Wednesday Night's Republican Debate - Ack, Cough, Tears.

So how many folks watched the Republican CNN/You-tube debate Wednesday night?

*Here’s where 1 out of 10 people raise their hand*

Not to worry; Take it from me - it was disappointing, disappointing. First off, the debate was premised on voters submitting questions in 30-second you tube clips. Obviously intended to shake things up and bring a smidge of creativity to the debate format but as far as I’m concerned - where time is of the essence and debate time is limited to only two hours – listening to youtube clips that included personal introductions and even background overviews is a significant waste of my viewer time. If you submitted a question, I don’t care to know who you are, how many kids you have or where you live. Just ask the question.

I also think that the questions should have been a mix of voter submitted and panel submitted questions.

Second, each of the candidates were asked to put together 30-second spots which ran throughout the two hour debate. Now really, do we need to see more campaign advertisements? What's the point? Campaign spots have no business being aired during debate time. That’s 30 seconds for 8 candidates which is the equivalent of between 5 and 8 additional questions.

Two thumbs down.

After the last two debates and in particular, that of Wednesday night, here’s where I stand with some of the 8 candidates

Ron Paul: Wow. Where do I even begin? This nut is a joke as a presidential candidate and, for me personally, a disgrace to the Republican party. His delivery makes me want to change the channel and his politics make me want to boot him off the podium. Any presidential candidate who believes that pulling troops out of Iraq will resolve our threats of terrorism and the relationship we have with radicals in Afghanistan and Iraq – is not only seriously deluded but if he were to ever to make it to the White House his politics and wounded sense of reality would pose a serious threat to the safety of this country. To Ron Paul – do the right thing; Get off the podium and go home.

Rudy Giuliani: Overall I think he had the strongest “performance”. He answered questions well and spoke well, got in a few crowd chuckles and somehow managed to shake-off those ominous overtones that seemed to follow him on the campaign trail.

Mitt Romney: Romney was the guy to upstage on Wednesday and clearly his politics and changing position on key issues was a target for many of the other candidates. He handled questions well in the beginning but eventually his holier-than-thou, back-off attitude was a real showstopper for me – not that I ever really liked his politics to begin with anyway. On his changed pro-choice position, I felt he defended himself well however it seemed that he spent much “too much” time defending himself and his accomplishments as governor during the latter half of the debate. He failed to come across as charismatic and confident but rather as a candidate on edge and on the defensive. Fortunately for him he’s not too bad to look at so his antics were more bearable than they had any right to be.

Fred Thompson: great on TV and perhaps even an occasional doer in the senate but he has no business running for president. I was overly underwhelmed by his attitude and responses Wednesday night and I think he lost a lot of supporters. Too add, his 30 second spot attacking Huckabee and Romney showed the limits of his presidential potential.

Mike Huckabee: clean conservative credentials and quickly moving up the list in my opinion. He gives the illusion of being informed, calm, rational, and of a man who plays offense, not defense. And let’s face it illusion is half the trick. He answers clearly, and directly to the questions asked and he does it with a calm but firm demeanor showing that even a conservative can yield Clinton-esque charm; Bill Clinton that is. I don’t agree with all of his politics and I don’t agree with giving sons and daughters of illegals even a glimpse of opportunity at winning college scholarships but he seems to have the creditability and compassion necessary for today’s heavy political dealings. His experience may not get him to the big seat but I think a number of candidates will put him at the top of their VP-list.

Duncan Hunter and Tom Tancredo: they seem like good folk but like Ron Paul I think it’s time they do the right thing and follow in the footsteps of Sam Brownback. They both need to bow out and go home.

John McCain: a very strong performance but not enough to saddle Giuliani. He “mostly” answered the questions that were asked but too often he went off-topic and too often he just rambled on and on and on, completely disregarding the moderator’s attempts to wrap things up. Yikes.

All in all, a big win for Giuliani and Huckabee, no gain for Tancredo, McCain, or Hunter, and a loss for Romney, Paul and Thompson. And not a good day for Republicans in general.