Monday night’s debate among seven of the potential Republican presidential candidates proved at least one thing: It is not possible to make a sensible argument on a national issue of consequence in a couple of minutes or less. One or two declarative sentences are not sufficient to explain how the U.S. health care system could be made less expensive, for example.
Or to explain the probable consequences of an immediate withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Afghanistan.
It is also true that only their mothers would stay tuned if seven candidates had been allowed to speak their minds on central issues. Those are the two reasons why the value of television debates is somewhere short of 5 on a 10-point scale at this stage of the 2012 campaign.
It can also be observed that the need for short, snappy answers in Monday’s night’s show encouraged all seven candidates to take one-liner potshots at President Barack Obama rather than spend those additional seconds ex-plaining themselves. Simple-minded insults delivered with a smile require neither time nor thought.
Other than that universal negativity aimed at the enemy, the seven behaved themselves. None tried to tear down their opponents for the nomination. Those attacks will come later. It is, after all, seven months before the first primary.
Each tried to seem presidential.
And the winners were:
— Mitt Romney defended the Massachusetts health care experiment and tried, with less success, to differentiate it from the national program passed by the Democrats. He made no bobbles and emerged as strong as he entered.
— Tim Pawlenty, the former governor of Minnesota, proved himself articulate. He was not required to respond to critics who have said that his plan to revive the U.S. economy — which promises year after year of 5 percent GDP growth — is wildly unrealistic. He chose not to pursue his previous attacks on Romney’s health care program. Because of his successful record in Minnesota, he appears to be Romney’s strongest opponent among the seven.
— Michele Bachmann took the occasion to announce that she was, indeed, a presidential candidate and won the most applause for her Tea Party rhetoric. Chances are she gained the most public recognition from the debate as any of the other six.
THOSE WHO LOST ground — or had none to lose — were the other four:
— Ron Paul repeated his libertarian/isolationist demands that the Federal Reserve be abolished and that we get out of Afghanistan and cut way back on the military. These are positions that don’t appeal to a majority in any party in any state.
— Rick Santorum didn’t explain why the people of Pennsylvania refused to re-elect him to the Senate and gave his opponent a 14-point victory.
— Herbert Cain didn’t make the case that being the CEO of a pizza company qualified him to be president.
— Newt Gingrich didn’t dump any of the baggage that so loads him down that he won’t get past the starting gate.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
