GOP Debate Recap: Romney-dential, 9-9-9, and Rick who?

Look, we’ve been through this too many times to count now. For anyone who follows the @SaveJersey twitter account during these debates knows my perspective on these debates. I find the whole process (much like most of the political process) to be amusing. These people get up on that stage for these performances every few weeks, and each time they are more predictable than the last.

The Bloomberg debate was actually the most substantive debate that we have been forced to endure yet. Why? Because the channel decided that this debate would focus solely on the economy and job creation, and aside from one moment when Rick Santorum tried to take things off course, they largely did. It was also the longest period of time anyone’s television was ever tuned to Bloomberg.

I can sum up the entire debate program, which ran roughly two hours, in three quick points. I promise to explain them, but I also promise that if you want to stop reading right after this, you will know everything you need to know to have a conversation at the water cooler at work today. Ok, ready?:

1. Mitt Romney looks Presidential. No one else does.
2. 9-9-9.
3. Rick Perry is no longer a factor in this race.

That is all. You are now well equipped to analyze last nights debate, even if you were lucky enough not to watch!

So let’s expand a little bit for our overzealous Save Jerseyans out there.

1. Mitt Romney looks Presidential. No one else does. He looked and sounded like he could go into the White House today and start turning the economy around. Yesterday when I received word thatGovernor Christie was going to be endorsing Mitt Romney I was a bit disappointed. In my opinion it is still too early in the game, and Governor Christie’s endorsement is worth so much that it would have given Romney a bump had he somehow gotten into trouble down the line. Now that bump will be there and gone faster than the Obama-Killed-Osama bump. However, now I get it. Romney completely established himself as the only frontrunner in this race. Christie got in on the ground floor before this was firmly established like it is today. No one else even came close. I realize that Herman Cain is continuing to rise in the polls and that the anti-Romney faction of the Tea Party will likely rally behind the former Godfather Pizza CEO, but it is not going to be enough to stop the Christie endorsed fundraising juggernaut that Romney is about to become.In this debate Romney was so incredibly smooth he was giving Assemblyman Greenwald’s hair a run for its money. At one point the format switched to the candidates asking each other questions, something they were clearly allowed to prepare for. Nearly every candidate went for the throat on Mitt, but he handled every single question like he studied for it in advance. Hat tip to Romney’s staff for prepping him for this debate. His grasp of any possible issue that could come his way really showed, and I would bet anything that he will see a significant bump in the polls.

   Back on May 23rd I called Romney and Cain the only two remaining credible candidates, and suggested they should run as a ticket. I stand by that statement, and after tonight that seems like an even better idea.

2. 9-9-9. The one thing I found myself wondering all nights as how confused German speakers must be every time Herman Cain (or anyone else) says 9-9-9 when referring to taxes. The tax plan came up, and it came up a lot. What started as basically a joke among pundits, including those of us at this blog, is now being considered a serious tax plan that is gaining traction with the American people. Herman Cain should know that he has made it to the top tier (even if he cannot touch Romney) because he was featured in a video soundbite during the debate, was attacked by nearly everyone on stage, and everyone knows what the 9-9-9 plan is. Cain is very good at staying on point and continuously pushing his plan. He is still a little rough around the edges and tries too hard to get one-liners in there (example: “I was po’ before I was poor . . .”) but he is on the right track. He has effectively edged Texas Governor what’s-his-name out of the race. Cain’s only flub of the night was saying that Alan Greenspan was the best Fed Chairman in the last forty years. It became clear as he went through his answer that Greenspan was the only other Chairman he knew of. And for the record, Ron Paul was right, Greenspan was a disaster.Anyway, at one point Romney lobbed a softball question at Michele Bachmann. Why? Because she and Cain (and formerly Perry) pull from the same constituency. That’s right. The undisputed front runner and probable nominee is strategically trying to get support pulled from Cain to someone else. Herman Cain has made it, and 9-9-9 was his ticket to the top tier.
3. Rick Perry is no longer a factor in this race. Too be completely fair, he was the absolute worst candidate in the debate. Jon Huntsman, even when you factor in all of his crappy jokes and horrible delivery, still performed better than Perry. The Texas Governor stuttered through every answer, could notstop talking about energy policy no matter what the question was, sunk into his chair every time someone called him out for something, and got half the airtime that he received in the last debate. He is what we in reality like to call, “done.”Perry is officially the Fred Thompson of this Presidential race. Up in the polls before he entered the race, and then falls flat on his face at every turn. Perry cannot even claim any sort of left wing media assassination, because he essentially committed political suicide with each new speech or debate. Whether he was telling conservatives they have no heart because they don’t want to subsidize college education for illegal immigrants, or stuttering his way through an answer on the economy that Romney could handle with ease, Perry never impressed anyone. That is why he did not get the Christie endorsement, and that is why he will never get the nomination. Save Jersey wrote him off from the beginning, and everyday Rick Perry reminds me how right we were to do so.

   Expect him to continue to dip into the single digits in polling. Also expect Ron Paul finish above Perry in the New Hampshire primary, thats how bad things have become. We aren’t the only ones who think so.

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