All Blog Posts from Horserace

The Census Bureau said 45.7 million people - 15.3 percent of the population - were uninsured in 2007. But according to an advisor of Sen. John McCain who helped craft the Republican candidate's health care policy, those numbers are misleading.

In fact, says John Goodman, president of the National Center for Policy Analysis, the number of uninsured Americans is basically zero, and we wouldn't have this "problem" of lack of insurance in the United States if the Census Bureau simply stopped labeling people without policies as "uninsured."

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How non-confrontational were the Republican presidential candidates in last night's debate? They were so nice to one another that even Rudy Giuliani resisted the temptation to get into an argument with anti-war candidate Ron Paul. It was so friendly that the harshest comment came in the form of a joke by nice-guy Mike Huckabee when he suggested that Mitt Romney is chipping away at his children's inheritance by spending so much of his personal fortune on the campaign.

It may have been an amicable exchange but coming just days before Tuesday's important Florida primary it was hardly inconsequential. Some thoughts on the ballet in Boca:

The most recent polls have shown Romney building a very slight lead over the past few days and his debate performance can only help that trend. In a debate with almost no candidate-to-candidate attacks, Romney shined. His grasp of details on a range of issues and his optimistic disposition helped him stand out in a still-crowded field. It didn't hurt that he appeared to get the most time to speak. One trouble spot: Romney was yet again asked about how his Mormon faith might impact voters' willingness to back him. It wasn't a problem because of his answer but because it remains an issue for him. Still, if Romney wins on Tuesday, we might look back at last night as a key moment.

John McCain looked like the front-runner he is, at least nationally, and the rest of the field was very deferential to him, which gives him some gravitas everyone else lacks. And his strong stances on the war and flashes of humor serve him well in these debates. But McCain stumbled a bit on economic issues, falling back on generalities and well-worn rhetoric about spending restraint and bridges to nowhere.

For a candidate who may be facing his final days in the race, Rudy Giuliani didn't appear anxious to find ways to separate himself from the field. His appeal to Florida voters on issues like a national fund to help the state's hurricane insurance problems was clear but he didn’t find ways to hammer those points home. The most telling moment was when he compared his chances to those of the New York Giants in the Super Bowl. Being that big an underdog at the most important moment in his campaign doesn't exactly project a lot of confidence.

Mike Huckabee's populist economic message may make a lot of sense to many voters but they're probably not the ones who will be voting in Florida on Tuesday – or many other Republican primaries to come. Sounding like FDR at times, Huckabee's suggestion that the federal stimulus package would be better spent building roads seemed out of place. Huckabee's biggest economic worry is the financial health of his own campaign, something that won't be corrected by anything he said last night.

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