No Runny Eggs

Blacktygrrrr was at the Republican Jewish Coalition, and so was Fred Thompson. I’ll allow his words to do the talking in this shamelessly-ripped-off excerpt:

Senator Thompson then took questions, and I was the first person to ask him a question. I spoke quickly to pack many words in without droning on.

I stated, "Senator, it’s an honor sir." He thanked me. I then continued.

"Senator, I am a republican blogger (yes, this was a shameful attempt at self promotion, and it worked) who understands that with freedom of the press comes responsibility. Are you willing to enforce the Bush Doctrine that anyone harboring or aiding terrorists is a terrorist, even if it means cracking down on our own cultural institutions? Two examples are Poison Ivy League universities doing Tea With Mussolini and Columbian Coffee with Armageddonijad, and our troops getting killed because their movements are being given up by the Jayson Blair Times (the crowd and the Senator cracked up at that point, where I said, "The Jewish fellow running that paper does not speak for me")? How do you as a member of the media yourself balance freedom of speech with the fact that we cannot have our media getting our troops murdered, and we cannot have our students being lectured by a terrorist who belongs in Guantanamo Bay?"

Fred Thompson started out by wagging his finger at me in mock anger and indignation and said, "First of all, let me say that I resent being called a member of the media!"

The crowd erupted in laughter, and I said into the microphone, "I apologize." The Senator then continued.

"I was once a member of the media. I did a little television and movies now and then. I will do what is necessary to keep the American people safe. Yes, I will put pressure on institutions that break the law. If they cross the line, I will get them. Political pressure can be applied, but so can market pressure. We believe in the free market, and we have a right to apply pressure. The wingnuts have a right to speak, but they fail to understand that normal Americans also have a right to speak. There are more of us, and we need to make our voices loud and clear that we will not tolerate violations of law. We have the power to vote with our wallets."

If only Thompson had stopped in Bloggers Row at the Defending the American Dream Summit,….

While nobody from the Sam Brownback campaign is commenting on the record, everybody is reporting he will drop out of the race tomorrow. While money is being blamed (he only had $94,653.58 on hand at the end of September, but was eligible to get $2 million in taxpayer money), his unabashed support for North Mexico should get most of the blame.

Other than that, and his late call for a federal apology for slavery (H/T – Allahpundit), he and his hand cart of the federal tax code…

…will be missed.

So says ClickZ. Bravo Zulo, Sean.

Meanwhile, in related news, basements across the country start stinking up as Paul-nuts soil themselves.

(H/T – HotAir Headlines)

Believe me when I tell you that this post will contain many expletives. Before I get to the foul-mouthed portion of this missive, I hereby invite the Texas Republican Party to find someone, ANYONE, to run for Ron Paul-nut’s seat in the next election. Those of you with sensitive eyes, don’t click the “more”, and if you got this off the feed, I apologize for the string of expletives. The rest of you, consider yourself warned.

(more…)

The fun starts in just over an hour from Dearborn, Michigan, on CNBC. As usual, there will be a heap of paraphrasing (I’m not the fastest keyboardist around), with the questions in italics and my own comments in parentheses. The updates will be on the 24-hour clock, set to Central Daylight Time (after all, that’s where I am). I’ll probably insult supporters of every candidate before it’s over, and you can guarantee I’ll take gratuitous shots at Prissy Chrissy Matthews, so be forewarned.

Semi-confirmed fellow live-bloggers (H/T – Sister Toldjah):
– Right Wing News
– TownHall (dunno exactly who has this duty just yet)
– HotAir (it’s AP as of 14:41; I still expect Michelle to live-blog from her site)
– Free Republic (live thread up and finally noticed by me at 14:17)

I’m settling in for the last hour of a tape-delayed Rush.

14:21 – CNBC.com will be streaming live for those of you without access to CNBC on your TVs (I’ll change the link to the live feed if I remember).

14:39 – Today’s lineup:
Sam Brownback
Rudy Giuliani
Mike Huckabee
Duncan Hunter
John McCain
Ron Paul
Mitt Romney
Tom Tancredo
Fred Thompson

Asking the questions: Maria Bartiromo and the aforementioned Prissy (I’ve got my gas mask and all the sources of ignition are under control, so rip away, Seditionous One).

14:57 – Live link to CNBC’s coverage

15:00 – And we’re LIVE! John Harwood and Jeffrey Seib (sp?)

15:01 – Maria to Thompson – Are we headed to a recession? – Nope. Listing the tax cuts, low inflation, low interests, mentions the stock market (new record for the Dow Industrials and S&P 500). “We’re spending money we do not have…. That has to do with our mandatory spending.” But, but, but 2/3rds say we’re in a recession or heading there – There hasn’t been enough done to tell the story.

15:03 – To Romney – Whose job is it to fix unemployment? – Everyone’s. It’s a uniquely-Michigan problem “The President has to say to the auto industry the door is always open.” Hits on the Detroit public schools graduation rate (22%), smacks Gov. Jennifer Granholm for raising taxes instead of cutting it.

15:05 – Prissy to Giuliani – Is there a downside to private equity markets? – Praises the free markets (hmm, that’s a switch from the ’80s). The fundamentals are keep taxes low, regulations moderate, spending under control, and tame the legal system.

