This crowd is too stupid to know when it's being played. Gingrich's opening Joe McCarthy offensive -- he reveled in assaulting Bill Clinton's personal transgressions, but his are unfairly targeted by the vindictive media -- was perhaps the most despicable display of grotesque demagoguery I have ever witnessed. This ass was merely dangerous as a Speaker; he'd be the end of America as anyone knows it as its president.
***
Santorum just landed a staggering blow to 'Romneycare.' I positively hate watching Romney get bruised and battered in this pornographic brawl of a GOP embarrassment, because he is fast becoming not so much the least electable among his party's offerings, as simply unelectable. His own tax peculiarities, as well as his peculiar tax plan for others; his off-putting aristocratic airs; his thin skin and loose lips; his pitiable ineptitude in working a crowd; his near total lack of admiration, lack of respect, and lack of commitment from the base -- all these factors make Mitt Romney a surefire calamity for the Republican Party in November.
He has brilliantly demonstrated his colossal ability to shatter the GOP's unity; he has confirmed this ability, again and again, by slipping behind even more deeply flawed candidates, from Herman Cain to Newt Gingrich. He'll likely survive this latest onslaught -- he remains the strong favorite for the longer game (I'd say a near certainty) -- but he's undergoing far too many close calls for my political comfort.
Come on, Mitt. You have finally unveiled yourself to the greater American electorate as Obama's Tom Dewey. Don't disappoint us now. You hang in there, Mitt. Hang on the ropes if you need to, but hang in you must.
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Santorum is strong tonight. He's shuffling, bobbing, and stinging. He just called Gingrich un-"cogent." And uncourageous and abjectly incompetent. About time.
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Gingrich, 0. "Fundamental," 2. So far.
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Romney's excuse for not releasing at least last year's taxes before Saturday was simply laughable. Democrats just want a "drip by drip" story, said Romney, and he won't play their game.
What do Democrats have to do with a South Carolina Republican primary?
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These debates should be limited to 10 or 12 minutes, tops. I'm growing physically ill and emotionally exhausted watching these wretched buffoons. And listening to this Nuremberg-like audience? Depressing, deeply depressing.
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Four staunchly anti-government males standing up there dictating to women, through government, how they will make the most personal, private decision of their lives, which is to say, they can't. Unbelievable.
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Mercifully, finally, it's over. And you know what? About four years ago the far right ridiculed many of us for perceiving Barack Obama as some sort of messiah. And after watching and comparing these four idiots tonight, I've come to the not irrational conclusion that Obama is a messiah.