TEN candidates onstage tonight, with mouthbreathing idiot Chris Matthews "moderating." I wonder how many drinks I'd have to have to be able to watch this. (Even though I voted for Ron Paul when he was the Libertarian candidate in 1988.)

Congressman Paul is the only one who blipped on my radar tonight. Everyone else did their jobs, in that they stayed "on message" and didn't strike out when they got tossed a softball.

Sounds kind of like 'Name That Tune.' 'I can watch that debate on 5 drinks Wink.' Actually, I did watch it, and the most striking thing to me was how crazy John McCain appeared. His opening volley reminded me of my late grandfather lampooning the 'damn aerosol cans' and the 'space shuttles' for the 'hole in the ozone.' Really wacky stuff...voice quivering, finger-wagging and all. And the whole thing about joining bin Laden at the 'Gates of Hell' was just eerie. I mean, we all want him dead and gone, but McCain sounded like he wanted to go with him. I don't know if it's another ploy to regain his 'Maverick' image, but I thought he appeared to be off his meds! Truly frightening.

I was kind of shocked that 2 candidates would say they didn't believe in the theory of evolution and another said it was ok for private business to fire employees because they are gay?
These guys ,if ever elected, would be laughed off the international stage.

Wasn't it three who didn't believe in evolution? And Thompson twice said he'd fire a person just because he was gay, but later retracted it (with an unbelievably ridiculous explanation). I guess he wanted to appeal to his different constituencies: the anti-gay Republican primary electorate, and the Log Cabinettes who'll probably be on his or Romney's or whichever of these folks gets the GOP nomination's laps.

McCain was acting like a crazy person, but the media just fall all over themselves for him. My question is, why did Brian Williams ask such bizarre, right-wing framed questions of the Democrats, but Chris Matthews ended up tossing up softballs to these characters? He even SAID he was tossing a "softball" to Ron Paul! Can we EVER have a fair media any more? Wasn't the Republican Party in control of the White House and Congress for nearly all of the last 6 years? Disaster after disaster has occurred under their control. Mitt Romney's blatant flipflopping was so transparent. For such a "manly" man, he's pretty femme. The fakery creeps me out.

Also, all the Reaganomania is getting tiresome, especially given how they keep obscuring the man's record. He did raise taxes, he did negotiate with the enemy, he did pull US troops out after a terrorist bombing, he backed Saddam for 8 years and also covertly worked with the Iranians, which led to one of the major scandals of the last 25 years. Yet you'd think this man walked on water! Why not mention a clean Republican like Dwight Eisenhower? Oh, that's right, he criticized the military-industrial complex that they're all hell-bent on keeping firmly in place, hence this current war in Iraq and their warmongering on Iran.

Swiminbuff, your comment reminded me of a friend of mine in 1992. Two Dutch Women who were visiting the States had seen Pat Buchanan's speech at the Republican convention and were talking about it. They thought it was hilarious.

While it's true that those opinions would be viewed as laughable throughout Canada and most of Europe, they're not surprising at all in the U.S. The last poll I saw on the matter showed 51% of Americans did not believe in evolution. And while most Americans profess to be opposed to employment discrimination against gays, the numbers change a lot when you ask them if they think gays should be allowed to teach elementary school. In any event, a lot of conservatives are very hesitant to impose rules on the private sector. Neither opinion strikes me as surprising from a Republican candidate.

Edited to fix a "here". I momentarily forgot I've moved back to Canada!