Neocon News has joined us (at least if he gets the database fixed).

Giuliani and Matthews want Torre to stay with the Yankees.

15:07 – To Paul – Wah, we’re in a recession because of the monetary system. STFU, goldbug, you’re about a century off.

Matt Lewis drew the short straw at TownHall

15:09 – Maria to McCain – Is the tax code fair? – “We’re losing industrial jobs and not taking care of those left behind.” SocSecurity and Medicare are going broke. Hammers pork-barrel spending. Maria pounds the question again, and McCain gaffed. First said it was fair, then said we need to fix it.

15:11 – Chrissy to Huckabee – Will the FairTax kill spending? – Nothing will kill American spending. It will untax exports, end the underground economy (Bravo Foxtrot Sierra). For a lot of Americans, the economy is not doing well.

15:13 – To Hunter – “I’m a sponsor of the FairTax” (DAMMIT!) Hammering the loss of manufacturing capability to Red China.

Jonathan Martin at The Politico is also live-blogging.

15:15 – Chrissy to Thompson – Respond to the charge of Free vs Fair Trade – Points out that the Red Chinese have devalued their currency to maintain their edge, but free trade is still best.

15:16 – Maria to Brownback – No new taxes? – “We don’t need to raise taxes. Pushing an optional flat tax (why just optional, Sam?). Hammers on spending. Name a program you’d cut – Advanced Technology Program, corporate welfare. It’s tough to cut.

15:18 – Same to Tancredo – Absolutely. Cutting earmarks aren’t the end-all/be-all to balancing the budget. It’s ‘mandatory’ spending; you could cut the entire discretionary spending and not balance the budget. You need to address Social Security, privatize it or forget about ending deficit spending.

15:20 – Chrissy to Giuliani – Differenciate yourself on taxes. – “I’ve cut taxes 23 times” (what about fees, Rudi?).

To Romney – “I did so too…. If you’re going to cut taxes, you’re going to have to cut spending.” Notes Giuliani fought to kill the fed line-item veto (I need to verify this).

To Rudy – “Spending went up by 8% under Romney, down 7% under me.” Line-item WAS unconstitutional (BWAHAHAHAHA!!!!!)

CATFIGHT!!!! Romney trots out different spending numbers from Club for Growth showing Giuliani raised spending more.

Mary Katharine introduces LOLdebatez

Giuliani still fighting against S(l)ick Willie.

15:24 – FINALLY to somebody else – John Harwood to Thompson – Wah; those losing creme manufacturing jobs can’t replace their income with no new education. Defend – Growth is good, and we should figure out how to get America back to manufacturing parity. We have the 2nd-highest corporate tax, and try to fix devaluation.

15:26 – To Hunter – Hammering Red China again.

15:26 – Chrissy to McCain – Will we ever go back to industrial dominance again? – Nope. Points out there’s a lot of costs, including health care, holding Americans back. Faith in government’s broken. More spending to make up the difference (WTF?)

15:28 – To Tancredo – “Government’s broken thanks to the Senator’s support for illegal immigration.”

15:29 – Seib to Romney – Do you believe in trade? – Yes, but I believe in two-way trade. We have to protect intellectual property. The ChiComs have to start floating their currency and not ripping off our patents. Pandering to Michigan.

Giuliani isn’t looking well.

15:31 – Maria to Giuliani – Wah, the Islamokazis couldn’t take over our ports and the ChiComs couldn’t take over Unocal. P-p-please tell me you’re for free trade. – In 3 of 4 deals, we would have been exporting more. There’s economic protection, and there’s security protection. Let’s get back our entrepenurial spirit. Should Dubai own 20% of NASDAQ? Yes. Protectionism caused the Great Depression.

Question down the line — Paul – Yes, there’s no security concern.
Huckabee – Dodged.
McCain – Yes, if they pass the security requirements. Protectionism caused WWII.
Romney – Yes.
We can compete and win, but we need to make sure the agreement is for our benefit.
Thompson – Yes, points that NASDAQ would get 30% of the Dubai company. (If memory serves, Thompson pushed the Dubai ports deal).
Hunter – No, I don’t trust them. Dubai was involved in trying to move nuclear triggers to Pakistan. Mirror-trade; if you want to stick 15% tarrifs on our goods, we’ll do it to you. If you stick 1%, we’ll do that to you too.
Brownback – Yes. I did trade, and the Pubbies need to stay the party of free trade.
Tancredo – No. If they wanted WalMart, maybe. Points out that the ChiComs are waging economic war on the US.

15:39 – Prissy to Thompson – Wah, we tax-and-spenders need the Alternative Minimum Tax money, even if it targets 20 million. Bravo Sierra. Points out lower taxes and lower tax rates grow the economy. It should be phased out, but in the interim, at least index it.

15:41 – BREAK!

15:45 – Prissy to Thompson – P-p-p-please say Booosh lied, Iraqis died. – Bugger off, Prissy. We made mistakes before, but now we’ve got a good strategery. Islamokazis are THE threat because “they play by no rules and are intent on bringing down Western Civilization and America.”

15:46 – Maria to McCain – What would you have said after 9/11? – Consider volunteering SOMEWHERE! I said Iraq was failing 4 years ago, but I thank the American people for giving us a window to allow it to work.

