produce and have income mobility.
Huntsman - I participated in a family business and had a low unemployment state.
Perry - Son of farmers and a military veteran and governor. I have the CEO experience and work with the private sector to create the jobs and make America, America again.
Romney - We need leadership that believes in America. A strong defense is critical.
Debate over. You are welcome to add your thoughts. I thought that this debate did more for the Republican ticket than any other so far.
Perry need to come on stronger in the next debate if he wants to stay in this. Santrorun and Bachmann are right that Cain does show niavete in some areas and that is a problem. Mitt looked great but I am not a fan of escape hatch language.
UPDATE -
I am watching Bloomberg TV/Washington Post joke of fact-checking. They are using CBO numbers to defend ObamaCare. The CBO uses static analyses which never works and the CBO uses the assumptions that the party in power asks them to make. Even Obama's own Medicare Actuary said that the CBO analysis was wrong.