Official January 7th Debate Thread

[TheGlobalizer]

Right....Ron Paul just lost any goodwill I had for him by attacking the death penalty.

He didn't attack it. He just said it's carried out unfairly.

Well, if you see it as a tool of tacit establishment racism, he did attack that.

[TheGlobalizer]

Is anyone else surprised that Ron Paul thinks there's a right to privacy in the constitution? I thought he was some Scalia-esque traditionalist.

Not really, libertarians generally worship at the altar of Griswold v. Connecticut.

[TheGlobalizer]

"...BY THE PIRATES!" - Ron Paul

We're just one question away from Bills of Marque and Reprisal.  GO THERE NOW RON

[TheGlobalizer]

What the hell did Huntsman just do?

Appealed to a whole bunch of voters not voting in the GOP primaries.

[TheGlobalizer]

I'm so surprised how cordial it has remained between Romney and Paul - they never really go after each other. A great mystery.

I think it's fairly clear that Paul sees Romney as the best of the bad candidates (other than himself).  Plus, malleability makes him more open to the libertarian wing's influence than the socons would be.

[TheGlobalizer]

I'm so surprised how cordial it has remained between Romney and Paul - they never really go after each other. A great mystery.

I think it's fairly clear that Paul sees Romney as the best of the bad candidates (other than himself).  Plus, malleability makes him more open to the libertarian wing's influence than the socons would be.

This. And would anybody be truly shocked if Romney chose Rand Paul, the only Tea Party candidate of 2010 to win a US Senate seat, as his running mate?

That actually makes a fair amount of sense.

[TheGlobalizer]

To imply that gay kids ought to be beaten up for saying they are gay, or that they feel they have to suppress their identity under threat of violence, or to call them "abnormal," are judgments, not facts. 

FWIW, I don't see where he said "ought".  I agree with what he's saying - if you're a different, it's usually a good idea not to broadcast it.  Whether those external conditions are good or bad things is another matter.  (Bad, obviously, at least IMO.)