Republican Debate - Michigan

Last Tuesday was the GOP Republican debate in Michigan and it brought with it new changes, faces and fights. The big story before the debate was a first debate appearance by Tennessee's U.S. Senator ('94 - 02') Fred Thompson. His performance was fair at best. He paused many times, didn't separate himself from the pack and didn't seem to have a concrete stance on any major topic. And, needless to say, The "Law and Order" actor was soon torn apart in the media.

The big news after the debate seemed to be the petty bickering between Republican front - runner candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Although it made news, I don't believe it should have. I think the news and media houses simply wanted to choose something to highlight in an otherwise "standard" debate and used the small disagreement between Romney and Giuliani about who lowered taxes more, to try to create an interesting news story.

The bickering was nothing more than a playful exchange of words between two debaters which didn't even last two minutes. It wasn't a big deal.

A major topic was also Hillary Clinton. Her name popped up several times throughout the debate from different candidates. But I believe it was nothing more than an attempt from each candidate (who mentioned her name) to just take a stab at the democratic front-runner.

As for Ron Paul......

In my opinion Dr. Paul seemed too quiet. He didn't say much, but, on the other hand, he really wasn't asked many questions by the moderators. He was probably just being polite.

Ron did have a great moment in the debate however. In a moment of pure bureaucracy with the other candidates considering conatacing their lawyers about matters of national security, Ron Paul hit the roof. Declaring "All this talk about lawyers......all you have to do is open up the Constitution and read the Constitution.

Ron Paul calls himelf the "Champion of the Constitution" and he definietely is compared to the candidates he is running against for the Republican party nomination. It is in my humble opinion that he might need to be a little louder next time.