Live Blog of the (10/18) GOP Debate!

Hello all, this is my first time doing this. I hope you all enjoy it. There’s been a minor change of plans. I’ve mangled my whole preview idea. Now, the previews of Ron Paul/Rick Perry and Mitt Romney/Rick Santorum will appear here on Thursday and Friday, respectively. So, if you’re keeping track at home, you’ve gotten (or will get) a 1/2 a preview, a review/live blog of the event, and then the other half of the preview for said event. Ugh, I’m trying. I’m just so bad with dates. I think I’m a couple of years from forgetting my own birthday. On to the debate, coming to you from Las Vegas.

8:00 PM: Occupy Las Vegas is outside the pre-show, chanting, drowning out the talking heads, the night is looking up.

8:02: Wondering how long till the first Occupy Wall Street question.

8:03: Just 7 candidates tonight, Huntsman is out (no reason given). Maybe he thought it was Thursday like I did.

8:05: Crowd gives the Magnificent Seven a standing ovation. And, they move into the National Anthem. What the hell?!?! This isn’t a football game.

8:06: No military flyover inside the auditorium

8:08: Santorum slips in a mention of his 7 children during intros. I think the kids are props (more on this in Friday’s post).

8:09: They span the crowd and Wayne Newton is in the building! He looks like a Madame Tussauds wax statue at this point, loads of makeup. Wait, there’s a Madame Tussauds in Vegas, that might be the statue.

8:12: Cain’s 9-9-9 plan gets attacked out the gate. Santorum states that it will raise taxes on 84% of the population (that’s actually true). See you Herman, it’s been fun.

8:15: Bachmann sounding like a normal human being on the 9-9-9 plan. She used to be an IRS tax attorney.

8:16: Perry drops his first letter “g” off of a word. The winning word was “fixin”. (re: the economy)

8:18 Ron Paul comes out for a 0% federal income tax rate, no word on how roads and stuff will be paid for. Maybe we can drive our cars on our freedom from taxation? Who knows, he’s old.

8:20: Romney comes out for a lower corporate income tax. He’s banking on people not knowing that 68% of corporations don’t pay them anyway.

8:22: Newt’s up and he’s for lower corporate taxes too (see above).

8:23: Bachmann is for raising taxes on the working poor, saying they should pay something. Ignoring the fact they pay state/local taxes, payroll, and sales taxes. And, it’s of course, a higher percentage of their income.

8:24: Bachmann gets the first “Obamacare” (OC) reference in tonight. It’s usually her.
 
8:26-8:29: Romney gets the 2nd OC reference in, Santorum hits back, saying that OC was based on Romney’s health care bill in Massachusetts (this is actually true). Now they’re arguing, nice. The health care bills will be addressed in Friday’s post.

8:30: Whoa, Santorum hits back with a “RomneyCare” (RC) reference and slipped an OC reference in the same sentence. Double talking point win! And, I think you have to take a shot, if you’re playing the GOP/health care drinking game at home.

8:31: Oh no! They pulled Anderson Cooper (AC) in. He just said “OC."

8:32: These things take forever to go to a commercial. Shut up guys, need a bathroom break here.

8:33: Newt and Mitt fighting. Wow, Newt slips in a “HillaryCare” (Clinton’s 90′s health care plan) reference. These f’ers have nicknames for everything.

8:34: Bachmann comes out for repeal of ObamaCare (dammit now they’ve got me saying it), crowd cheers. The Republicans want the freedom to die without health insurance.

8:35: Thank god or Ronald Reagan. Commercial!!  BRB

8:38: AC with 2 more OC references (I should have put an abbreviation guide in this). CNN really sucks. Ron Paul also joins the OC bandwagon.

8:39: Cain joins the OC bandwagon. Everyone in the pool, the water’s fine!

8:41: Perry attacks Romney on him hiring illegal immigrants for house work, more arguing, Romney dickish-ly says, “it’s been a couple of tough debates for Rick.” The best show on TV.

8:43: Romney hits back on Texas giving illegal immigrants in-state tuition rates for colleges (that’s actually true). Romney is in full rich guy, douchebag mode here.

8:45: Cain wants a 2,000 mile, electrified fence on the Texas-Mexico border, to either keep us in or the Mexicans out. But, if one these squids win, that fence will be keeping us in. It will be a reverse run for the border.

8:47: Perry wants drones to keep out the Mexicans, who will do the jobs we won’t do? He probably didn’t think it that far through.

