Chris Wallace KO's Ron Paul, Wins N.H. Republican Presidential Debate!

Isolationists like Ron Paul seem to appeal to a large part of the GOP base in New Hampshire, if you watched the Fox News Republican debate in New Hampshire. Though he had many "applause" lines, he was knocked out by a follow-up question from Chris Wallace, after his response that we should "get out of the Middle East," citing our troops in Saudi Arabia as a motivation for 9/11. Wallace asked:

" Are you saying...we should take our marching orders from Al Queda?"

This line drew more cheers than Paul's supporters had mustered all night. Paul went on to accuse a small band of "neocons" of hijacking the party and the presidency, getting alot of cheers. This probably played well with liberal voters, including many NH Republicans.

Nationally, Paul played himself further into irrelevance, as he has at each debate. I still respect him for his convictions, and having the guts to speak them. I agree with a few of his ideas, but not nearly enough to support him, even against someone like Hillary, which is sad.

I think Chris Wallace "won" the debate, with the most memorable question. Ron Paul lost, and the others were pretty much treading water. Brownback made a blunder by advocating "splitting" Iraq into three countries, and got called on the international, and regional consequences it would cause.


Still, I only caught parts of the debate, watching while at work. This was a pretty good debate, with some real interplay between the candidates. It also shows why the Dems are afraid to face the Fox News moderators. They were much more challenging for the candidates than some of the other debates I've seen.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Christopher, as I see it, Ron Paul's performance tonight, like all of his debate performances, only makes him more popular. ESPECIALLY when people try to tangle with him and throw out these one-liner knockout punches. Rudy's one liner catapulted Ron from the basement. Sean Hannity's snarky post debate attitude also helped. So I have no doubt that Chris Wallace only did RP a favor.
CHRIS LEAV said…
If you say so, but I disagree. Thanks for commenting, all the same.
Anonymous said…
Yeah... great to see moderator discretion by asking the equivelant of "Do you still beat your wife" ?
Anonymous said…
I disagree with you Chris. Mr. Wallace's question was a red herring. Paul made a clear and concise point that the policy needs to change and it should be the Congress who does it. A simple point.Chris Wallace choose however to jump at the opportunity to make Paul look weak.Tell me, why is it so wrong to have an honest policy debate in this country? Instead, questions like to the effect of "So you support our enemies" I think are unfair and stifle debate.
CHRIS LEAV said…
Paul's policy boils down to isolationism. It cannot be taken seriously in today's world.

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