The Political Whore

For the multimedia-inclined, I appeared on Studio 10 this morning to discuss the debate last night, and here’s the link (they usually post the video later in the afternoon).

Overall, however, here’s some conclusions:

• The YouTube debate format was much livelier, much more productive and much more damaging to the Republican Party than the first one, which featured the Democrats. Gone were the goofy snowmen and the lack of probing followups. In their place were lingering and multiple questions on single issues that are tough for the GOP in a general election (immigration went on for nearly a half-hour, or about 25 percent of the debate time). In that sense, CNN was a winner …
• Until we found out late in the night that the pioneering cable news channel screwed up in not vetting the gay general properly to find out he was connected to the Hillary Clinton campaign. CNN’s statement on the matter:
  

  Following the debate, CNN learned that retired brigadier general Keith Kerr served on Clinton’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender steering committee.

  CNN Senior Vice President and Executive Producer of the debate, David Bohrman, says, “We regret this incident. CNN would not have used the General’s question had we known that he was connected to any presidential candidate.”

  Prior to the debate, CNN had verified his military background and that he had not contributed any money to any presidential candidate.

  Following the debate, Kerr told CNN that he’s done no work for the Clinton campaign. He says he is a member of the Log Cabin Republicans and was representing no one other than himself.

  So in that sense, CNN was a loser.

• Hillary Clinton lost because even if she had nothing to do with planting the general’s question she will be blamed and it plays into the narrative about her trying to control the election process unduly.
• Mike Huckabee won the Florida Chamber instant poll afterward and showed that he belongs in the top tier. He fended off attacks and wasn’t exposed as a likely theocon, press-hatin’, rapist-freein’ danger. He has real charisma; being near him in the Spin Room after the debate was the closest you felt to real political power, it was palpable around him. He’s funny, bright and all those things, and several friends who are liberal said they really liked his performance. Mike Huckabee won.
• Ron Paul was comic relief.
• Fred Thompson initially looked great, very presidential and above the Giuliani-Romney fray on immigration. But then Fred got tired and got less and less screen time, it seemed. Fred Thompson did well, but not well enough to climb out of his tailspin.
• Anderson Cooper was brilliant, letting the fights go on when they needed to, not cutting to commercial to give time for a response to a video, and pushing Mitt hard, two or three times, on the question of whether he looks forward to a day when the nation is ready for gays in the military. Cooper was a big winner.
• Rudy Giuliani must’ve been back on his heels from the start as the pre-debate news focused on the politico.com revelation that extra security costs during a time he took trips to visit his mistress had been tucked away in several obscure city department budgets. Then Rudy came out swinging with an attack against Mitt’s hiring of illegal immigrants while governor and there seemed to be a gasp from the crowd initially. Not sure he looked good making the attack, and Romney fended it well except he never got to give his full explanation of how it happened. Overall, Rudy lost but not enough to challenge his national front-runner status.
• Mitt Romney gave and got all night long. On the upside, it was clear the race is really between him and Rudy. On the downside, he continues to look plastic. On the upside, Rudy didn’t do anything to him that will slow him down in Iowa and NH. On the downside, Mike Huckabee is doing that for Rudy. On the whole, it was a draw for Romney.
• No Florida-related questions, nothing on hurricane coverage, nothing on the environment. Downtown was dead after the event; even the protests were small and ineffective at denting the GOP message. Florida was a loser.

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