Sioux City Iowa Final GOP Debate Tweet-By-Tweet

Seven candidates have taken the stage in Sioux City, Iowa, for the final debate before the Jan. 3 caucuses. Image Credit: FOX News

Sioux City Iowa Final GOP Debate Tweet-By-Tweet

The gloves will be thrown on the ice in tonight’s debate from Sioux City. The debate should be “Zany” and wholly “Madcap”! Good god, what in the H E double-toothpicks is Romney thinking and who uses language like this as an ad hominem attack, let alone in a “today” conversation. Leave It To Beaver (original series) hasn’t been on the air in nearly 50 years!

We follow the reactions via 140 characters or less via Twitter in a process entitled Tweet-By-Tweet:

pinkelephantpunTabitha Hale

All pumped up to livetweet #iowadebate! WHO’S EXCITED??!!?!?11!

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PolitisitePolitisite

New Post Fox News Live – Video – Fox News politisite.com/?p=34376 #tcot #p2 #PS

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TeamSantorumTXTeamSantorumTX

Why This Iowan Is Supporting @RickSantorum… for Now – Yahoo! News news.yahoo.com/why-iowan-supp… via @YahooNews

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lesliecarbonelesliecarbone

If beating Obama is No. 1 goal for Repub’s, they seriously need a more robust vision of success.

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DonIrvineDonIrvine

This has got to be better than the biased #abcdebate last week. #iowadebate

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CommentaryCommentary Magazine

RT @tobincommentary: Electability? Can’t wait for Santorum to brag about winning in 94 and 00 & omitting landslide loss in 08. #IowaDebate.

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pinkelephantpunTabitha Hale

Orrin Hatch has a higher ACU rating than Newt. I’m unimpressed, Newt. #iowadebate

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prismsincRic

Paulbrow again #IowaDebate

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paconnerPaul Conner

Newt says he balanced the budget four straight years. Actually, it was two years bit.ly/sD5bfg

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freddosofreddoso

RT @StevenErtelt: Paul: “Anybody up here could probably beat Obama” – totally avoi

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michellemalkinMichelle Malkin

Santorum wants people to catch fire. Yikes.

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BryanLongworthBryan Longworth

9:08pm: The reply from Rick Santorum was an #ANSWER live.foxnews.com

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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey

Santorum takes shot at Newt’s personal life? #iowadebate

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SmalltalkwithtT

Ron Paul’s foreign poilcy is not American majority. #IstandwithIsrael #iowadebate

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mboyle1Matthew Boyle

Romney’s makes the private sector case against the field again

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hopeforamericahopeforamerica

Romney: “I know what it takes to put Americans back to work with high paying jobs.” So they can afford $10,000 bets. #iowadebate

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foxnewspoliticsfoxnewspolitics

#iowadebate Michele Bachmann not afraid to tell people her age — 50 years being a “real person,” five as a congresswoman = 55

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sanuzisSaul Anuzis

The GOP debate is on, good start and I agree with Paul…any of these candidates can beat Obama.

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EdMorrisseyEdMorrissey

Rather than have this round of Qs for 15 mins, why not just allow the candidates a 1-min opening statement? #iowadebate

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mboyle1Matthew Boyle

Rick Perry plays the Tim Tebow card….

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pinkelephantpunTabitha Hale

“I’m the Tim Tebow of the Iowa Caucus.” – Perry #iowadebate

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currentCurrent TV

Huntsman uses his first question to take a shot at Donald Trump, who already pulled out of debate. #politicallydirect

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JimPethokoukisJames Pethokoukis

Keep it family friendly, Huntsman “We are getting screwed as Americans”

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michellemalkinMichelle Malkin

MUTE BUTTON #iowadebate #huntsman

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pinkelephantpunTabitha Hale

Forreal. Ugh. RT @michellemalkin: MUTE BUTTON #iowadebate #huntsman

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HeresAnotherTipUncle Mike

9:18pm: The reply from Rick Perry was a #DODGE live.foxnews.com

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justin_hartJustin Hart

Santorum is a really good guy. He needs to work on his head shaking. Hold still. U will come across better #iowadebate

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hopeforamericahopeforamerica

Newt just mentioned Saul Alinsky. #RedMeatForIowaConservatives #iowadebate

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stix1972Doug Welch

Geez who needs to watch the debacle in Iowa when you have twitter #Iowadebate. snarkfactor is a 10

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CommentaryCommentary Magazine

RT @sethamandel: It’s a good way for Romney to trumpet his experience, but reminds voters he wrote bills w/Teddy Kennedy. #iowadebate

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justin_hartJustin Hart

Newt’s tenor always has this underlying: “Everyone knows this to be true” quality #iowadebate

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ReconChestyGunny Highway

Ron Paul…. Kooky as ever!!! Sheesh!! #tcot #IowaDebate

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amandacarpenterAmanda Carpenter

There is something about John Huntsman that distinctly reminds me of Mr. Rogers.

