I was able to see the 2nd GOP presidential debate last night.  Here is my review of the debate:

Fox News proved once again what a class organization it is and what a classless network that MSNBC is.  Brit Hume, Chris Wallace and Wendall Goehler were polite, profressional, very organized and, most importantly, truly fair and balanced in how they asked their questions and hwo the questions were framed.  Contrast that to the beligerant and condecending way Chris Matthews and the two Politico hacks framed and asked the questions at the MSNBC debate.  When a candidate failed to answer the question asked, Brit Hume would give the candidate another 30 seconds to actually answer the question, exposing the fact that the candidate was wevading the answer.  That and the very nature of the debate last night provided the answer why the Democrats will never hold a debate on the Fox News Channel:  They would actually have to answer questions that would force them to expose the vacuum of ideas of the Democrat Party.

The Second Tier:  The second tier of the GOP provide last night why they are where they are. Tancredo, Brownback and Paul were all one issue candidates.  Tancredo is the "immigration candidate", Brownback is the "Religious Right candidate",  and Paul is the "Anti-war Democrat candidate." Huckabee and Gilmore did a better job than the others to separate themselves from the bottom third of the pack, who used their standing as Chief Executives of their respective states to distinguish themselves from the Members of Congress.  Tommy Thompson didn't acquit himself well at all.  He appeared very stuffy and a little out of touch. Thompson, who was the Secretary of Health and Human Services, couldn't name one program that he would cut or eliminate.  When pressed with an additional 30 seconds he mumbled about the drug stockpile, but still couldn't name one.  I think that Thompson, Brownback and Hunter will be the first of the bottom tier candidates to drop out of the race.  Paul has no chance at getting the nomination because he is a member of the "blame America first" crowd and sounds way too much like a liberal than a conservative, but he will become the darling of the drive by media.  Therefore, Ron Paul will be the 'maverick' candidate and will be around for a while.  Mike Huckabee did a great job articulating the need for the Fair Tax.  It makes Huckabee a good candidate for Vice-President with his stand on taxation and the fact that he could balance either a Romney or Gulianni ticket.

The Top Tier:

McCain:  John McCain proved to me why I could never vote for him.  McCain is a capitulator.  Over and over, McCain said he would "reach across the aisle" to the Democrats to get things done.  The Democrats have proved that they do not concede any of their ideals in the name of compromise.  McCain, I am convinced, would give the Democrats a mile of what they want to get an inch of what he wanted.  Also, when given the imminent terrorist threat scenario, McCain stated that he would take responsibility for the call to get the information out of the terrorist, but refused to do any of the agressive interogation techniques, to include waterboarding, calling them torture.  When pressed on this, McCain said that Powell, Vessey and others all agreed with him that if we torture the suspects, then that puts our soldiers in the field in danger of torture if captured.  Here is what McCain refuses to acknowledge: Our soldiers captured by al Qaida have been tortured and mutilated.  Specialist Maupin is still missing and presumed dead in Iraq.  Additionally, Khalid Shiek Mohammed broke down after 2 minutes 30 seconds of waterboarding, giving us invaluable intelligence that was verified to be true.  That information stopped dozens of plots.  If I were president and we had a terrorist with knowledge of an upcoming event, two and a half minutes later I would have the intel we needed to stop it because I would authorize waterboarding in a heartbeat.  Finally, McCain is a party to all of the bad legislation to come down the pike in the last six years. He admitted he was wrogn about the Bush tax cuts, he blocked the "nuclear option" to end the filibuster of Supreme Court nominees, he wrote the McCain-Feingold assault on free speech, and the McCain-Kennedy illegal immigration amnesty bill.  That makes McCain unelectable in my book and I would not be able to pull the lever for him, even if he was the GOP nominee.    

Rudy Gulianni:  I think Rudy actually increased his electability when he slammed Ron Paul's insane tirade on why we were attacked on 9-11.  Gulianni appeared more presidental than the others and I appreciate the method of how he arrives at his stand on abortion.  I think that Rudy will remain at the top of the GOP horserace for the forseeable future.

Mitt Romney:  Didn't do as well in this debate as the other, but still did well.  I like that Romney can articulate his evolution to his stands.  While McCain, falsely, claims that he has been consistent, Romney was able to link his experience as governor to where he stands on things like No Child Left Behind and other programs.  I wish that Romney could give a clearer stand on things like the tax code the same way Huckabee did and could explain his stand on national healthcare.  If Romney wants to take his healthcare plan from Massechusetts to Washington, than he may have problems with the GOP base on that subject.

Winner:  Fred Thompson.  He starts looking more and more attractive as the name "Ronald Reagan" gets tossed around more and more, even though he has given no real reason to vote for him.  

Winner that actually appeared:  Rudy Gulliani.  Why?  When Ron Paul started ranting about why we were attacked on 9-11, Gulianni came out and slammed him hard.  I cheared for Rudy because he said to Paul what I wish our elected Republicans would say to the other Republicans that want to side with the Democrats.

Loser: Brownback and Thompson.  They just couldn't distinguish themselves and give anyone a reason to care for their campaigns.