|
Fred Wins, Iowa Loses
Why Carolyn Washburn should keep her day job. by Dean Barnett THE WINNER was Fred Thompson. Fred came to play. He also had the obvious moment of the day when he took on the officious moderator, refusing to go along with one of those idiotic "raise your hands" questions. Given the hour that the debate took place, a lot of people will probably see only a highlight package of the debate. The unquestioned highlight was Fred slapping down the moderator. Even putting that aside, Fred had his best day of the campaign. He was serious, thoughtful, and authoritative. It was a wonderful day for him. THE SILVER MEDALIST was Mitt Romney. Romney continued his fine run. Actually, the overly dry format played to his advantage. His wonkiness shines through on virtually every issue, and because there was no interplay, this debate was all about the wonkiness. His answer on education nearly broke the Luntz-o-meter. Then there was everyone else. Huckabee was off his game. It seemed like the weight of being a frontrunner wore him down. He was overly cautious. The freewheeling jokester of past debates was but a distant memory. Rudy did alright for himself, but he had to deal with one of those "Do you still beat your wife?" questions when the moderator asked whether or not his presidential administration will be more transparent as relates to scandal than his mayoralty. And McCain assumed the Invisible Man role that Fred Thompson normally plays. I would be remiss if I left this analysis without dedicating at least a few sentences to Alan Keyes. If moderator Washburn was Nurse Ratched, Alan Keyes was a patient who went off his meds. I'm quite confident that he broke the presidential debate record for most frequent usage of the word "womb." To bring it full circle, Keyes's distracting presence was yet another indictment of the unworthiness of the Iowa media for the enormous role it plays in this process. Keyes isn't just a frivolous candidate for president. He's not a candidate at all. And yet he was allowed on the stage to toss bombs and to perversely whine about his lack of airtime. Thompson and Romney, alone amongst the contenders, had the good sense to use Keyes as a comic foil. Posted by: 2007-12-13 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=212980 |