The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : The Debate, Last Segment

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Entering the home stretch, King surprised Pawlenty by offering him an opportunity to throw Sarah Palin under the bus by comparing her to Biden. After initial shock, Pawlenty offered a strong criticism of Biden and cautious but generous praise of Palin.

Paul won this round -- on who he'd choose for a runningmate: "I haven't even asked them what they think of the Federal Reserve!"

And that wrapped it up. I'll leave the serious analysis up to Jim Antle, but a few thoughts:

Herman Cain was the biggest loser in the sense that he had the opportunity to establish himself as a serious player during the debate. Unfortunately, King's questions didn't play into Cain's strengths, and he didn't do what he needed to otherwise.

Romney was the biggest winner, in the sense that the others refrained from joining in attacking him on his health care plan, his past stances on abortion, etc. As the frontrunner, all he needed to do was to survive, and he did more than that.

Bachmann impressed. She showed the most polish and best right-wing rhetoric of anyone on the stage.

The debate format left something to be desired. The candidates spent more time talking about the space program than they did Iraq or Afghanistan. It has to be noted, though, that this was largely because of Gingrich's incredible competency on this issue. Remarkably, Gingrich was able to wax on about the space program and never had to address the mass quitting of his staff last week.

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

W| 6.13.11 @ 10:25PM

Any of them will be a major improvement over obama.

Nobama| 6.14.11 @ 12:27AM

That's what Romney said. It's the kind of reasoning that gets you someone like Romney rather than holding out for someone GOOD to enter the race. It's what you have to say when you have seven losers to pick from and you're trying to talk yourself into settling for "not Obama".

Palin is waiting for the right moment. No need to set standards so low that Romney starts to look acceptable.

Mimi| 6.13.11 @ 10:32PM

I was impressed.....by all of the candidates...No teleprompter . They did fantastic gettin out the Conservative message as a group!

Michael L. Hauschild| 6.13.11 @ 10:44PM

There is a Bachmann for President header over on the Drudge Report, it appeared as soon as she announced.

Bob| 6.13.11 @ 11:04PM

This was absolutely pathetic. 6 dorks and one dorkette. The Jersey fat man should have been there if the stage could hold him. At least he has more substance to him in more ways then none over this bunch of palookas.

Bob Grant| 6.13.11 @ 11:15PM

Just remember. Any one of these "dorks" would be a vast improvement over what is currently infesting he whitehouse.

victor| 6.14.11 @ 2:51AM

This wouldn't be 3/5ths Bob, would it?

Red Phillips| 6.13.11 @ 11:50PM

Few things separate the conservative men from the boys better than NASA. While you could make an argument that military space applications are constitutional, space exploration for space exploration's sake IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL. Newt revealed his true character as a "futurist," not a conservative, with his babbling about NASA.

ruandelin| 6.14.11 @ 1:49AM

Chang jing

ruandelin| 6.14.11 @ 1:49AM

Changjing

victor| 6.14.11 @ 2:55AM

One of them, as I blurted it out to my wife, should have replied to Stutterin' John's question about a running mate:
I'm the President?
I'll appoint them all.
Who are you, a liberal, to tell me otherwise.

Hector| 6.14.11 @ 6:31AM

Thanks for the reports. Just a small request: if you make a statement like "best right wing rhetoric" with reference to someone, could you follow up with a line or two? Elementary journalism, you know. We can rant about MSM, but then we better do better.

somnolence| 6.14.11 @ 10:02AM

The N.J. "fat man" goes over well in SOME segments of the N.E. population, and even in Iowa he has a fan club. But it is a safe bet that overall his candidacy, like that of Rudy Giuliani, is a non-starter overall in the heartland of America. There are pages and pages of his actions as N.J. Governor pointing out his allegiance to big government. The property taxes in the Garden State haven't been alleviated by his presence during this period of economic doldrums. Unless Palin stays out of the race, I'm now betting on Bachmann to be the nominee.