15:47 – Prissy to Paul-nut – Would we have gone to war if not for the oil? – Not necessarily. It’s a mistake. (Would you rather have allowed Saddamite to run over Saudi just to play RealPolitik?) Oh, go join the DhimmiRATS already.

15:48 – Same question to Brownback – “We saw in Iraq what we thought was a mixture of terrorism and WMDs.” We haven’t found the WMDs (hint; look in Syria, where the Israelis bombed last month). Pushing the 3-state solution.

15:50 – Prissy to Thompson – When did the WMDs leave? – “He had them prior. He used them against his own people…. He had designs on restarting his nuclear program.” If they were left to their own devices, Saddam and Sons would still be attacking their neighbors and developing WMDs.

15:52 – Prissy to Romney – Would you need to go to Congress to go after Iran? – You’d double-check with your attorneys. Bush got the approval of Congress to go into Iraq. Did he need it? Let the lawyers decide that. It was outrageous for the UN and Columbia University to invite him.

Around the table with the question — Hunter – Depends on the timing. If it’s a very narrow window to take out the target, no. If he has time, he should go to Congress for approval.
Paul – Absolutely. “We’ve never had (an imminent attack on us) in 220 years” (what the fuck do you call Pearl Harbor, you dumbfuck?)
Huckabee – If it’s actionable now, nope. You do what’s best for the American people and suffer the consequences later. You never let the American people get hit with nukes.
McCain – If it’s immediate, nope. If it’s a long-term buildup, go to Congress, at least the leaders.
Thompson – McCain has it right. There is a conflict in the War Powers Act between the President and Congress. In any close call, you should go to Congress whether it’s legally-required or not.
To Giuliani (Prissy now brings out that Hiliary brought forth legislation to do just that) – What do you call 9/11, Toofer? We have to be willing to use military force to bring Iran’s nuclear program to a halt.

16:00 – Maria to Giuliani – Something on oil and energy independence? – Goes back to the earlier Iraq/oil question. Have to do everything we can to get energy-independent (didn’t hear drill). Would you include drilling off California? Nothing’s off the table, going to nuclear power.

To Brownback – Drill off Florida? – Dodge by saying we should be energy-‘sufficient’ in 15 years. Pushes electric cars (that’ll fly REAL well in January in Detroit; you hear of zero degrees?) Pushing on drilling – Yes, with environmentally sound practice.

To Tancredo – Same – The biggest chunk of our trade deficit is oil, which goes to those that want us dead, so let’s drill, baby.

16:04 – Harwood to McCain – Wah, I don’t think Big Oil’s paying enough taxes – Avoids that, I wouldn’t drill unless the locals want it. McShame is a Gorebal “Warming” disciple (BOOO!!!!!!)

16:06 – Seib to Huckabee – Does corn-a-hole make economic sense? – It’s part of the plan, even if it doesn’t now. (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA!)

16:08 – Same to Thompson – Apologizes to Goober. See Huckabee’s answer (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA! Oh, Sean, methinks you need to talk to the boss).

16:10 – Maria to Romney – Will gubmint need to bail out farmers again? – Oh, hell yeah. (BRAVO FOXTROT SIERRA! We can’t be both the breadbasket and play with our food in the gas tanks)

16:11 – Prissy to the group – How do you get the economy issue back) — Paul – We need to be goldbug isolationists. At least he doesn’t like subsidies.
Huckabee – It’s a message issue, and we need to reform taxes.
McCain – Restore trust after failures in Katrina, Iraq and spending. Stop spending like DhimmiRATs.
Romney – By being confident (take that McShame and Paul-nut). Oh, and bring it, Hiliary!
Thompson – Tell the truth that security, economy are on the line. Spend more than 4% of GDP on defense. Accept responsibility, and help people help themselves.
Giuliani – Energy independence, and sell it to Red China and India. Brings up the Hitlery KinderBond and the new Hitlery 401(k).
Hunter – Hammer on the trade deficit, kill the bad trade deals.
Brownback – Optional flat tax (why optional, Sam?). Points out that 40% of the world’s R&D spending is here.
Tancredo – Kill illegal immigration. Stop pandering to special interests.

16:18 – BREAK!

Michelle’s sleeping through this one (her loss), but she points to a few more live-bloggers:
– Vodkapundit
– John Henke at Thompson’s site
– The News Junkie
– Blogging For Michigan

Welcome Pajamas Media readers.

16:22 – Maria to Thompson – Describe the specifics of your touching the third rail of SocSecurity – We need a growing economy, with low taxes and lower discretionary spending, we need to allow some privativization, and we need to index benefits to inflation instead of wages. The last is only a stopgap. (Specifics? What specifics?)

16:24 – Tancredo – “The worst thing I did was vote for FastTrack.”

16:26 – Seib to Romney – P-p-p-please endorse HitleryCare – I want HitleryCare Lite like I foisted upon Taxachusetts. Health care is a Pubbie issue and a ‘Rat fundraising issue.

