Debating The Debate

Anybody see the debate?

Our own Vaughn Ververs did, and offers some Friday morning quarter-backing right here. Vaughn opines:

As with the Democratic debate last week, almost all of the lesser-known candidates proved up to the task but none were able to break out of the pack. Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee sounded eloquent when discussing the issue of life.

"When hikers on Mt. Hood get lost, we move heaven and Earth to go find them. When coal miners in West Virginia are trapped in a mine, we go after them because we celebrate life. This life issue is not insignificant."

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback, a fierce abortion opponent, allowed that his party could support a nominee who differs on the issue, saying, "I believe in the Ronald Reagan principle, that somebody that's with you 80 percent of the time is not your enemy, that's your friend and that's your ally."

It was that kind of evening for the most part. Even candidates who were thought to have taken indirect shots at their colleagues suddenly clammed up, claiming they had been speaking in generalities. This was an opening sparring session, featuring a few light jabs bit no hard hooks.

"This is the question you ask? Okay, well, perhaps…considering President Clinton took very little aggressive action throughout the 1990's - say, from the first WTC bombing in 1993, to the attack on the USS COLE in 2000 - to curtail the growth and activities of OBL and Al Qaeda, and since President Clinton was the man who, in 1998, told us - along with his entire administration - that Saddam Hussein had WMD and would certainly someday use them…perhaps it's finally time to let go of Bill Clinton, and look ahead instead of back?