South Carolina CNN/GOP debate liveblog (you didn't miss much)
January 19, 2012 by Stephen VanDyke
From time to time, here at Hammer of Truth one of us will liveblog a debate or something. This is what it looks like.
On Thursday January 19th, 2012 four GOP candidates for president got on stage to once again lay into each other in the new public blood sport democratic process of of getting to know our next commander in chief. From left to right on the stage were Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul. Rick Perry recently dropped out and a lot of us are pretty fucking glad.
The order is chronological, dere's probably mistakes in it. Onward!
20:10 EST Gingrich came out swinging himself saying he is "appalled" at how they choose to start the debate asking him about his ex-wife to a standing ovation from some in the audience and to many boos. "I am tired of the elite media protecting Barack Obama." gets more loud applause and boos. This is a spectacle, where's the blood?
20:13 EST Santorum says, "This country understands that we are all fallen."
20:15 EST Romney just wants to move on before they ask him about how he abused the family dog. CNN, clearly in the bag for Romney, doesn't even bring it up. The term "elite media protecting" comes to mind for some reason.
20:18 EST This game looks fun (give us your best answer in the comments):
20:21 EST Romney doesn't have a handle on what he's created other than profit. But he's happy to have us cram capitalism and freedom down Obama's throat. Okay.
20:24 EST Ron Paul asked if employers should be forced to hire veterans when he brings them home, he jujitsu's the question and says we to cut the budget and taxes and everyone will be back to work again. Yep.
"Where the veterans really deserve help is health." Says we have an "epidemic" that is not being served by the VA.
20:26 EST Santorum throws in his ditto-story. His childhood sounds angry and frothy.
20:28 EST Romney will give you a ponies if you hire a veteran, but then says the government shouldn't be having trillion dollar tentacles or something. Whatever Romneybot says is really nice sounding bullshit. Look at his eyes and grin.
20:34 EST Top trending on twitter right now:
20:39 EST Santorum and Romney fighting just makes me laugh, they are states rights advocates now? This is laughable.
20:40 EST Gingrich comes in and tells us how he wrote a book on the subject of health care. He will debate Obama and will even let him use a teleprompter (clever jokes ahoy!)
20:42 EST Ron Paul gets a question and is exasperated with these guys, is sure to remind us he's an actual doctor. "Medicine worked pretty well before government."
Ron Paul needs to be careful lest this become a congeniality contest on ability to tell government jokes… OH WAIT, TOO LATE!
{on commercial break, I noticed Ron Paul eyeballing the camera guy running behind him… cash money says he has a handgun on him at all times ready to blast at the first hint of a backstabbing attempt}
20:50 EST Santorum wants to remind us he's appealing because he's boring, unlike Gingrich who might hump everything in the White House.
20:52 EST Gingrich admits he's grandiose thinker. Yes Gingrich, we know it's all Gingrich all the time in your head, that's what worries us.
20:54 EST Santorum and Gingrich taking a lot of verbal swipes at each other over corruption charges and cowardice. Hilarious, all these allegations are true. Well thanks for playing you two morons, Romney's grin is threatening to break through his ears. He's raising his hand to chime in.
20:57 EST Romney casting himself as outside Washington. Does not mention that he's the kind of guy who buys Washington.
21:00 EST Ron Paul doesn't want to release his tax returns because he says it's embarrassing next to all the other wealth on stage. Romney will release his taxes but heyooo let's turn this into Obama playing golf too much and not approving that pipeline thing that suddenly became an urgent political issue. Gingrich released his an hour ago and asks Ron Paul why he's not releasing his. Santorum does his own taxes, they are on his computer at home. He's just like you and me, except a millionaire.
21:04 EST Romney says he doesn't know how many years of taxes he'll release. Audience screams out "all of them."
TWO observations:
– Damn, people are nosy.
– Good, they should be when it comes to politicians seeking power.
21:12 EST Questions on SOPA/PIPA/CENSOR-BS-9000 becomes everyone agreeing it's too intrusive. Duh, politicians know which way the pirate bay etherwinds are blowing now.
Ron Paul proud to say he was first on the issue of freedom. Haha, owned.
Santorum thinks the internet is not a "free zone" meanwhile just search for his name.
21:22 EST Would they run their campaign differently? Gingrich and Santorum surprised to be in the final four, Romney smart enough to launch another attack on Obama (which we expect he has to respond to). Paul says he just keeps delivering the great message (of liberty).
21:27 EST Immigration issue. Gingrich says he would solve immigration problem with convoluted government solution which he then calls simple, really. Romney just says build a fence and hire border guards, he's toeing the moderate line that knows this country is founded on immigrant sweat and blood and doesn't get into details. Santorum also aware of his immigrant roots, but doesn't like people coming here by breaking the law. Romney and Santorum debate over "path to citizenship" where they both totally agree it's best to keep immigrants oppressed until they are full blood Americans who still are at the bottom of the shit pile. Hooray for blocked paths.
Ron Paul says get rid of incentive for people outside and inside this country to come here and *not* work hard. Snap.
Paul reiterates his foreign policy plan to bring the troops home and secure the borders here.
21:40 EST Santorum has been "fighting in the trenches" of the pro-life war. No, you didn't read that wrong.
Everyone on the stage is pro-life. Three of them keep saying this word while also supporting interventionist wars of. They keep using this word without truly understanding it.
Ron Paul almost gets passed over and the crowd won't have it. Ron Paul says this issue is a reflection of morality of the people. Santorum chimes in and says it's a federal issue, Ron Paul calls him "overly sensitive" for speaking out of turn.
21:51 EST I'm closing this liveblog experience out early because it's evident by now that we've got another debate that favors style over substance, and sadly CNN's questions aren't as hard hitting as Hammer of Truth would like them. Thanks for reading and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Brian Martin says:
8 counties of votes and 8 volunteers to come up missing is a smack in the face to americans who want nothing more than the count to be true . i smell smoke a.k.a. fraud in these volunteers and votes coming up missing says a lot to me . im not talking about electronic voting machines either . i deserve to know the true count as well as the american people . the results are void until we can get to the bottom of this .
Darcehkate says:
So.. There's 4 candidates up there, but your camera frame can only manage to show 3?
vforvandyke says:
This is CNN's doing.
Romney FIRED lots of people, despite his repeated denials. Thanks for saving me the time of watching this one.
Romney fired lots of people, despite his denials. Thanks for this wrap-up, saved me precious time and was funnier than the actual debate would have been.
hmm... You think? says:
Anyone wonder why both Newt and Romney would like Visa, Mastercard, etc.. to have a hand in Federal immigration?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X034R3yzDhw
Think there's anything there?
Ha, ha… the black woman FINALLY tries to bring up Ron Paul, and they immediately change the subject… and go to break!!!!!! Hilarious. And tragic. It was tragilarious.