16:28 – Prissy to the group – Defend unions — Paul – Don’t deny the right to organize, but don’t give them special rights.
Huckabee – I see unions coming back because of the pay inequities (who wrote that one, Hitlery or Karl Marx?)
McCain – They were good once, but there should never be compulsory union membership.
Romney – There’s some good and bad. Can you name the good? Names the carpenters’ union. I won’t name the bad ones (because he doesn’t want to get whacked).
Thompson – I’m a union member, but there shouldn’t be compuslory union membership and the vote should be secret.
Giuliani – Unions got my grandma out of poverty. Sing the Union Label song, Rudy. I’ll pass. There are bad unions as well, and McCain’s right.
Hunter – The steelworkers’ union is a good one.
Brownback – They have been good to my postal-office mother. There are some abuses, and the government has to ensure effective oversight.
Tancredo – Whacks Brownback’s mother. Conflict between unions and management is usually a good thing, but they go off the rails when they go into politics.

16:34 – Maria to McCain – Do you agree that Ford and GM need to produce better products rather than look for bailouts? McCain missed the question the first time. Can you hear me now? Yes, and they have to do it on their own. It’s the job of the feds to create the climate that they can succeed in. Flop back on corn-a-hole, now against it again (HUZZAH!).

16:36 – Maria to Thompson – Should the gubmint step in to stop a pending strike against Chrysler? – Not now because it’s not a national security concern. Not even if they say they’re at a disadvantage? They’re at a disadvantage now, so….

16:38 – Prissy to Giuliani – How do you police the Net? – We should police the ‘Net against child predators, working with the states and locals. Do we need the FCC on the Net? – If what we have doesn’t get a handle on it,… but I’m not big on that.

16:39 – Same to McCain – HELL NO! (funny, you created the current FCC monster).

16:40 – BREAK!

16:43 – Lightning round from Prissy. To Huckabee – Would you have sunk the SCHIP? – The issue wasn’t about children, it was about political posturing. Bush lost the battle. I dunno if I would have vetoed it. (Principles, Mikey)

16:45 – Maria to Romney – How would you change the feelings of Arab-Americans that they’re being shunted? – We welcome people of all backgrounds and faiths.

Maria to Thompson – The dangers of the weak dollar. – The weak dollar helps our exports, but we need to have a strong dollar.

Prissy to Giuliani – How do you handle foreign-held debt? – Trade.

Prissy to Brownback – Who do you trust on economic issues? – Phil Gramm, Alan Greenspan.

Maria to McCain – Has Bernanke cut interest rates enough? – I don’t know, but that’s why he’s there.

Prissy to Paul – Will you support the Pubbie nominee? – Nope unless they run on the Hitlery platform.

To Tancredo – Same – I don’t want to do the “lesser of 2 evils” again.

To Brownback – Same – Yep.

To Hunter – Same – Yep, but I’m going to impress my views on him.

Maria to Giuliani – Will London replace NYC as the financial capital of the world? – HELL NO!

Follow-up on SarBox – Avoids by saying the world’s lowering corporate taxes, but the ‘Rats want to raise it?

To Romney – Same – Nope on London, let’s fix SarBox, and I’ll support the Pubbie nominee.

Thompson – “And to thought I would be the best actor on the stage.”

Prissy to Thompson – Name the Canuck PM, and how would you get along with him? Harper, and we’ll get our act together.

Maria to Huckabee – How do you fix air traffic, and how do you pay for it? – Upgrade the ground equipment, and tell the airlines to stop holding the passengers hostage.

Prissy to McCain – How would you catch bin Laden? – Reconstitute the OSS, and give them cart blanche. Oh, I’ll support me.

Maria to Romney – What is the greatest long-term threat to the economy? – America has to realize that optimism conquers all. We are the envy of the world.

Same to Brownback – Breakdown of the family. Greatest economic threat? Yes.

Prissy to Giuliani – Third-party? – We’ve had them before, but the two-party system is best. Refering to the last question, it’s education. Takes a swipe at HitleryCare, saying that if we adopt it, the Canucks would have nowhere to go for better care.

Maria to Thompson – Did you wait too long? – Nope, it’s just about right.

AND WE’RE OUT!

For some reason, my feed reader didn’t catch Huckleberry Dumbbell’s live-blog. Sorry about that.

Fred Thompson will finally start participating in debates later today (I’ll be here putting up with Chrissy Matthews at 3), so Mary Katharine Ham offered up some good pointers. The last is the biggest one that I feel Thompson needs to work on; then again, I’m not exactly impressed by flash and fluff.

(H/T – Ian Schwartz)

Brit Hume ran down the number of staffers the Big Seven (Clinton, Edwards, Giuliani, McCain, Obama, Romney and Thompson) have in New Hampshire. Those numbers ought to tell you absolutely, positively everything you need to know about what they believe the size of government should be.

On a related note, while I won’t be updating the fundraising post that’s currently buried somewhere below until the FEC numbers come out (because there’s been too many all-but-official numbers released between Thursday and Friday), it will be very interesting to see the “burn rate”, how fast the campaigns are going through their stash. That’s something that Kevin told us to watch on Thursday. If the massive size of the Rats’ staffs in New Hampshire are any indication, they need every penny of their fundraising advantage just to keep those that hope to be suckling off the gubmint trough less than 16 months from now happy.

