President Barack Obama just finished watching the Iowa GOP debate on ABC. You wouldn't blame him for bawling out, not with the competition he has to face next November. If the current selection of brain trusts are any indication, this will be an easy walk for him. The only thing he really has to fear is if the dumbasses from the "Professional Left"/Emoprog/Villager contingent decide to primary him with a "purer" candidate. That has the potential of effectively splitting the vote between Village-minded Dems and fencesitters and everyone else, allowing the GOP candidate to waltz in with no trouble whatsoever.
The biggest gaffe of the night?
Perry had accused Romney of altering a paperback version of his book to delete a line that had Romney wanting to make his Massachusetts healthcare plan a model for the rest of the nation, suggesting that Romney is a champion of an individual mandate to force people to purchase health insurance.Perry might be lying when he says he's not in the betting business, but at least he's smart enough to realize than when you're pandering to the small-town 99%, you have to look and play the part at all times.
Romney said that wasn’t true.
“I'll tell you what. 10,000 bucks? Ten-thousand-dollar bet?” Romney said.
“I’m not in the betting business,” Perry replied.
By the way, $10,000 represents at least four months of an average U.S. citizen's yearly salary. Not something you want to be tossing around when the rest of the country's in economic turmoil. Seeing Romney proffer that bet was as big of a "let em eat cake" moment as any.
Aside from that, the GOP debates had all the usual. Gingrich continued to push child labor as America's solution to its economic woes, called Palestinians "an invented people," broadsides Romney by saying he would have been a career politician if he was able to beat Ted Kennedy in 1994 and locked horns with Ron Paul over Gingrich's own connections to Freddie Mac. Santorum begs to be Gingrich's VP, only to see the honor go to Rick Perry. And what was Rick Perry doing? Being Rick Perry. Bachmann claims to have spent 50 years in the private sector, but if she's 55 years old.....hmmm....perhaps she was one of those poor inner-city child janitors Gingrich keeps trying to hire.
All the candidates tried playing up the "we grew up poor" angle, but it didn't work. At least Santorum admitted he was born into some rather middle-class trappings. And not a single one has any idea of what its really like to be poor.
In other words, the debates turned out exactly as anyone would have expected them to. Zero substance, plenty of empty calories. People would have been better off weaving baskets than watching the debates, but at least people got to see exactly how unfit these candidates are for the presidency. That has to count for something.
Oh, and Herm wasn't there. His campaign's in shambles after pimping one too many white women, but he would have added some well-needed...."colour"....to the debate, if you get my drift. As one Tweeter mentioned, there were only two or three black folks in the entire audience, and they were all sitting together. A great metaphor for America, if anything.
