The Republican debate: all we’d need to do is plug in our TVs and have them run the country

In the Republican debate, McCain said that the war in Iraq has been “terribly mismanaged” but is now “on the right track.” So that’s okay, then.

Speaking of tracks, McCain says he personally will “follow Osama Bin Laden to the gates of hell.” Or they could car-pool.

But he doesn’t want to be the president of a failed nation. Or a sad nation.

McCain says there is “a real threat” of Iran giving a nuclear weapon to a terrorist organization. Nonsense.

Question for all the candidates: the day Roe v Wade is repealed: great day or the greatest day in the history of the universe?

Romney (to a question on Iraq’s unpopularity): “Well, if you wanted to have a president that just followed the polls, all we’d need to do is plug in our TVs and have them run the country, but that’s not what America wants.” See, the view of the American people is that they don’t want the country to follow the views of the American people. But how does Romney know that the American people don’t want a president to follow the polls? Was there a poll that said that? Also, it’s not the tv’s that run the country, it’s a secret cabal of microwave ovens.

Romney says “This is a nation, after all, that wants a leader that’s a person of faith, but we don’t choose our leader based on which church they go to.” He hopes. Brownback, with characteristic subtlety, says that “we’re a nation of faith, as my colleague Senator Lieberman, a Jew, says.” Silliest evasion of the question, from Giuliani: Q: “Has the increased influence of Christian conservatives in your party been good for it?” MR. GIULIANI: “Sure, the increased influence of large numbers of people are always good for us.”

Romney has a rather stunning tax proposal: no tax at all on bank interest, stock dividends or capital gains.

Asked to name something the federal government does really well, Duncan Hunter said “precision munitions on Mr. Zarqawi’s safe house.”

Seven out of 10 believe in evolution. Huh. McCain adds, “But I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of God is there also.” But only at sunset.

Ron Paul says he trusts the internet a lot more than mainstream media. That’s just crazy talk.

Giuliani says that during the Democratic debate, “I never remember the words ‘Islamic fundamentalist terrorism’ being spoken by any of them. ... I heard it a lot tonight.”

Tancredo tried to quote Benjamin Franklin, possibly something wise and pithy about Islamic fundamentalist terrorism, but Chris Matthews wouldn’t let him.

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