Natalie Gonnella
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With a pool of participants mostly unknown to American voters, and with little substance to their statements, last night's "inaugural" GOP primary debate proved to be both disappointing and dull.
While the event touched on a number of issues (foreign policy proved to be a dominate focus), and although they were quick with their criticisms of President Obama's policies, there was also very little engagement between candidates during the debate.
Unimpressed by the lacklustre showing, here's a look at what a number of conservative bloggers had to say in response to last night's event:
ConHome Editor Ryan Streeter in his summary of the "junior varsity" line-up commented on The Republican this morning that:
In last night’s Fox News GOP Republican presidential debate, the junior varsity came out to play…and made us all hope the varsity team is much better…The Fox News interrogators were the winners – they had a lackluster field to interrogate, and they handled it seriously and professionally, though I couldn’t help but wonder if they were on the verge of cracking up with laughter from time to time…The debate last night wasn’t a serious affair. It was forgettable. And the sooner we forget it, the better.
Live blogging throughout the event, FrumForum’s Noah Kristula-Green and Tim Mak said it all with the title of their post:
Why is Pawlenty on stage with these crazy people?
In a post via Commentary Magazine’s blog, Executive Editor Jonathan Tobin said of the event:
The South Carolina debate was not a good show for the Republicans. The only one of the candidates that came across as credible was Tim Pawlenty. But even he seems as if he’s a work in progress. The bottom line here is that the Republican candidates who weren’t there have to be encouraged. Unfortunately for the GOP, so are the Democrats.
Citing Tim Pawlenty and Hermain Cain as the big winners of the evening, RedState's Erick Erickson commented:
While I pray I never have to see Gary Johnson in another debate ever again, Herman Cain will hopefully be in every debate from here on out. The more the voting pubic hears of Herman Cain, the more his rivals are going to come after him. He is this year’s Mike Huckabee.
Adding on Twitter:
@EWErickson OK, I bought the Luntz panel saying Cain came in first. Now I question their mental competence saying Santorum came in second.
House Speaker John Boehner didn’t even watch the event, telling CBS’s Political Hotsheet that:
I”ll read about it tomorrow
Also adding that:
There's more time for people to get in [the race]
In his take on last night's "whatever-the-opposite-of-thriller-is," Matt Latimer weighed in with his views via The Daily Beast:
The main problem with last night’s GOP debate is that most of the diehard political junkies in Washington—yours truly among them—had to be reminded that it was even taking place. The many, many voters who missed this clash of “Governor Tim Pawlenty and the also-rans” can continue their lives without a care...
And, finally, a few lines from Stephen Green, who was "drunkblogging" the debate at Pajamas Media:
Cain: I have no plan for Afghanistan because there’s no plan for Afghanistan...Elect me so I can get enough information to have a strategy. The bell came as a relief to everyone.
Johnson… sigh. As a semi-recovering member, I can tell you: He’s a typical libertarian — great on the facts, snoozy/geeky/awkward on the delivery. If you loved the Atlas Shrugged movie, you’re totally digging him right now.
The Kindle ad Fox just ran is the most entertaining thing I’ve seen in the last 53 minutes.
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