Greenville Republican Primary Debate

There were very few tuning into the GOP presidential debate on Fox News May 5th. Advertised as the debate between the second tiers, one came away with the impression that any of those who showed up in Greenville could be President.

The Obama administration and the sycophants within the media have declared the capture of Osama Bin Laden as the game changer but this past week showed off all of Obama’s administration weakness. The military performed their job brilliantly but the administration has managed to blow the victory lap as throughout the week, the administration kept coming up with a different story of what happened. The reality that is starting to show up is Obama essentially gave a kill order; not that that is a bad thing. The inability to come up with the same story represented that the Obama administration, in all of its glory, managed to muck up a brilliant move; a move needed in the war on terror. On top of that, the unemployment rate shifted upward so Obama’s economic plan simply showed an economy struggling along.

In reviewing the debate, there was much to say just for the candidates who showed up. Tim Pawlenty is one of those nice Midwestern politicians, who managed to put up impressive record as governor of Minnesota; a very blue state. Unlike Romney, who has yet to fess up to the fact that Romneycare has yet to work as advertised; Pawlenty simply cut his losses on his support for cap and trade and anthropogenic climate change by admitting he was wrong. From that point, he performed well in the debate. As for Rick Santorum, he got the chance to talk about other issues besides the social issues and showed that he was more than a one horse pony.

Herman Cain showed that maybe we can dispense with the Donald Trump for President, if we are looking for someone outside the political arena. He offered a coherent defense of free markets and unlike Trump, he is a likeable fellow.

As Washington Examiner Phillip Klein noted, Gary Johnson was described going into this debate as the reasonable Ron Paul but in this debate, Paul proved to be the reasonable Paul. Both Paul and Johnson explained the libertarian vision of the GOP including a non-interventionist foreign policy. I will say up front that I am not an enthusiastic follower of the Johnson-Paul foreign policy but Ron Paul's biggest strength may be his criticism of the Fed’s policy in 2008 proved to more on mark over the past three years. Paul's vision of a king dollar and strong currency will be one of those underestimated issues.

There were no losers among this group in the sense that no one did anything to disqualify them from running for President. Pawlenty showed that he might be an alternative to Romney, who may have been the biggest loser by not showing up. Cain helped himself the most as he showed a likable nature combined with business man efficacy. If Paul makes the Fed the issue, Cain can profit from this. He was the deputy chairman and later chairman of the Fed during the 90’s when the dollar was still king dollar. So Cain has experience in dealing with monetary policy; something that can’t be dismissed out of hand.

Many pundits dismiss Cain but these same pundits take Donald Trump seriously, but Cain is more knowledgeable on the issues. The difference between the two is that Cain has been writing and speaking on issues for the past decade including commenting on a daily basis on his radio program; so he had the chance to develop a coherent philosophy on what he wants to accomplish if he does get elected. The Donald has yet shown much understanding on the issues unless you consider slapping a tariff on China and taking over Iraqi’s oil field as serious issues or worrying if Obama was born in the United States.

Going forward, the Republican Party will prove to be deeper than pundits and so far most of the candidates available are more qualified than the man presently in the White House. Herman Cain has run big corporations, been a entrepreneur, a member of the Federal Reserve and while he has no political experience, he considers this an asset. Gary Johnson was a successful two term as governor in New Mexico and Tim Pawlenty proved to be a successful two term governor of blue state in which he managed to keep the budget in line without increasing taxes. Santorum was a United States Senator for two terms in what is considered a blue state and yes, he did lose his shot at a third term but he does have more federal experience than the man that is presently President. Paul is one of the more captivating characters in Congress, a man who does it his way; a quality to be occasionally admired in a Congressman but not necessarily a good trait for the presidency.