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guypbensonGuy Benson

I don’t think I learned anything in that first segment, except that Romney blew it on Jet Blue. #iowadebate

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BREAK

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Democrats – Can’t See The Forest For The Trees

The day after it was revealed that former ABC News Capitol Hill correspondent Linda Douglass was going to be joining Barack Obama's presidential campaign, "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace said this was a perfect example of how liberal and biased the mainstream media are. Image Credit: NewsBusters

Democrats – Can’t See The Forest For The Trees

It is funny to pick up the paper, or turn on the computer and read what political reporters, writers, and political operatives have to say about each other and further, what they have to say about the landscape they operate in.

On one hand, they all speak in the highest deference about how they respect people who are able to draw the line between personal opinion and respecting the point of view of others, while on the other, they view the world as a mine field … even when they know the communications world is so totally committed to left focused politics.

We, at MAXINE, don’t get it. Many, in the media communications field, think that tough questions are the bulwark of fairness, yet when these very same people make the decision to play a role where they may actually have to field a question, they invariably respond as though they are having to enter a war zone as opposed to actually respond with reasoned counterpoint … and fairness to the question and issue at hand.

CNN's Howard Kurtz, on Sunday morning's Reliable Sources, raised the accuracy of the story with Linda Douglass who covered Capitol Hill for ABC News until the end of 2005. Image Credit: NewsBusters

This example excerpted and edited from the Washington Post -

As Obama Aide, Reporter Dons Flack Jacket
By Howard Kurtz - Washington Post Staff Writer - Monday, June 16, 2008; Page C01

ST. LOUIS -- As Barack Obama started fielding questions at a hospital here last week, Linda Douglass stood off to the left, scribbling in a reporter's notebook, as she has in every presidential campaign since 1980.

It wasn't until 20 minutes later, when she shouted, "Last question!" that her former colleagues were reminded of her new role as a traveling spokeswoman who will be the public face -- a female face in this post-Hillary period -- of the campaign.

After three decades as a television correspondent, Douglass is now on the inside -- but still not getting all the answers. She recalls Obama telling her that he would not talk to her, let alone the outside world, about the vice-presidential selection process, saying: "We're locking it down, we're buttoning it up."

Which is fine with Douglass: "That was so the people who are trying to claw me every day won't get anything. I expect to be kept in the dark."
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Given her background, is Douglass, who covered John McCain's 2000 campaign, prepared to slam the presumed Republican nominee?

"I do like McCain and the people around him, and I consider him still to be a friend," she says. "But I have fundamental differences with John McCain on the issues and always have. I don't have any problem criticizing John McCain."

Describing her disagreements with the Arizona senator -- on the Iraq war, health care and the Bush tax cuts -- Douglass says: "It was no secret to the reporters around me that I have Democratic-leaning views. But they said I was always fair."
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It wasn't until a 45-minute job interview with Obama last month that she decided to leave journalism for good.
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At first, "I was afraid I'd slip into on-one-hand/on-the-other-hand mode. I think reporters are constantly struggling with themselves to suppress their own opinions." Because she believes in Obama's message, Douglass says, "for me this is really liberating."
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McCurry likens the switch to a film critic who is handed a camera and told to make a movie. "She wants to do it in a different way from the spinners of the past," he says. "She wants to get away from the rat-a-tat-tat back-and-forth and keep focused on what journalists need to get the job done."

GOP strategist Dan Schnur, a spokesman for McCain's 2000 campaign, says that Douglass was known for being fair but that the transition may be difficult. "The more us communication types are trained in spin, the more different we become from the reporters who are covering our candidates," he says.
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The Illinois senator may have unrealistic expectations about news management. In telling reporters on his plane that he would no longer discuss his search for a running mate, he said that if they heard "secondhand accounts, rumors, gossip about this election process, you can take it from me that it is wrong." Of course, details usually leak out, and they are sometimes accurate.
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Douglass's first television appearance as a newly minted flack took place on her old network, ABC, the morning after Obama clinched the nomination.
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After saying, "All right, Linda, the niceties are over," anchor Chris Cuomo asked whether Obama might pick Clinton or another woman as his running mate. Douglass deflected the question -- "There is no short list, there is no long list" -- and pivoted to her talking points, ticking off "the very sharp contrasts" with McCain in "health care and whether the tax cuts go to the rich, as John McCain wants, or to the middle class, as Barack Obama wants, and getting out of Iraq."
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Behind the scenes, Douglass tries to dig out answers to reporters' questions. "I bug everyone all day.
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But there are limits to Douglass's clout, as she learned when she twice tried to end the news conference and Obama didn't stop taking questions.

