Fox Debate, you decide!

Tonight in Florida, Fox held a second Republican Presidential debate. Fox does a fairly decent job of supplying a good atmosphere and forum, supplying much more direct and pertinent questioning than MSNBC, at least in my opinion.

After tonights debate, I am still confident in our choice, Duncan Hunter, however, its appearing more and more likely that he's gaining support at a slower rate than is required, unfortunately. A great deal of this has to do with the media's insistence that the "top-tier" candidates, Giuliani, Romney and McCain, (with Thompson being added sometimes) should be given most of the attention. Obviously, I don't agree with this, but it will be up to the other candidates to be more aggressive in getting their message out to the people. Meaning, they are going to have to find creative ways to ensure the people hear their positions on the issues.

So here are my thoughts on each of the candidates:

Giuliani - He will not gain my support for the primaries. I hope and pray that Conservatives can see that he is not the candidate to forward the Conservative ideas and agenda. His stance on abortion, of course, is appalling, as is his stance on gay marriage. I cannot, with good conscience, support a candidate that accepts either of these. I will, however, admit that he has a great sense of humor and is very charismatic. He had some excellent responses tonight, but again, I will not be voting for him in the primaries.

I was again impressed with Mike Huckabee. I liked that he was so quick with his responses and in particular in his defense of life. I believe he has a good presence and seems to be well versed on all the issues. One of the quotes of the night also has to go to him: "I just want to remind everybody when all the old hippies find out that they get free drugs, just wait until what that's going to cost out there."

Duncan Hunter - of course, I admire greatly and his understanding of the need for a strong defense well surpasses that of any other candidate. Again, excellent quote from the night: "A Democrat president with an aircraft carrier sitting a few miles offshore said we will not help the freedom fighters. And a thousand miles away from there is El Salvador, where a Republican president, Ronald Reagan, hung tough, brought freedom to El Salvador. And you know something? Today, they are fighting side by side with our guys in Iraq."

Mitt Romney – of the "top-tier" candidates, I am most apt to vote for Romney. Ideally, I would love to see a Romney/Hunter ticket...but obviously, that is a bit off yet. For now, Romney tends to look and sound the most presidential and again, seems well versed on the issues. I would prefer if he was a bit more assertive and if he appeared to have a bit less of "canned" answers approach, but overall I tend to believe him and trust him based on his past business successes. If nothing else, I believe he is strong fiscally.

Senator John McCain – I have to say I respect him. I don't believe he will be able to make it through the primaries though. For one, his age is a concern, for two, he's disappointed Conservatives far too many times as Senator. I completely love his conviction on the war on terror and I believe he is a man of integrity and courage. But he's not the man I want to see in the White House. On all other issues, besides the war, he has yet to offer a significant proposal and has not impressed upon me that he has any solutions.

Rep. Tom Tancredo – "You know, (filmmaker) Michael Moore went to Cuba not too long ago, and wrote this documentary about the greatness of the system, how wonderful it was to be in Cuba and have a socialized medical system. You notice, however, that Michael Moore came back to the United States!" I have to say I completely agreed with Tancredo and his comments regarding healthcare insurance...the Federal government has NO BUSINESS getting involved at all! It should be up to the individual consumer and the providers, period. A free and open market, where consumers can purchase across state lines (as Hunter stated) will dramatically bring down healthcare insurance costs. Ironically, Tancredo was the ONLY candidate to state as such!

Fred Thompson - Although he had some good one liners...I am just not impressed. Honestly, I think most of the time he sounds as if he has cotton balls in his mouth. He's not real articulate and frankly, I find him not be real sincere. He also just doesn't look real well...maybe he needs his Hollywood makeup crew?? He appears to be very tired and just not up to the challenge in my opinion. He completely failed to leave an impression with me regarding his stance on any one issue. Although, I do remember what he stated about himself when asked if he is "lazy." Great, but really, it's not all about "him!" Frankly, it was a ridiculous question. I want to hear what his thoughts are on the war on terror, what he thinks about abortion, gay marriage, education, business, taxes, etc. All that other stuff about his past accomplishments is fine and dandy, I doubt he's simply "lazy", but I do not believe he has the needed fire and desire to lead our party; especially when he can't fully articulate ONE impressive answer to the basic issues we are currently facing.

Of course, there was one candidate missing, Alan Keyes. For some reason, the Republican Party seems to be keeping Ambassador Keyes out of the debates. Why...I am not really certain, other than perhaps they believe he's just too late to join the party.

Oh...and in case you are wondering, I don't actually give Ron Paul any comments, simply because he's so out of touch with reality that he's not worth the time!! Besides, he's a Libertarian, not a Republican!!

Wrapping it up, I look forward to continuing to hear more from both Duncan Hunter and Mike Huckabee, but if forced to choose one of the "top-tier" candidates, Romney has my vote.