The Official FOX/Huckabee GOP Presidential Forum Discussion Thread

[Torie]

Rick closed by denying that SCOTUS is the final arbiter of the meaning of the Constitution (he wants to repeal Marbury v Madison somehow, someway, just like Newt), and wants to close down the 9th Circuit to boot. Just how anyone serious can support such reckless jokers sort of amazes me. It really does. If the Courts are not the final arbiter, the Constitution is essentially a dead letter. Does everyone understand that?  This is not a trivial issue.

[Torie]

If the Courts are not the final arbiter, the Constitution is essentially a dead letter. Does everyone understand that?

No one except some libertarians and some paleocons actually care that much about the Constitution. That's not a complaint though.

I beg to differ, but whatever.

Here is a "thinkum" for folks. Do you really want Congress to "adjudicate" the reach of the 1st Amendment?  Do folks realize just how truncated free speech rights are outside the Fruited Plain?  Even Canada does stuff that causes me to shudder - jailing or fining folks for incorrect speech that the government deems "hateful" or whatever.

[Torie]

Bachmann was too stupid to deflect the comment that deporting 11 million illegals (which she supports), would cost 150 billion. You would think this rather calm but nevertheless calculatingly vicious women would have had the presence of mind in her world to comment that the bulk of those would leave of their own accord if cut off from jobs and government benefits (which of course she also supports). But she didn't.  Well, she's irrelevant anyway. Stupidity is a sin for a potential POTUS is the point, beyond what they actually think.

[Torie]

Bachmann is so terrified up there against three "real" lawyers, that she just projects listlissness, ennui, and an almost robotic quality (I thought of the Stepford Wives movie - I really did).

[Torie]

Paul came up with the big three of what government should be doing on the spot (borders, currency and enforcing the Bill of Rights), unlike poor Perry when it came to his little three agencies in his cross hairs. Paul is a quite composed chap. I guess that comes with a point of view, that renders the complex, all just so simple.

[Torie]

Paul doesn't know the amendments to the Constitution other than the Bills of Rights.  You would think that when asked to list what amendments to the Constitution were a mistake, he would have gone to the amendment on the income tax (the 16th?), like flies to sh**t. But then he is an MD, not a JD, so he won't go to hell over that flub.

[Torie]

Mittens is a smart lawyer, among other smart lawyers, so he ruled. I try not to be biased in these things, and may fail,  but that is my honest opinion. The contrast with the others was just huge.

[Torie]

Santorum keeps talking about abortion like that's the number one issue facing America.

Rick is just trying to create a niche for himself (I will never forget the social issues from which America derives its virtu! (a Greek word there for you, combining the concept of strength, courage, and yes virtue, all at once in a unified whole, to wit, the mensch)), since on fiscal stuff, he is just another pretty face.

[Torie]

Pounding that out Al must have felt almost as good as a really good sexual consummation for you.  So many bon mot adjectives attending a string of almost equally arresting nouns, strung out in one long paragraph full of robust sentences, just spilling it all out. Good job!  

You know what Winston Churchill said right? But then, maybe what he said has more verisimilitude in Britain, whose governance I quite admire overall.