Update #1 (10:58 am 10/2/2007) – Hillary’s unofficial numbers are in

This will be updated and bumped up as the cash count comes in, so I don’t want to clutter Hot Air and Michelle Malkin’s blog with too many trackbacks on the initial run (5:05 pm 10/1/2007). Let’s go straight to the not-quite-official third-quarter numbers from the campaigns, with the caveat that the official numbers aren’t due into the Federal Election Commission until the 15th:

– Hillary Clinton checks in with $22 million for the primaries and $5 million for the general.
– Barack Hussein Obama raised over $19 million for the primaries and about $1 million for the general.
– Mitt Romney raised about $10 million and chipped in $6 million-$7 million from his bank accounts.
– Fred Thompson raised over $8 million, plus $3.5 million in June.
– John Edwards, who is taking several million dollars in public financing in exchange for being outspent about 2-1 by both Obama and Hillary Clinton, raised about $7 million and has $12 million on hand.
– Bill Richardson raised $5.2 million.
– John McCain allegedly raised about $5 million and is still over $2 million in the hole (the campaign isn’t talking).
– Joe Biden raised a bit under $2 million.
– Christopher Dodd raised $1.5 million and has $4 million on hand.

Sherrie Tussler, professional poverty pimp executive director of the Hunger Task Force, thought that nobody would have had the resources to debunk her and her daughter’s run at the Food Stamp Challenge, a week of $1 meals. While the Journtinel bit hook, line, and sinker, Charlie did the research, and found that it is as phoney as a $3 bill. First, for a family of 2, the actual minimum amount the feds expect a family of 2 to spend food is $1.55 (plus fractions of a penny) per meal, with a sliding scale of subsidy based on actual need. Next, that amount does not, repeat, NOT, count the hot-breakfast and hot-lunch programs that take care of 10 of those 21 meals for children, or the WIC program, or even private food-pantry programs like Hunger Task Force.

Of course, all of that presumes that it is the role of the federal, or even state, or county, or municipal government, or schools for that matter, to keep the populace fat and sleepy. I don’t seem to see any Constitutional mandate, much less authority, for government to assume such a role.

Last I checked, it was obesity that is the “#1 health problem”, even among the “poor”. Maybe if the “poor” didn’t go out and buy cell phones, have cable/satellite TV in every room, put 18″ spinner wheels on their cars, wear $150 shoes, down copious amounts of alcohol, get toked up, and otherwise piss away an incredible amount of money, and relearned how to cook with staples rather than go with pre-processed food,…. Then again, “No Personal Consequences Or Responsibility” has been the state religion for the last 30 or so years.

If you haven’t picked up the invite yet, or haven’t stopped at Real Debate Wisconsin, I’m headed to Americans for Prosperity’s Defending the American Dream Summit on October 4th and 5th along with Fred, Leslie at State Sunshine and Open Records, Mark Block (who is running the Students for Prosperity session Friday afternoon), Leah Vukmir (who is in on the How to Impact Your Legislator), and a few others.

The impressive list of confirmed speakers includes Presidential candidates Sam Brownback, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson, John Fund from The Wall Street Journal, John Stossel from ABC, and Robert Cochran, producer of “24” (wonder if he’ll drop any hints on what Season 7 holds for us). In addition, the calls are out to Presidential candidates Rudy Giuliani and John McCain, Rush Limbaugh, Walter E. Williams, Newt Gingrich, and a few others.

There is still room at both the conference and the host hotel, , the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel (which is offering a deal for attendees at $199/night), though the Best Care in the Air is running out of room on the 7:45 am 10/4 flight to DC. Dunno if there’s still room in either the White House briefing Thursday or Blogger’s Row because I signed up after business hours today.

Since Sean and Kevin are out there, both Fred and I are hopeful that we’ll get the inaugural Drinking Right, DC Edition in.

Smith, for those of you who didn’t know (and I didn’t until today), is a former Federal Election Commission chairman/commissioner who knows campaign finance laws like few others. In a very special treat, the Hammer gives us not one, not two, not three, but four slices of her video with him.

Watch and learn what the decisions announced yesterday mean for blogs, campaigns, and 527s.

Nothing much has changed on the Dem end of the pool from the first-blush look. Edwards has hung on a bit longer than I thought, but he’s still a distant third, with Obama a distant second, to Clinton. Nobody has yet dropped out, and the DNC is serious about punishing states that leapfrog Iowa/Nevada/New Hampshire/Super-Duper Oversized Tuesday, so that’s the left-end update.

Things, however, are far more interesting on the Pubbie end, with a heap of changes from the first-blush look. I was a bit off in saying Tommy Thompson would be the first out (Jim Gilmore was), though I will claim that he’s the first one I named that departed. Meanwhile, Fred Thompson has finally entered, and it appears likely everybody that’s running is in. ‘Tis time to go through each one rather briefly:

Sam Brownback – Somebody please tell me his platform beyond amnesty and a 3-nation Iraq “solution”. I just don’t know what it is. Oh, and he has no chance.

Mike Huckabee – He’s become the anointed placeholder/dark-horse in the previous absence of Fred Thompson. Unfortunately, he’s a proven tax-hiker, and he supports the 23% 30% “Fair”Tax. Beyond that, he’s vanilla.

Duncan Hunter – Repeating my early analysis, he’s a “mere” Congressman. That, along with a near-invisibility to the press, has doomed his candidacy to failure. I hope he’s at least on the short list for VP because he is without question the most-conservative of the bunch.

