A Yawner

The recent Republican debate was a bit of a yawner. True to form, most of those on stage tried hard to invoke the spirit of Ronald Regan—they summon him up like the Ghost of Christmas past, it seems. Or they wish they could. Tax breaks, tax breaks … yeah, yeah. How is it that the conservatives, who are so xenophobic at heart, don’t mind if we borrow money from China like there’s no tomorrow? What happened to the financial conservatives anyway? Doesn’t anyone have a problem with the mounting (actually it’s already a mountain) debt? (And please, for the love of Pete, don’t tell me we live in a different kind of world now. Bankrupting your country isn’t the first sensible response to terrorism that leaps to my mind.)

Eventually national security came up, as it always does with these guys, but I lost interest before Rudy could invoke 9/11. Ron Paul was the only one onstage to speak any truth to power with regards to foreign policy, the purposeful limits of presidential power, and the utter lack of a direct threat Iran poses us. His reward was to be cast as the nut of the group, the one so far behind he can howl away as he pleases and occasionally speak common sense—sort of the Dennis Kucinich of their side, I suppose.

Fred Thompson’s debut was also a major yawner. He started a bit unsteadily, but gradually got into the role. Given that he’s used to working off a script—I love him as an actor, by the way—I personally thought he’d do better. He was OK, but okay doesn’t cut it for Thompson at this point. He’s got to emerge at a run and impress the voters, and I seriously doubt he did that. Indeed, as John Stewart so ably said on Morning Joe with Joe Scarborough, we’ve already had one fairly lazy, gloss over the details, leaving the thinking to others, drawl as I speak -type president and Thompson is just more of that… it’s time we had a thinker in the White House.

I passionately agree.