8:49: Bachmann comes out for English as the country’s official language. That’s strange, I kinda thought it was already. Idiots applaud.

8:51: Perry tries to bring up Mitt’s illegal immigrant worker issue, crowd has moved on, boos Perry. Goodbye Rick.. I’ll be able to sleep knowing there won’t be another Texas governor in the White House for a while.

8:55: 55 minutes in, no mention of war, Wall Street, or taxes. There has been about 50 ObamaCare references and 30 references to a big fence. Priorities.

8:58: There’s been a lot of talk about Mexicans coming in, no mention of our sneaky neighbors to the North.

9:00: Ron Paul makes the first anti-war comment, took an hour, but we’re at the big stuff.

9:02: If Droopy Dog were a human, I think he would look like Ron Paul.

9:03: Rick Perry drops a George Bush-esque “nucular” (re: energy. not blowing up another country)

9:09: First Occupy Wall Street (OWS) question. Cain stands by his “lay off Wall Street” comments from a few days ago. Crowd cheers. It’s the Twilight Zone.

9:10: OWS question comes to Ron Paul, he looks like he was dozing a bit just before (he’s 76). Might be pass his bedtime. Get him some warm milk during the next commercial.

9:11 36 minutes since the last commercial. This is grueling.

9:13: Mitt dodges his flip-flop on the OWS protests, true to form (will be addressed in Friday’s post)
9:14: Lord Ronald Reagan (I’m figuring this is who Repubs pray to) has blessed me with another commercial break.

9:21: Newt’s going on about morality and faith. I think he should wear multiple wedding rings, like the “Big Love” guy.

9:28: Another question to Ron Paul, looks as though it wakes him up. But, he does speak about military cuts, ending wars, etc (will be addressed Thursday, I’m with him on this)

9:32: Santorum doesn’t want to cut “one penny” from defense. Time for facts: The US spends more than the other top 20 countries, in military spending, combined. So, you could probably find a few pennies.

9:34: Question from the audience: person wants a stop to all foreign aid. More facts, foreign aid is about 1.5% of the budget, defense is about 15%. So, we can cut foreign aid, but not one penny from defense, seems reasonable.

9:35-9:45: More bickering, another commercial, blah, blah, blah, Obamacare, low taxes, blah, blah, Romneycare…I’m getting tired. It’s all starting to sound the same.

9:52: Another standing ovation. Who knows why? Maybe they’re just happy its over.
No clear winner tonight. Clear loser: the American people

See you soon,
James

Relive the Crazy! Live Tweets of the GOP Debate!

Hello to all, my self-imposed writing moratorium did not last long. I skipped my soccer game and tweeted throughout the GOP debate. Like I always say, it’s my favorite TV show. Here is the list of my tweets as I did them, including responses to people who wrote to me, and re-tweets (RT) of things I thought were funny along the way (and the tweets that aren’t mine, will be noted). And, my Twitter feed is at the bottom of the blog as well, you can see nothing was embellished here. Any items in bold, were added afterward for re-tweets/reference/clarity.

If you didn’t see it, the major happenings were: the moderator getting booed for asking Cain about his sexual harassment cases, Rick Perry said he wanted to eliminate 3 government programs and forgot the 3rd when he tried to list them. He included the word, “oops”, in his response and people on the stage tried to help him. Cringe-worthy stuff, here’s the video (Perry gets going at the 1:10 mark and “oops” is at about the 2:00 mark). For some reason, Cain referred to Democratic Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, as “Princess Nancy.”  Without further ado, here are my thoughts as they happened:

- Ron Paul always looks like he’s wearing a suit that’s too big for him.

- Michigan citizens just cheered for Romney being against MI auto-bailouts. #twilightzone

- How is Romney selling the “I’m consistent” line, based on his marriage? & he still flubs the line. (See my Romney preview, for his flip-flops on issues)

- Its pretty Pavlovian how RW-ers (right-wingers) clap for every line, even that mush Perry just said (before his “oops” line). #cnbcdebate 

- Shorter Santorum: picking winners in manufacturing ok, in green energy: not so much #cnbcdebate

- (me, responding to a Twitter friend) what?! This is the best show on TV! I can’t get enough.

-Shorter RW-ers: we don’t care if our guy assaults women.. You’re guy does it (I meant Clinton here) = impeachment #cnbcdebate

- Milton Friedman is the Republican $$ version of Ronald Reagan. #cnbcdebate

- (responding to a friend) I think I’m not gonna blog. I’ve been writing so much, no one can keep up. (What can I say? I’m a liar)

- I’m guessing boos will come for Paul, not sure why..his ideas may not jive w/ the $$$ crowd.