Rudy Giuliani – For a conservative, he is truly a one-trick pony. Fortunately for him, that one trick is the GWOT, and he’s not afraid to call out the enemy as “radical” Islam. Also fortunately for him, he is for the moment the most-liberal non-toofer in the race, which means the media is fawning over him. Unfortunately, the rest of his record is anything but good (fee tax-hiker, gun-grabber, pro-abortion, need I go on?), and if he receives the nomination, he would lose all the media at that moment just like John McCain lost them when Giuliani joined the race.

John McCain – I’ll say one thing; he is quoted most often by his opponents. If anything, he is even stronger on the GWOT than Giuliani, even though he wrongly believes that if we don’t torture, the Islamists won’t. Unfortunately, there’s already three strikes against him (4 if you include his extreme dislike for Christian conservatives); an utter refusal to consider tax cuts as a way to shrink government, McCain-Feingold, and amnesty for illegal aliens.

Ron Paul – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again and again and again until the convention (I don’t see the toofer conceding until then); Paul is in the wrong party and in the wrong era.

Mitt Romney – With the collapse of McCain, the Republican version of Bill Clinton emerged as the early challenger to the media candidate. Almost all of his conservative views have only manifested themselves in the last 13 years. Of course, the fact they manifested themselves that all in Massachusetts is a plus, but not enough in my mind to override my concerns of his earlier liberalism.

Tom Tancredo – I thought he killed his campaign when he called for a full-stop on immigration a couple debates ago, then drew down his staff. Like Hunter and Paul, he’s “only” a Congressman, and he is a one-trick pony on immigration.

Fred Thompson – He’s said the right things in his run-up, but like Romney, he has a few liberal skeletons in his closet. However, do not underestimate the power of height and TV presence.

So, what’s next? The cracked hard-boiled eggshell has Brownback, Hunter and Tancredo all drop out by the end of this month. It is likely that Huckabee will follow them before Iowa as he realizes he was just a placeholder. Beyond Iowa, states are leap-frogging each other too much right now to predict who will have the big mo going into Super-Duper Oversized Tuesday, but I do know that it won’t be McCain or Paul.

You can watch the webcast announcement either at his new campaign site (www.fred08.com) or on YouTube (thanks for the latter, Ian).

Now, who is going to be out by the end of the month? Don’t forget to vote on the left.

With Jim unleashing the double–barrel live-blog both on bRight & Early and Heading Right, it’s time to unleash my own effort. It will be a half-hearted affair as I’m also live-blogging the Brewer game over at the Bar.

As noted earlier, William Smith will be live-blogging from a bar. I’ll throw in the link to the actual liveblog post once he sets it up.

As a note, I paraphrase heavily, even stuff that’s in quotes. I use quotes to identify what I’m paraphrasing from the candidates. Stuff in italics comes from the moderators, and stuff in parentheses are my own comments. Standard stuff you should be used to by now.

19:13 – Guess I should throw in the specifics. It’s on Fox News Channel and FoxNews.com at 20:00. FoxNews.com will begin streaming in about 16 minutes.

Also, FreeRepublic is on the ball as always.

19:44 – Allahpundit pipes in. There’s at best 2 elephants in that room along with 6 mice.

19:55 – Fred’s “visit my site tomorrow” announcement.

19:59 – Ace checks in – Yep, none of this matters except for the race for #2 on the ticket.

20:00 – Brit’s live. Where’s the fish?

20:01 – Joining Brit, Chris Wallace and Campaign Carl. William’s behind already, only on beer #2.

NH’s GOP chair praising Brownback and his 6 supporters.

Introducing first, Tom Tancredo. Next up, Ron Paul. Batting third, Mike Huckabee. Cleaning up, Rudi Giuliani. Batting 5th, Mitt Romney. In the 6 hole, John McShame. Batting 7th, Sam Brownback. Finally, Duncan Hunter.

Lights and gong is here (noted as “DING DING”). 1 minute for answer, 30 seconds for rebuttal at Brit’s discretion.

20:04 – First question from Brit, Who has made the smart move, you suckers or Fred!. Huckabee takes a whack at Fred. Paul once again proving he’s running in the wrong party. McShame takes another whack; “We’re up past his bedtime”.

20:06 – Romney wants Fred to take more time. Correct Conservative Blogger liveblog link. I didn’t know Rudi was a DA in Manhattan. He pushes experience, and takes the first shot at the DhimmiRATs.

20:08 – To Wallace and illegal immigration. Romney – “Let’s reduce fed funding to sanctuary cities”.

Mary Katharine Ham and Matt Lewis join the live-blogging crew.

To Rudi – Would you continue to protect illegal aliens as President? Rudi – “It was all Clinton’s fault for stopping taking names.” DING-DING!

20:12 – To McShame – Are you and Romney both flip-flopping on immigration? McShame – “No one is for amnesty.” (except you, the DhimmiRATS, and El Jefe Jorge). “Let’s secure the borders first.” (welcome to the party, pal; too bad I don’t believe you.)

20:14 – To Huckabee – Defend calling those who want to toss the illegals out racists. – Deflects by calling to outsource immigration tracking to UPS and FedEx.

20:16 – To Tanc – I double-dog-dare you to call those that agree with you on immigration racists. – “It has nothing to do with racism, it has everything to do with the rule of law.”

