Thoughts on Iowa debate

The loser was clearly the moderator. What was Alan Keyes doing there? But I thought that Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, and Fred Thompson did well. Interestingly, CNN and Fox both had dial focus groups. CNN had a Huckabee clip that he performed well on. Fox had Romney and Thompson. Probably Read more…

CBS gets Republicans on the record on global warming

CBS News has been running an interesting series called "Primary Questions." They ask the candidates a variety of policy and personal questions. Sometimes this format seems closer to what we’d like from a debate in terms of clarifying policy differences. However, it doesn’t always result in the nice contrasting sound-bites that you might otherwise get.

  Giuliani Huckabee McCain Romney Thompson
Human caused yes yes? yes yes maybe 
Cap-and-trade   yes yes    
Nuclear yes   yes  yes  
Must solve globally       yes

Tonight, the candidates are answering the question: "Do you think the risks of climate change are at all overblown?" I have discussed the real-world politics (what real people actually think) and some of the beltway politics of the issue. It is clear in New Hampshire, at least, that Republicans think that global warming is an issue that the government must act on, even if it is one that is a low-priority for primary voters.

In the end,  as I have said, I think that this is an issue that is more important as a credibility issue than a ballot issue. Very few people are going to vote on the specifics of plans on global warming. But people, including Republicans, are increasingly seeing this as an issue that candidates need to have a credible position on to be a credible candidate. Anecdotally, it seems clear to me that this is something that is important to a number of Evangelical and Catholic groups.

I have summarized the responses in a table. I think it is revealing.

The main proposal on the table is cap-and-trade. Greg Mankiw, a Romney economic advisor and a former Bush Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors has a very cogent criticism of cap-and-trade, but calls for carbon taxes instead.  The quotes from the candidates are after the jump. (more…)

A brokered convention?

My friend David Freddoso asks about the possibility of a brokered convention. What do we think of this? The first thing that I think is that a brokered convention would be very difficult for us. The biggest issue is fundraising. I don’t think that the party will be able to Read more…

State of the race

There’s a lot of uncertainty in the race right now. The biggests questions are probably: First, will there be a Mitt Romney-Rudy Giuliani murder-suicide? Luntz focus groups suggest that Romney might have done better on immigration in the debate. Second, will Giuliani’s scandals continue? There’s Placa, Shag Fund, and others. Read more…

Thoughts on the debate

I didn’t get the chance to live-blog this, but I did take notes. There were some great moments. Rudy Giuliani’s slap of Romney with "sanctuary mansion" was outstanding. Mike Huckabee’s handling of the death penalty question was masterful.  The complexity of his answer to the literalism of the Bible question Read more…

Christian right endorsements flow

It has been a pretty remarkable two days in terms of endorsements: Yesterday, Mitt Romney got Paul Weyrich. Weyrich had been rumored to be going with Fred Thompson, but not so much… And he said Mike Huckabee couldn’t win. This is certainly a DC-insider endorsement. Today, Rudy Giuliani got Pat Read more…

What is the Paul bomb?

The Ron Paul money bomb is amazing. On a certain level though, it makes a lot of sense.  I’m about to make a totally obvious point: Ron Paul’s support is a protest vote. There are a lot of Republicans right now who are really angry. Republicans are furious with their Read more…