First Hand Debate report

[Johnnybags]

I blended into the main floor crowd for the debate, listened and watched the tactics carefully of Fox News. My obeservations are as follows:

1. Fox News is underhanded, dirty and not worthy to broadcast debates, the questions chosen were mischevious, leading and unfair.
2. Fox claimed they did a drawing for stage position, the odds of McCain,Romney,Guiliani landing in the same front spots are like being hit by lightning, obviously a lie
3. Importantly, the main floor was the pretty ardent base, my discussions and observations lead to the following conclusions:

A. Mitt Romney is done, he will not win, to a person they felt he is "slick"

B. McCain still garners great respect from the area on all but immigration which they will overlook- older folks, veterans etc.

C. Rudy has lots of fans, young and old in the base and as far as people there was probably the winner, many NY types

D Ron Paul had lots of support and lots of negativity with the party hacks: His perceived problem is not being involved in the terror war. Ron needs to use his line from previous debates to appease them, you go to war, rally the people and congress, go to win it with all the might of our boys, and come home. He needs to say this to roll them over.

I will tell you during the intermission quite a few people walked up to hammer the moderators, I hammered Wallace about the foolish questions he asked and asked Hume if it really took all day to prepare these foolish questions? Then I noticed Dr. Paul at the podium and walked over to the stage, I called him over and shook his hand, we only had a few seconds, I told him FOX news is a tuff beat for him, he smiled, said "not much time" huh, to which I said I was more incensed with the questions, he shook his head with a boyish grin and laugh in agreement and I told him please forge ahead. He is a class act.

Grassroots report- CHALK everywhere, all Ron
Plane flying banner - Ron Paul President
Flyers and info etc, mostly all Ron supporters.

[LibertyEagle]

Ron made us proud last night. He was lightning. It almost brings tears to my eyes.

[apropos]

I agree about Mitt. This was the first time I saw him debate and he reminds me of a used car salesman.

I don't think McCain has a chance, but perhaps that could change if the media keeps beating us over the head with 'how popular he is'.

I believe that Ron Paul's biggest advantage is this wide open field and the dissent in the ranks. Rudy will be his biggest competition, but his anti-gun stance will hurt him, particularly in the South. His...let us say, more liberal tendencies (such as going drag to a LGQT parade) will reduce his appeal among the social conservatives and many religious-minded people. His New York-centric mindset will also hurt.

Who knows about Thompson?

I think this election is ours to win, if grassroots can keep pushing forward.

[ladyliberty]

As far as I am concerned Ron PAul was the only voice of reason on that stage. Those other people who were giggling and laughing during Ron Pauls response time just made themselves look like laughing idots!!!

They have tried to ignore him - but it aint working,
They tried to shut him out - but that aint working either!
Now they are going to try to ridicule him but that too will soon backfire, if it hasn't already.

You know they are all digging around to try to find some dirt that they can use against him - I certainly hope they don't find out about his chocolate chip cookie habit! :D

[BuddyRey]

I certainly hope they don't find out about his chocolate chip cookie habit! :D

That's nothin'! I have it on good authority that John McCain's election finances are in the toilet because of his $300-dollar-a-day kitten huffing addiction!

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Kitten_Huffing

[Johnnybags]

As far as I am concerned Ron PAul was the only voice of reason on that stage. Those other people who were giggling and laughing during Ron Pauls response time just made themselves look like laughing idots!!!

They have tried to ignore him - but it aint working,
They tried to shut him out - but that aint working either!
Now they are going to try to ridicule him but that too will soon backfire, if it hasn't already.

You know they are all digging around to try to find some dirt that they can use against him - I certainly hope they don't find out about his chocolate chip cookie habit! :D

My only point is trying to be objective in assessing the base of republicans. Interestingly they are fairly simplistic, Iran is hurting our troops with IED's and they want action, 50 percent or more suicide bombers in Iraq are Saudi Nationals and until FOX News tells em so, they never mention it. Its ok for Saudi Arabia to whip up frenzied Islamists for 911 and suicide bombers but Iran, because FOX News tells em, must be bombed? They are sheep, and incapable of rational thought.