20:18 – E-mailed question to Hunter – “What would you do to finish the fence?” Wallace adds that some ranchers don’t want it. – “The fence works. It’s the law. I’ll finish the 800-mile fence in 6 months.”

20:19 – To Campaign Carl at a restaurant and a officer – What good is an unmanned fence? What about those still here? Carl sends it back to Rudi and McShame – How is your plan not amnesty? – Rudi – “Again, it’s all Clinton’s fault. Let’s ID everybody coming in because everybody else is able to do it.” DING DING!

To McShame – “Amnesty is forgiveness” (er, it’s not applying the current rules, jackass).

20:23 – To Romney – “End sanctuary cities using the power of the federal purse.”

20:24 – Wendell brings up the Craig bomb. To Brownback – “He’s taking responsibility by resigning, and he should stick with it…. We shouldn’t stop standing up for family values.” DING DING

20:25 – To Hunter with another e-mail question – Should Craig resign immediately? – “Yes. When Pubbies have ethical problems, they leave. When ‘Rats have them, they often make them chairmen of committees.”

20:28 – Wendell drops the abortion bomb on Romney the flipper – “We need to respect lives of both the mother and the child.” To Huckabee – How do you reconcile your position with Rudi’s – “I’ll let Rudi answer that. Let’s respect life.”

20:29 – To Rudi on gun control, with a couple of Fred! quotes – “I made New York the safest large city in America.” (I note that the gun ban in NYC was in place long before you). And college students carrying? – “That’s up to states.”

20:31 – Wendell to Paul with a misquote on whether airplane passengers should be allowed to carry – “We moved the wrong way on protecting airplanes; it should be on the airlines, not the gubmint” (even a blind squirrel) DING DING

20:32 – Back to Campaign Carl and another gubmint worker – Please don’t ban homosex marriage (shocked, SHOCKED a gubmint employee would take the lieberal position). To Brownback – “Do not redefine marriage from one man and one woman.”

20:35 – BREAK! Eric at RedState’s late and disinterested, and I’m late picking up Michelle; sorry about that.

20:38 – We’re baaaaaack! FoxNews’ token lieberal continues by inviting McShame to attack Rudi on foreign policy. “I knew Rummy’s strategery would fail. The new strategy, which isn’t mine, is working. Oh, and I was a squadron leader.”

20:40 – Chris to Rudi – Defend yourself, and will you finally go to Iraq? – “I hope so by the end of the year. I’m not running on 9/11; I’m running on being mayor of New York City.” DING DING and he continues to run on.

20:42 – Wendell to Romney – You said that we should be all-but-out of Iraq by Feb. Defend. – “I never gave a timeframe, but the surge seems to be working. I don’t envision a permanent role in Iraq.” Token lieberal pushes for a hard date again. Romney dodges.

20:44 – To McCain – “It’s working, not seems to be working, because we have a great general there. The great debate will be in the Senate. I want them home with the right reasons, with honor.”

20:45 – To Paul – What about the bloodbath that would happen if we listened to you and your fellow DhimmiRATs? – “I’m in the wrong party.” (hey dumbfuck toofer, the Islamokazis want us dead not just because of our policy, but because we exist and a couple of them are here, so they consider America part of the Worldwide Caliphate). Hume WHACKS the toofer.

20:47 – Brownback piles on – “Let’s have a political surge.”

20:48 – Wendell points out how the pratfalls of the Brownback 3-state plan (Turkey and Iran taking out the Kurds, the Sunnis rebelling over having no oil) – “We’re going to be there a LONG time.” DING DING!

20:50 – Hume to Huckabee – How do we contininue the surge with the minor American bloodletting going on? – “We broke it, we bought it. I agree with McCain that we cannot leave without honor. Hey Paul, STFU.”

To Paul – “A few neocon fascists went in, not the country.” CATFIGHT! Paul the toofer wants to repeat Vietnam. Hey Paul, SHUT THE FUCK UP AND JOIN THE DHIMMIRATS, YOU COCKSUCKING MOTHERFUCKING PIECE OF SHIT!!!!!! HOW FUCKING DARE YOU!

20:54 – To Hunter (oh, is he in this debate?) – “We leave with victory.” Token lieberal – No matter how long it takes? – “You don’t understand the determination of the US Marines and US Army.”

20:55 – To Tanc – “I hope the surge works. The war is with radical Islam, and Iraq is a battlefield in that war. This is not a war that will end with our departure. We were not attacked because we had troops in Saudi Arabia. We were attacked because Islam is incompatible with the rest of the world.” DING DING

20:57 – Back to Campaign Carl – There was a skirting of the issues.. SHOCKA – Campaign Carl finds another gubmint employee, a deputy sheriff – Romney, how do we end the war in Iraq? (anybody want to still claim that New Hampshire is anything other than a loser lieberal state?) . Romney answers – “People who put their lives on the line are in a league of their own, and we owe them our respect. It’s a global conflict against jihad going on, and we have to win in Iraq because losing has global consequences. We need a global strategy.” Hume – McCain would disagree with you about “looks” versus “is”. Romney – “We don’t have a report yet.”

