Blah, blah, blah

I started watching the Republican debate last night, partly because I want to believe that there could be a decent candidate in the bunch and partially because I wanted to hear some ideas about our economy and its future.  What I got was a bunch of “Same ol’, same ol’, we’re here to save you Michigan, rich = good, poor = bad, lower taxes = more money in your pocket = big goverment is good”. I have no illusions that Fred Thompson will be a good president, but at least he wasn’t subject to the Herculean forces that are the special interest groups for the extra 6 months this has been going on.  But he disappointed me with his stances on many things – it seems you can be corrupted by the lobbyists in record time if you’re an actor.

Listening to Romney and Giuliani spar over who was a better governor and “Go Red Sox/Yankees Rule!” repeatedly was tiresome and annoying.   On actual points, I think Romney actually managed to sound intelligent when discussing the fact that despite Thompson’s push to keep China’s ‘Favored Nations Status’, unless things are on a level playing field, we can’t continue to play nicely.  He repeatedly brought up valid criticisms of China’s devaluation of their currency to lower the value of the dollar and the fact that copyright and patent theft is rampant in the country.  If you want to keep jobs from leaving the U.S., start banning the import of products that are known to violate copyright protection – then the people making those products legitimately can compete.

McCain looked like a puppet out there, although some righteous indignation seemed to breathe a little life into him.  Finally, he seemed to be bucking his latest “I’m with whomever will support me most” mantra, and started taking some personal views.  That was always his strongest suit and his turning away from his independence is what I felt was ruining him as a candidate.  Most of the other candidates were a joke.  Huckabee was decent but seemed lost most of the time, but Hunter, Tancredo and Brownback were useless other than breaking up the fights between Giuliani and Romney.  Paul seemed like the Republican’s answer to Democratic crazy-man Mike Gravel.

Overall, I heard a lot of rhetoric, but not a whole lot of real answers.  But we’re used to that from our politicians by now…