This was such a rare, wonderful event that I thought I'd bump this back to the top so you can get a flavor of what happened over the weekend. The video's available for watching.
Well, that was different.
Imagine, if you dare, two fierce competitors vying for the nomination fighting it out eye-to-eye in yet another political bloodletting on national television.
Over the next hour and a half, the following harrowing events occur:
— When the candidates are asked a new question, they decide between them who should answer first.
— The candidates are welcome to talk as long as they want. When the other wants a turn, he wags a finger and the floor is turned over to him when the next conclusion is reached.
— At one point, a candidate answered a question for about three minutes, then the other candidate talked for about three minutes, then the first candidate apologized and said he hadn't really stated his answer very well the first time, so he took another three minutes, resulting in a much better, clearer answer.
— When the candidates were invited to ask the other a biting, crippling question that would put their opponent's greatest weakness on display, one candidate referred to the other's extensive business background as a CEO and asked him what advice he'd pass along to the current crop of CEOs. Then that candidate referred to the first candidate's extensive political background and asked him what three things had he learned looking at the system from the outside.
— One of the candidates told a lengthy joke and everyone had a really good laugh.
— While they didn't wish to appear rude, it was clear that they didn't want the members of the audience to break in with applause any more than they had to. After all, it is a small breach of etiquette to interrupt someone while they're talking, and thankfully the audience took this slight with good grace.
— Over the course of an hour and a half, these two big, warm, lovable guys who were nothing but smiles all evening long used the words "cheaters", "liars" and "crooks" about a thousand times. They didn't hold anything back. With both of them, it was like a given that every government institution is filled with X percent of the aforementioned cheaters, liars and crooks. They were merciless.
Like I said, it was different.
Personally, I've never seen anything close to it before. The usual one-on-one almost always involves the antagonistic press, whereas this was like — actually, I can't decide what it was like. No analogy quite applies. The video is here.
On the tally sheet, I was wrong about one thing and hit a couple of others right on the bean. Cain didn't try to squeeze 9-9-9 into every other sentence, as I thought he might, and the one time he mentioned it was when explaining that the tax code is one of the things that needs to be changed for the whole system to get back on track. And just before he said it, 48 minutes into the debate, he had a sly grin on his face, like "Okay, here it comes!", and then he said "My 9-9-9 plan..." and the audience loved it. Then he never mentioned it again. So kudos to Herman for not playing the hustler.
And from my pre-debate post yesterday:
I also wonder how many times, if any, we'll hear the word Obama (or 'the president') tonight. If Newt's the Big Picture guy I'm claiming he is, he should be able to slip it in three or four times. Cain might not use the word once, he'll be so focused on the here-and-now.
Final Score:
Gingrich: 4
Cain: 0
As far as them referring to Social Security as a 'Ponzi Scheme', they were so far from going in that direction that it was laughable. Unlike the blame-namers and finger-pointers, they approached the problem realistically and offered up not only solutions, but perspective. Social Security used to make tons of money. Then Lyndon Johnson got it hitched into the Federal Budget and the rest is downhill history. Solution? Get it removed from the Federal Budget like it used to be. The 'Ponzi Schemers' [see Appendix E: Birthers, Truthers & AGW Believers -Ed] come across as the angry, torch-carrying village mob compared to the way these two guys approached the subject. Get it detached from the budget, implement some changes, add 20 million to the work force and this thing would be in the black.
As I implied, they didn't use a timer, outside of switching topics every half hour. They actually started off with a timer, something like three minutes for argument and a minute for rebuttal, but in the very first round Cain basically said 'Screw this timer bullshit', Gingrich heartily agreed, and the moderator (prez of some Texas Tea Party outfit) claimed plenipotentiary powers and promptly threw the clock out the window.
Everyone in the entire building and watching at home immediately relaxed.
First big applause of the evening went to Cain, when asked what he thought was the single most important thing to focus on during the campaign, and he replied it was to get people informed. That is, he could have pulled out some standby like 'unemployment' or 'the economy', but he basically said, you get informed out there. You think about the issues. You make the decision and vote on it. When people say, "I like Herman Cain, but I just can't put my finger on exactly why," this was one of those reasons. He doesn't fall back on tropes and platitudes, he goes right to the source. He connects with people simply because he really is more like us than the dreaded them.
Cain also got a big round of applause when he mentioned something that I don't think has been brought up in a debate yet (or maybe once), and he claimed to be a strong proponent of it:
Voter ID.
The place burst into BIG applause. Then Gingrich said that what every single state should do is sue Washington every single year for the costs they've incurred from illegal aliens.
Friggin' brought down the house.
The joke Newt told was also on the subject of illegal aliens and how they could be located and deported. He asked the audience how many of them had ever tracked a package via the Web and most of them raised their hands. He noted what a miracle it was, that we live in an age where you can track a package anywhere in the country with high precision.
He then suggested we simply send every illegal alien a package.
If there was one common sub-theme that ran throughout the show, it was "Return it to the states!" No matter what it was, that was the gut reaction of both candidates. Medical benefits, health care, Social Security, personal retirement accounts, illegal immigration, banning fireworks, mandatory pet neutering, whatever came up it was "Return it to the states!" Gingrich beautifully called them "fifty labs to experiment with."
I'm sure the Founding Fathers would heartily agree.
If one can gauge different types of applause, the most appreciative applause came at the end, when Newt noted that hey, they'd just debated the issues for an hour and a half — and hadn't played 'gotcha' once.
Maybe it's the tone of the applause that's different, but this was the audience saying Thank you, gentlemen.
Oh, The Irony Dept
The show was broadcast on C-SPAN. For the first time in the debates, the technical side of the broadcast was pitiful. Newt's lapel mic didn't work, so he had to hold a microphone all night, and why they couldn't swap it with a new one while the camera was on Herman is anybody's guess. Cain's lapel mic worked okay, but it was like it was voice-activated and took a few milliseconds to turn on when he started talking, so there was an amateurish lag. There also weren't very many cameras and the shots of the audience were few and from the sides, so the whole thing came across as fairly ineffectual, probably operated by a bunch of union workers with lavish benefit packages and generous pensions awaiting them who don't give a damn about doing the job right.
Oh, wait...
C-SPAN is a government operation.
Hey, I was just watching two fellas talkin' about you guys on TV!
At the very end, they were asked if they had a final question for the other. Newt asked Herman what was the biggest surprise he'd run into during the election, and Herman, just possibly thinking of the recent media-hyped accusations of rape molestation torture sexual abuse offensive gestures patting women on the shoulder replied, "The nitpickiness of the media." He then went on to say that a large number of the media are responsible for reporting disinformation and were doing the public a great disservice.
The audience practically tore the place down with applause. This one actually got whoops.
Then he turns to Newt and in the gravest of tones says, "My question for you is, if you were the Vice-President..." and the whole place cracked up. They got in a few more quick quips between laughs, the audience was still rolling in the aisles, and the moderator said good night.
Like I said, it was different.
This is the first wrap-up where I won't be using the term 'most presidential' or the word 'winner'. The winner last night was an American public that finally got to see how large, multifaceted issues are presented, and how different solutions can be debated in depth and without rancor.
