By: Martin Rand, III
Date: Ocotber 19, 2011
Last night, I watched the GOP presidential candidates debate in Las Vegas. Some candidates did better than others; but overall, I wasn't impressed much. I don't feel like there was a clear-cut winner, but I did have my favorite candidate. I'll break down each candidate's performance.
Rick Perry
He was the leading candidate for the nomination coming into the debate. Although, after watching last night, I don't know why. He was ducking and dodging questions like Neo in "The Matrix" dodging bullets. It seemed like he was more concerned about bashing President Barack Obama and his fellow GOP candidates than putting forth anything positive for himself. He was doing a lot of back-tracking and covering up his past decisions as well.
Herman Cain
The debate started off with everyone taking shots at his 9-9-9 plan. He tried to defend it; but all he kept saying was look at his statics, not anyone else's, and you'll see why his plan would work. Usually, when a lot people say something won't work, it probably won't; but his determination in defending it would make a lot of people like him. He had more fight and charisma than any other man up there. While his plan and some of the things he said were off the wall (like poor and unemployed people have their self to blame for their situation), it's all about how well you can sway the crowd.
Mitt Romney
This is the candidate whose Mormon faith was brought up two weeks ago by a supporter of Perry. Once again, it was brought up here as well, much to my chagrin. But, the one conclusion I have about him from the debate, he's a punk. I don't even know how many times the other candidates cut him off while he was speaking and didn't get his full 30 seconds of answer time. He just let them do it; and when he tried to cut them off, they wouldn't let him. He was just too nice. He's like the high-school boy who tries to ask out the popular girl in a very courteous way, but still gets turned down because he was just too nice.
Newt Gingrich
I don't have much to say about him. Only because he didn't say much during the debate. He was definitely a loser last night. He gave a few answers but didn't last long in the spotlight.
Michele Bachmann
Earlier, I said Cain had more fight than any other man on stage. Well, Michele Bachmann is not a man and she had more fight than anyone on stage. Her answers were definite and truly stood by them. However, I didn't like a lot of her answers. She kept talking about Ronald Reagan's policies and how President Obama is to blame for everything wrong with the country. I couldn't agree with anything she was saying really; but, like Cain, she made people listen and answered all the questions with what she felt was true, no matter how wrong she really was.
Ron Paul
This was my favorite candidate. I agreed with a lot of his answers and he just made sense on a lot of issues. He said things like cut military spending and told Bachmann the realities about Reagan and not the myth. He seemed like a person who does things for the people and not for the select few rich ones. Well, I guess that is what a republican used to be. However, he also came across as this cooky elderly man. He was the smallest one up there and he kept bobbing and moving around while he answered every question. It's like he wanted to show the crowd he still had a little bit of youth left in him. Nonetheless, he gave the best answers.
Rick Santorum
I had no clue who this guy was, but I was loving everything he was saying. Not because he was talking about any of his own policies, but because he was calling people out on their former policies. Remember the back-tracking I mentioned Perry doing, this guy was the reason. As a matter of fact, he called out Romney and Cain and cause them to flip-flop on some of their previous decisions. Like I said, he didn't bring anything new to the table; but he was definitely trying to take what Cain, Perry and Romney had off of it.
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