"If he wants to keep talking, he'll keep talking," she says.

A Clintonite's Choice

Fox News's newest contributor, to be announced today, may surprise the liberal crowd: former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis.

"Fox has always treated me with respect and given me a chance to express my point of view," Davis says of the network that the Democratic candidates refused to grant a debate out of concern that it favors Republicans. He will be a frequent guest, along with such Fox stalwarts as Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich.

A relentless surrogate for Hillary Clinton, Davis says, he felt "ganged up on" during appearances on the other cable channels. He says that Clinton was "demonized" by MSNBC's Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, and that CNN's primary-night panels were tilted toward the Obama side.

"Does Fox have a conservative slant on some of their programs? Yes," Davis says. "They're giving me a chance to provide a counterpoint, and that's all I can ask."
Reference Here>>

As a citizen out here in the cable bill paying, and program viewing public, isn’t having viewpoints being given a chance to be expressed clearly all we can ask?

Given Lanny Davis’s view of most of the media landscape … the answer is sadly, NO.

The only communicative structure we are all aching for is an attempt at balance in the communication of viewpoints.

The Howard Kurtz piece on Linda Douglass (and Lanny Davis) puts a spotlight the on the reason why the media landscape will not change for the better anytime soon - Democrats can not see the forest for the trees.

Call Him "Big Dog" McCain

Mitt Romney and John McCain – Image Credit: WXIA-TV Atlanta

Call Him "Big Dog" McCain

John McCain was just tapped with a gift of a nickname by Mitt Romney.

In an exclusive interview with Hannity and Colmes taped earlier today (and verbally recounted on Hugh Hewitt) Mitt Romney had the following comment about the sparring between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama on who would be the strongest as President in a war response situation.

Overhead - To Paraphrase:

"Watching Clinton and Obama argue as to who is the stronger Presidential candidate, is a little like watching two Chihuahua's bark at each other trying to show who is bigger.

Well, for my money, in this scenario John McCain isn't a Chihuahua, he IS the Big Dog!"

Video UPDATE:

This clarification and update excerpted from Politico –

Romney says he'd take Veep, calls McCain "Big Dog"
By Jonathan Martin 05:20 PM

Mitt Romney said in his first interview since departing the GOP race that he would accept the number two position on the ticket and that there is no lingering bitterness between him and John McCain.

“I think any Republican leader in this country would be honored to be asked to serve as the vice presidential nominee, myself included," Romney told FOX's Sean Hannity in a broadcast set to air tonight. "Of course this is a nation which needs strong leadership. And if the nominee of our party asked you to serve with him, anybody would be honored to receive that call … and to accept it, of course.”
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Romney says that he thinks the wounds have healed.

“There are really no hard feelings, I don't think, on either side of this," he said in the interview. "There were no pacts and so forth that make people feel like that we will never come together. Instead these campaigns are all coming together. We are supporting our nominee enthusiastically, aggressively."

Romney said his top fundraisers have already met with McCain's campaign.

"We are laying out ways we can support his campaign.”

Romney also belittled the Democrats, saying that he thought Barack Obama would eventually emerge as their nominee and that such an outcome would play to the GOP's favor.

"I think he is the better match-up for Senator McCain because the public recognizes just how inexperienced he is," Romney said. "With Senator Clinton there is some confusion in perception that somehow being there while her husband was president made her a foreign policy-national security experienced person. She is not. She doesn't have any more experience, really, of a significant nature than Barack Obama does. But in Barack Obama's case, people recognize this guy was a state senator and before that he was a community activist. He has been a United States senator for a short, short period of time. He is in no significant way qualified to lead the country at a time of war, to lead the country out of an economic challenge. This is not a person who can stand up to Senator McCain.”

To make his case, Romney employed a canine metaphor.

Listening to Obama and Clinton discuss their national security credentials, Romney said, is akin to "listening to two chihuahuas argue about which is the biggest dog."

"When it comes to national security, John McCain is the big dog, and they are the chihuahuas," he said.
Reference Here>>

Romney delivers and, we at MAXINE believe, that this is still the nickname to remember - Big Dog McCain vs Maverick McCain!