The Republican Debate...Snore...

Unfortunately, I couldn't watch the Republican debate, since I was in school (curse you, Economics!), but I have taken a look at some of the reports from people he did, and the fairly universal reaction seems to have been: BORING! No big hissy fits, no big gaffes, no big new positions, just a canned rehash of prior issues.

One thing really coming under criticism is the decision to allow Alan Keyes to participate in the debate, while Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich will not be in the Democratic debate tomorrow. By all accounts, Keyes is a divisive, rude jerk. Perhaps his reputation for making controversial remarks led the organizers to include him in order to maybe spark some controversy, but from what I've heard, if that were their strategy, it failed. Miserably.

One person who did seem to shine was Mike Huckabee, and his status as the new man-to-beat seems just as secure as before, coming off as a better candidate, in some ways. He said that he would be careful about what he says in the future, which is generally a good idea for politicians in general. His "first year goal" was much more realistic than Giuliani's or Romney's, as well as being more constitutional than Fred Thompson's proclamation that if Congress didn't cooperate with him, then he would just "go over [their] head[s] to the American people." If by this Mr. Thompson means that he would bypass Congress to get laws made, well, there is a reason that Congress is part of the legislative branch, from the Latin word for law, Mr Thompson. Congress makes the laws. Not the president. And there are no ballot initiatives for the whole nation.

In a word, stultifying.