[LibertyEagle]

That's nothin'! I have it on good authority that John McCain's election finances are in the toilet because of his $300-dollar-a-day kitten huffing addiction!

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Kitten_Huffing

Kitten huffing? What's that?

[MsDoodahs]

Thank you for the report, Johnny. I'm glad you were there to speak to Dr. Paul during the break.

[Badger Paul]

From the panning shots Fox used, it didn't look like the hall was even filled.

I actually think the Fox debates were the best and most fair in terms of the candidates being interactive with each other and in terms of time allocated....

.....if you don't mind the fact the moderators and commentators on Fox were openly hostile and biased towards Paul and made no means of digusing it. Other than that they were fine.

[LibertyEagle]

Well, I learned that I should never attend one of these debates. Because I probably would have embarrassed myself and all of you. I was so mad last night when they were blatantly skipping him, I don't know what I would have done if I had been there. I'm afraid it would not have been very nice.

[Stealth4]

Johnnybaggs

Thanks for the report. Great that you threw the moderators questions back in their face. They need to know personally that we know they are dirty hacks, sorry excuses for "fair and objective journalism"

We are doing the right thing, by calling, mailing, emailing (politely and maturely - with tons of evidence and thought) all these organizations. This isnt just on the net. We are right there standing next-to, but against these neocons.

Im trying to think what I could do Sunday to help Dr. Paul as I will have some free time. Going door-to-door isnt my style, but perhaps I could write to the Washington Post.

[nayjevin]

Well, I learned that I should never attend one of these debates. Because I probably would have embarrassed myself and all of you. I was so mad last night when they were blatantly skipping him, I don't know what I would have done if I had been there. I'm afraid it would not have been very nice.

a very, very many of us feel this way -- but very few of us recognize it in ourselves, and recognize it wouldn't be a good thing for the campaign.

[jj111]

That's nothin'! I have it on good authority that John McCain's election finances are in the toilet because of his $300-dollar-a-day kitten huffing addiction!

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Kitten_Huffing

Now that is funny!

[FluffyUnbound]

I was also at the debate last night, courtesy of the free ticket thread started by Johnnybags.

Here's my report:

I went by myself, driving in from Vermont. Now I know where UNH is if I ever want to go see a Hockey East game - nice fringe benefit.

When I got there I went to the gymnasium where the reception was for a minute to pick up my debate pass and get a soda. The volunteer kids were very helpful and nice.

Walking over to the stadium you started to notice the thorough job done by the Ron Paul chalkers. Good work folks.

Hearing the chanting crowd in the free speech zone as you approached the stadium was great. Ron Paul had the biggest group by far. Huckabee and Giuliani had small groups trying to make themselves look large by holding up triple and quadruple signs on posts, but they weren't fooling anyone. They were outnumbered by the Global Warming people and the I'm a Health Care Voter people walking around handing out stuff. I took a "Impeach Bush and Cheney" sticker from someone.

I walked around the HUGE line waiting to go into the stadium and was struck by the large number of college students and the large number of Ron Paul supporters. These groups often overlapped as you might expect.

The stadium wasn't full by a long shot, even the floor seats. Without the college students there, it would have been a ghost town. The floor was where the party hacks and the Giuliani people were, and there were 5-10 empty rows of seats at the back.

Before the debate they announced several times that there was to be no applause and that you would be thrown out and/or arrested if you interrupted the debate. Yeah, right. Even with all the empty seats, the crowd was too large to be contained in that way. I bet Fox doesn't allow a venue this big again, because ALL their rules were simply ignored. Brownback and Romney were openly booed and hissed at times.

At the first commercial break, people all over were grumbling about the unequal time [again] and the absurd airport question directed to Paul [again]. Those same people went nuts cheering during the Iraq war segment of the debate.

I would estimate that the crowd was nearly evenly split between Paul and his adversaries during that section of the debate. I thought the kids behind me were going to rush the floor when Paul angrily said he took his marching orders from the Constitution.

It was a great event, and thanks again to Johnnybags for pointing me towards a ticket, and thanks to UNH for putting it on.

[Hurricane Bruiser]

I'm actually glad for the airline question because it helped clarify what Ron Paul said in the ABC debate that had been misinterpreted by some in the media.