Saturday Night's Alright for Fightin'

***Sorry this is a repost of an earlier post because of formatting issues with the previous one***

Wow....what a night in New Hampshire last night! Back to back debates on the same stage hosted by ABC News and Facebook.
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REPUBLICAN DEBATE
First, was the Republican debate, featuring, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, and Rudy Guiliani. In case you missed it, here were some of the highlights:

1. Everybody was criticizing Romney, mostly for his flip-flopping. For background, Romney used to be pro-choice, now he is anti-abortion. He used to be pro-gay marriage, now he is anti-gay marriage. He's also flip-flopped on stem cells (was for it, now against it), and gun control (was for it, now against it). There are also some flip-flops when it comes to his positions on minimum wage, the environment, and immigration.

Huckabee and McCain had the 2 best zingers of the night against Romney.

Romney: "Governor, don’t try to characterize my position.
Huckabee: "Which one?"

McCain: “We disagree on a lot of issues,” Mr. McCain said dryly. “But I agree, you are the candidate of change.”

McCain also attacked Romney with a nice low-blow based on a negative attack ad that the Romney campaign has calling McCain's immigration plan an "amnesty plan". McCain denied that the plan was "amnesty" and said to Romney, "It’s not amnesty,” Mr. McCain said. “And for you to describe it as you do in the attack ads, my friend, you can spend your whole fortune on these attack ads, but it will won’t be true."

2. McCain and Rudy were most sensible on immigration. Keep most of the illegals who are already here, provide them with ID cards and worker cards, deport the ones who are criminals. Romney and Huckabee want to deport all illegals and start over (impossible...plus what will happen to this economy? The illegals do so much work at restaurants, farms, and take care of people's yards).

3. Ron Paul actually seemed to understand economics the most. "[Inflation] comes from deficit financing with this war-mongering foreign policy we have. We run up the deficits. We tax. We borrow. We borrow from the Chinese. We can't borrow enough."

4. I was happy to hear that most candidates stressed an urgent need to end dependency on foreign fossil fuels, because every dollar we spend on gas/oil goes straight to the middle east and funds more terrorist organizations. But, every president since Nixon has campaigned about ending dependency on fossil fuels and look where we are now. I secretly (well, not a secret anymore) want oil to go to $200 dollars a barrel...because it is precisely those types of free market forces that will inspire and accelerate innovation on renewable sources of energy.

5. McCain was great in his critique of the pharmaceutical companies and all of their lobbying and underhanded techniques to keep prices for drugs in the US high. Romney was quick to defend the pharmaceutical companies. Score a big point for McCain!!

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DEMOCRACTIC DEBATE
After a great moment when all of the candidates from both parties were on stage together and shook hands (some hugged), the Democratic candidates took the center stage.

Highlights:

1. Edwards joined in a tag-team effort with Obama against Hillary, calling her the "status-quo"

that is trying to fight against the agents of change (Obama and Edwards). Hillary got very angry about this, and her reply was on the verge of shrieking. Looks like Edwards is vying for a vice-presidental spot on Obama's ticket.

2. Hillary stressed her experience ("35 years of experience") in making changes.

3. Charlie Gibson asked Edwards to name one significant thing he did during his 6 years as a US Senator. Edwards said he co-wrote the patient's bill of rights. Hilliary quickly pounced on Edwards saying that the bill stalled in the House and thus is still not law today.

4. Gibson asked Hillary about the issue of Obama being more likeable than her. Hillary responded, "Well, that hurts my feelings. But I'll try to go on. He's very likeable - I'll agree with that. I don't think I'm that bad."

For any of you that missed the debates, there are two things that you can do as an American.

1. Watch the replay of both debates tonight on CNN at 7PM
2. Go to this link on nytimes.com and watch video highlights or read the transcript http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/01/05/us/politics/20080105_RDEBATE_GRAPHIC.html#video

This is going to be a very exciting primary in NH on Tuesday. Current polls indicate a tie between Obama and Hillary at 33%, with Edwards trailing in 3rd with 20% of the vote. On the Republican side, McCain has the lead (33%, with 50% of the independent vote...remember 40% of people in NH are independents), followed by Romney (27%), Guiliani (14%), and Huckabee (11%).

If you watched the debates, post a comment and let us know who you thought were the winners and losers of the night.