21:00 – Token to Romney – Would you wiretap mosques even without a court order? – “No. To continue, we have to focus on preventing by every means necessary, including getting court orders to wiretap mosques. The most important civil liberty is the one to stay alive.” To Tanc – Is torture a line you wouldn’t cross? – “Waterboarding isn’t torture. I’ll do whatever it takes to keep the people of this country safe.”

21:03 – Token to McShame – Did Tanc just overreach, and oh, take your anti-torture shots at Boooooosh – “Waterboarding will be used as an excuse by the other side to torture us.” (Think back to the Hanoi Hilton, Johnny boy. Us not torturing the VC and NVA didn’t stop them from torturing you).

21:05 – Token to Rudy – Defend your call to not close Club Gitmo. – “Where do you want them? New York? DC? Oh, and when has a nation won a war when it set a timetable for withdrawal?”

21:06 – Token to Hunter – Would you hold those “freedom fighters” there indefinitely if we can’t convict them? – “Hell yeah. We’ve caught a bunch of them on the battlefield after we thought they were done.”

21:08 – Token to Brownback – “Would you have your VP do what I and my fellow lieberals think Cheney does?” – “No, but I would lean heavily on him.” DING DING

21:09 – Chris finally takes over. McShame, why won’t you say you won’t raise taxes? – “I don’t need no steenkin’ pledge. I’ll focus on the spending.” Chris points out McShame voted against the tax cuts of 2001-2003, McShame tries to claim that he did so because there was no focus on spending.

21:12 – Chris – Sam, my man, shouldn’t McShame sign? – “Yes.” To Rudi – Your record as a fee-hiker is a long one. Why don’t you try to counter that with this pledge? – “I only want to take one pledge, and let’s not focus on the fee hikes.” (fees that almost everybody has to pay IS a tax, dumbshit).

21:14 – Chris to Romney the flopper – Hey Fee-fee. Defend your fee hikes. (damn, but I like that nickname) – “Don’t focus on the fees. Since it’s been an hour since we whacked the Dhimms, that $250 that Breck Girl wants to let middle-class America save tax-free wouldn’t even buy them a Breck haircut.”

21:17 – Chris to Huckabee – FairTax only helps out the very poor and the very rich. Defend. – “The FairTax at 23%…” (STOP THE TAPE – It’s 30%, not 23%) “…would end the underground economy.” (unbelievable bullshit – it would create a nice black market, especially near the border.)

21:19 – Paul is officially off his meds.

21:20 – Back to Campaign Carl for dessert. Finally, not a public employee, but a PolySci student – Rudi, you’re the weakest family values candidate. – “You don’t need to look at my family life.”

21:22 – BREAK! Another Brit scenario special coming up after the commercials (no wonder why the Dhimms, and especially Hiliary, didn’t want to appear on Fox News).

21:25 – Hume’s scenario – The IAEA says that Iran is on the cusp of getting nukes, Iran responds by kicking out the inspectors. Iran’s attacking Iraq. The UN imposes a limited sanctions regime, but won’t use force. Iran increases its rhetoric about vaporizing Israel. What do you do? Paul – “We sing kumbayah.” (get off the fucking stage, fuckwad)

21:28 – Missed what Hume added for Tanc. – “We continue to waffle, but we don’t tie our soldiers’ hands. To Hunter – “I don’t like these hypotheticals, but we would try to do what Israel did in 1981.” (doesn’t solve the problem permanently, and Iran learned from the “all the eggs in one easy-to-strike basket” lesson.)

21:31 – To Huckabee – “I’m not saying, but it would be what I thought would be best for the American people.” To Brownback – “We’re facing it now. Oh, and Iran’s nutjobs don’t care about surviving an exchange with Israel as long as they destroy it.” To Rudy – “It’s different than the Cold War. Iran is the #1 terror sponsor, and we cannot allow Iran to go nuclear. McCain had it right when he said that as rough as going would be, it would would be rougher to not go.” DING DING “Reagan talked to the Soviet Union with 1,000 missiles pointed at them.”

21:35 – To Romney – “We can’t let a nation that talks about genocide and talking about nuclear weapons have nukes. Let’s build consensus because there are good ‘Rats.” (unfortunately, they’re all dead, Mitt). “Let’s get the world behind us.” DING DING “If we have that, they’ll think twice.” (Really? They want a Shi’ite Caliphate or no world at all).

To McCain – “We can’t let Iran have nukes, and we can’t depend on our ‘allies’. I’d employ the Reagan methods he used to get the hostages back.” (you might want to read your history, McShame.)

21:39 – We’re OUT!

The Federal Election Commission ruled in two separate cases yesterday that independent internet activity does not violate federal campaign laws. In the Kos case (touched on earlier here), they found that the Daily Kos meets the definition of a media entity not owned by a political party, political committee or a political candidate and thus is exempt from campaign finance laws under the media exemption.

The other case, which I had not heard about, is even more relevant. An individual by the name of Michael L. Grace created a blog to advocate the defeat of Representative Mary Bono (R-California) in the November 2006 election. The FEC ruled that he did not make unreported expenditures, coordinate with her opponent, David Roth, or make an in-kind contribution to Roth’s campaign.

Both Markos Moulitsas Zuniga and Michael L. Grace are lieberal jackasses in the first degree who would probably advocate the death of No Runny Eggs, but I am glad they won their cases.