- I’m sure Paul has fallen asleep by now (he’s the old one, they didn’t ask him anything for a while). #cnbcdebate 

- Shorter Bachmann: Obama has no jobs guy, while she speaks on Immelt’s network (whoops). (Jeff Immelt is Obama’s jobs czar and CEO of General Electric, parent company of CNBC)

- I’m sure we’ll get balanced advice from all the CEOs, about what to do about the economy. (This was after CNBC went to commercial w/ 3 CEO’s asking questions.)

- It doesn’t take much to get RW-ers to clap. (forgot what happened here, I think a rambling answer from Perry)

- Oh the irony, a bunch of people in Michigan, cheering for a lack of regs + free mkt. #cnbcdebate

- Asian markets have to be selling off, if this is on all CNBC stations. #cnbcdebate

- (RT) #CNBCDebate Cramer: Henry Ford paid his workers 3 times the average wage so they could afford to buy cars. Newt is a liar.

- (RT) Well, I have an idea what Herman Cain would do with Fannie (Fannie Mae, govt housing agency). If she was wearing a skirt. #cnbcdebate

- Shorter debate crowd: White person and/or token black guy says anything = applause. Questions about harassment= boos #cnbcdebate

- That’s it, I’m starting a Kickstarter acct, to get Ron Paul a tailor. Those baggy suits are killing me. (Ron Paul really wears baggy suits each debate, keep an eye for it next time)

- Why don’t you explain 17% of the economy in 30 seconds? Reasonable. (during the healthcare portion)

-Shorter GOP (re: healthcare): Repeal, Obamacare, states, tort reform, state lines

- Leesman (CNBC’s Economic’s Expert) made a deficit funny! It’s funny b/c we’ll be like Greece. Blerg.

- I have to admit, I do love the “coming out of commercial music.”

- (RT) Fanny Mae & Freddy bad, Obama care bad, repeal everything, no regulations, no taxes, free market oh & #Cain can grope all women

- Santorum trying to sound like a normal human being, too bad he’s an evil bigot (see my preview for his anti-gay ideas)

- I miss drunk, high, maple syrup #Perry.  (see the Perry video in my “Linked In” post)

- OMG, I spoke too soon on Perry. (This was the Perry “oops” moment and it turned me into a valley girl. Sorry.)

- Did Perry have a labotomy during the commercial break? #cnbcdebate

- Perry has to drop out by the next break! #cnbcdebate

- (responding to a friend) hey!! Are u watching this clusterf###?

- lets get “oops” trending…my god, this is unbelievable #cnbcdebate

- (responding to a friend) you’re prob right. You can follow the tweets w/o losing the IQ points. (she wasn’t watching it live)

- Maybe Perry’s notes had “oops” written on it? I’m stumped.

- They should make a special arrangement for Perry to give his exit speech tonight. #cnbcdebate

- And, how does Perry forget the Dept of Energy (it was the 3rd agency he forgot, leading to the oops moment)? He’s a TX oil-whore. My $$ was on him forgetting education. #cnbcdebate

- (RT) Rick Perry = Texas Toast #cnbcdebate

- Thanks to Stephen Colbert, when I see Newt I think of mashed potatoes. #cnbcdebate

- (RT) Noted: GOP debate audiences boo gay troops, cheer for letting the uninsured die and Cain feeling on folks in his car. #CNBCdebate

- Cain = over matched. He can only survive Fox debates. (Finance stuff was a bit much for the Cain train)

- I wish I did the drugs Perry did in college. (I was still in shock from the “oops” moment)

- Is crony capitalism, really capitalism? #cnbcdebate

- (From Pres. Obama’s Twitter account) “Obamacare” and “repeal” are tied for most mentions at the second commercial break. How are your predictions holding up?

- (someone wrote me about my Perry/drugs comment) haha, i’m an optimist, I like to think he’s clean while in office. & we’re seeing the damage he did back then, now.

- (same as above) I think college me wants what college Perry had. He must’ve been doing some serious stuff I couldn’t handle now.

- (RT) Cain’s a chauvinist & a prick, duh. He doesn’t have his wife on the campaign trail because he wants to keep his options open #princessnancy

I hope you enjoyed this. And, I hope it reads well. Counting my intro, this post is still over 1,000 words. And, I did all that tweeting on my phone. So, I’m sure some weird phone-caused carpal tunnel syndrome is in my future.

See you next time,
James