COMMENTARY | The Republican presidential debate, co-sponsored by FOX News and Google and broadcast live Thursday from the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla., was another disappointing episode in the continuing political GOP version of the reality show Survivor. The cast of contestants are many, too many; former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Rep. Rick Santorum, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and two-term governor of Utah who once served as Obama's ambassador to China Jon Huntsman.
Still, as bad as it was, there is the comforting thought that many of these contestants are about to be voted off the show.
Romney won this challenge. He has finally hit his stride. He was sharp, funny and confident. Rather than engage in a stumbling defense to attacks on Romneycare, he has learned to go on graceful offense by challenging what his aggressors consider to be their greatest virtues. When asked if Perry deserved credit for the successes of the Texas economy, Romney quipped that being dealt four aces "doesn't make you, necessarily, a great poker player."
A pre-debate Gallup poll put Romney ahead of Perry by nearly 10 points. Expect that lead to keep growing. Where Romney is proving the old saying "slow and steady wins the race," Perry has officially defined the childhood adage that "the last one in is a rotten egg."
Perry's almost meteoric ascent to the top is being matched by his rapid decline. Defending his executive order to mandate the HPV vaccine for young girls in the last debate was a mistake. His choice to add the lie that his decision was based on having been "lobbied" by a 31-year-old woman suffering from cervical cancer was a disaster. Perry did not meet Heather Burcham until after his executive order was issued.
However, it was the reiteration of his position that it's "the American way" for taxpayers to fund the tuition of illegal immigrants for which out of state American students do not qualify that marked the official end of his campaign.
While Bachmann may have put another ding in Perry's campaign with her second HPV jab, she didn't score any points for herself. It was awkward for her to excuse her misstatement of a conversation in the previous debate regarding a woman who claimed her daughter "suffered mental retardation as a result" of the vaccine, as reported by The Huffington Post. For the candidate who went from winning the Iowa straw poll a month ago to falling off the radar screen, Bachmann just might qualify to claim Lindsey Vonn's gold medal for downhill racing.
Gingrich stands no chance but scored big laughs with his comment that, if all in Washington is so hopeless then, "We might as well buy Greek bonds and go down together." But when it came to earning respect and warming hearts, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain's story of beating stage-four cancer received a standing ovation.
While Huntsman managed more talk time than most, he said little worth remembering. Paul wandered through familiar talking points and Johnson touted his extensive veto record as governor. Santorum simply whined about not getting air-time and furthered his odd habit of chattering about himself in third person.
Considering the increase in self-inflicted wounds, the repetition of less than stellar performances and the approach of the inevitable GOP nomination season finale, rest assured we will see fewer of these contestants competing in future GOP Survivor episodes.
6 comments