Iraq

Romney says NO – he hasn’t supported timetables and says that McCain saying he had was unfair – and draws heavy applause.

McCain makes a good point that he was for the surge the whole time and contrasts it with Romney not weighing in because he was a governor. McCain does have a better record on standing firm on his positions, and the surge does seem to be working.

Now they’re going at it over specific quotes – did Romney say he supported timetables or not? Cooper comes through for us and reads the actual quote – “timetables and milestones”. My interpretation is that he meant timetables for progress. If he didn’t mean that he wouldn’t have added the word milestones. That doesn’t suggest that he meant it as a timetable for getting out. Incidentally, Romney keeps getting applause, with none for McCain so far.

It does seem slightly disturbing that Romney wouldn’t take a position, but I think we’d have to look at what other governors said at the time to ascertain fully.

Ron Paul TEES OFF on the Iraq question, saying that Romney and McCain are having a “silly argument” over technicalities. Republicans shouldn’t be the party of policing the world, the were elected to stop Korea and Vietnam, etc. He ties it in to the crashing dollar nicely as he always does. Most Repulicans won’t, but I think that he makes a lot of sense and did a good job of portraying himself as above the squabbling with a much more sensible policy that actually follows the constitution. He also draws heavy applause from his fanatical supporters as usual.

Immigration

Everyone basically says the same thing - secure the border, deport those who are here illegally, etc.

But NO ONE says how we are going to pay for it. Romney just explained how he would deport basically everyone (just with different timetables) but that’s a ton of people. The question, which he never really answered, is HOW. How are we going to round up everyone that’s here illegally and deport them without seeking deeper and deeper into debt? Answer – we can’t. Unless maybe we privatize the whole operation, which we all know will never happen since the dems will dismiss it offhand, whether its a good idea or not.

McCain wouldn’t give a straight answer on whether or not he would vote for his earlier plan, saying that it wouldn’t get voted on. The question was if it did would he vote for it, and he never answered. Apparently he’s learned that we have to secure the border first, but what would he do after that?

The whole issue isn’t that important anyway – it’s true that we should secure the border to stop terrorists from getting in, but balancing our budget is far more important so that we don’t economically collapse. Another thing no one wants to talk about is what effect deporting all illegals would have on our economy.  After all, they do provide a lot of low-wage jobs – would companies collapse if they were removed? Would prices drastically rise?

Socialist Huck!

The moderator pointed out that Huck’s plan to widen I-95 to stimulate the economy is “a big-government project we usually associate with Democrats.” That is NOT the way to stimulate the economy. He did have a good point that the rebates might help China more than us – but to build that highway we’d have to print and use more government money, further weakening the dollar anyway.

Amazing literally right after I finished typing that Ron Paul said that EXACTLY! This man understands economics.

Romney Wins a Round

After a bout of fighting over endorsements, Romney turns McCain’s slightly inaccurate citing of his lieutenant governor’s endorsement into a plug for his record. He explained that it was his predecessor, Jane Swift, who had endosed McCain, while Kerry Healey, Romney’s lieutenant governor, is on Romney’s side. Then he attacked Swift and reminded everyone that he created jobs while she lost them, and went into his standard spiel about erasing a deficit. Score one for Romney.

McCain gets in a good line a little later – “France now has a pro-American president, which shows that if you live long enough, anything can happen”

 Huckabee also invents a new word – “conservativeism”

Liveblogging the Republican Debate

I will be liveblogging the CNN/Politico Republican debate – currently on CNN.

I like the background – Air Force One is a great reminder of the stakes. Besides the candidates, THE GOVERNATOR is there too. After McCain’s Florida victory Romney should be extremely aggresive if he wants to have any kind of chance, so it should be a good watch.

Welcome

Welcome to The Mainstream Fringe! This is a blog aimed at interesting and illuminating disucussion, mainly of politics but also of other things from time to time. As the title suggests, the posts will be from the Mainstream Fringe – encompassing all aspects of the political spectrum. Full disclosure: I am not completely unbiased, as no one is. I generally lean towards conservative positions of small government and free markets, but I like to think that I am open to all political views. I will not promise that this blog will deliver unbiased news – it would be no fun if it did – but i will try to take each issue and news item on its own and form an opinion of it based on what makes sense to me, not what makes sense to any political party.

So sit back and enjoy the dispatches from the Mainstream Fringe!