On Thursday night, five Republican presidential candidates faced off in the first debate of the 2012 election cycle. The debate took place in Greenville, South Carolina. The state of South Carolina will hold the nation's second primary election (and the first primary in the South) sometime in February of next year.
The participants in the debate were: Former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, 50; former CEO of Godfather's Pizza Herman Cain, 65; former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, 58; current Congressman from Texas Ron Paul, 74; and former Senator from Pennsylvania Rick Santorum, 52.
Let's do a quick rundown of the candidates:
Tim Pawlenty - Served two full terms as governor, but did not win a majority in either election; seriously considered as a possible running mate by John McCain in 2008; received an "A" grade from the Cato Institute; known for balancing budgets without raising taxes despite facing massive deficits.
Herman Cain - Was briefly chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City; newspaper columnist and radio talk-show host; opposes abortion even in the cases of rape and/or incest; colon and liver cancer survivor; the only black Republican candidate running for president this year.
Gary Johnson - Governor of New Mexico from 1995 to 2003; considered a libertarian Republican; was a successful businessman prior to entering politics; supports the legalization of marijuana and used marijuana "medicinally" as recently as 2008; climbed Mount Everest; a major tax-cutter.
Ron Paul - Ran unsuccessfully for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008; also known as a libertarian Republican; considered one of the main inspirations for the Tea Party movement; opposed the war in Iraq; worked as an OB-GYN for many years; can raise funds from individual donors like few candidates.
Rick Santorum - Served in the House of Representatives for two terms before serving in the Senate for two terms; was crushed in his reelection bid in 2006 by roughly 18 points; known for being very socially conservative; absolutely despised by the Left; endorsed Mitt Romney in 2008.
The debate was live-blogged by Republican Liberty Caucus Chair Dave Nalle. A replay of that live-blog can be found here.
Here is my take on the debate, as a conservative with some libertarian leanings:
Gary Johnson came across as a bit of a flake. His positions are basically liberal except he is in favor of limited government and low taxes. He supports legal abortion on demand, is in favor of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, seeks the legalization of marijuana, and is against a border fence. While he would certainly be an improvement over the socialist currently occupying the White House, I believe we can do better. Anyway, given his stances on the issues, he has absolutely zero chance of winning the Republican nomination. Like, none. DEBATE SCORE: D+
Herman Cain was alright, but I was shocked that the post-debate Frank Luntz focus group thought he won overwhelmingly. Really? Was there some kind of "affirmative action" going on with the focus group? He kept trying to answer questions with itemized lists, which is something I've seen Newt Gingrich do from time to time. But he didn't seem to be very good at remembering what was on those lists, which sort of defeated the purpose. Cain did score some points when he spoke about his plans for abolishing the IRS and implementing the FairTax. Still, it wasn't a great performance. DEBATE SCORE: C+
Tim Pawlenty was good, but not great. He was considered by many to be the only top-tier candidate to show up for this debate, but he left it somewhat diminished because of his inability to score a solid win. He dodged some questions, although he gets points for admitting his past support for "cap and trade" was a mistake. His closing statement was somewhat robotic. DEBATE SCORE: B-
Rick Santorum was pretty solid, but unfortunately his focus on social issues turns off a lot of swing voters, and so he has no realistic chance of winning in a general election. Still, this was a conservative Republican audience, and he did well with the base of the party. DEBATE SCORE: B
Ron Paul was ... Ron Paul. You sort of either love him or hate him. I thought he got off a really good line about heroin legalization, but then ... he was defending the legalization of heroin. Wow. The crowd loved him, though. DEBATE SCORE: B+
In the grand scheme of things this was probably a somewhat meaningless debate, except that it may have raised Cain's profile and possibly damaged Pawlenty's credibility. Maybe Cain truly is a credible presidential candidate? We're going to have to wait for a debate that includes Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney (and maybe Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee) before anything definitive can be said.
Incidentally, Rick Santorum won a South Carolina straw poll two days after the debate. Herman Cain placed third.
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