NH GOP "Voters First Forum" **live commentary thread**

[jimrtex]

Kasich, Paul and Walker did best IMO.

Yes, in the sense they accomplished the most for themselves. Christie was good, but I don't think he branched out, and took a risk anywhere.

Bush and Rubio were the big losers in the top tier I think. Fortunately for them, this event does not matter much. But it suggests the limits of their abilities.

I wonder if Kasich will start eating into the Jeb vote.

I think that the senator candidates had an advantage appearing on video.  They had to concentrate to understand the question, so appeared thoughtful before opening their mouth. Paul did excellent in that regard.

The in-person candidates had to appear to be engaging in a conversation with the moderator, and the camera was on the moderator.

The Miss America Pageant announcer was extremely annoying both in concept and execution.

Would Perry appear over-animated to the people in the audience?

[jimrtex]

Well, Kasich wins "best face" from that group. He was a little squirmish throughout though, I noticed. I don't blame him.

His face has matured nicely.  I think I still think of him as the 90s version.

[jimrtex]

god, just watched the first 5 minutes. Do they always do the pledge with that huge flag hanging over?

That was before the other TV stations cut in (other than C-SPAN).  It gives something for the candidates to do as a group when you have them on stage together.

[ElectionsGuy]

I just watched it, and I'll just say which candidates overperformed and underperformed expectations.

Over performed:

Walker (really like his emphasis on taking power away from unions and giving it to all workers)
Jindal (still not saying much)
Fiorina (actually gave specifics! Like her talk against the 'political class')
Christie (Gave direct answers)
Pataki (only because I didn't expect anything out of him, surprisingly conservative)

On par for what I expected:

Cruz
Paul
Santorum
Carson
Kasich

Under performed:

Bush (had some stutters)
Perry (seriously, he didn't answer a single direct question)
Rubio (went on and on, pretty boring)
Graham (went off on tangents, stumbled at the end)

As far as who I actually think did a good job, I think Paul, Cruz, and Walker did pretty damn good (and I'm predicting they'll rise in the polls soon). I didn't like Rubio, Graham, Christie, or Bush. They sounded overly hawkish (but so did Cruz to an extent).

[sparkey]

This is a snarky - and thus entertaining - review of last night's performance.

The part of that article that says that Rand Paul said that we should collection information more on terrorists than civilians "without explaining how one does that" is bizarre to me. Paul clearly discussed the warrant process and historical examples of failure to follow up on leads, and spent enough time on it to almost belabor the point.

[Torie]

This is a snarky - and thus entertaining - review of last night's performance.

The part of that article that says that Rand Paul said that we should collection information more on terrorists than civilians "without explaining how one does that" is bizarre to me. Paul clearly discussed the warrant process and historical examples of failure to follow up on leads, and spent enough time on it to almost belabor the point.

Fair point. The guy was an a mission other than hewing slavishly to absolute accuracy. He was availing himself of his literary license.