The big news that came out of the Republican primary debate was Rudy Giuliani’s response to Ron Paul. If you go to The Weekly Standard website, you will find a column by Fred Barnes on what a glorious take-down this was, and how Rudy somehow seized the moment and separated himself from the field. I wish that the American Conservative had a better web presence, either in the form of a continuous blog like Reason or in the form of these more timely instant articles like the Weekly Standard — so as to guage the reaction from that isolationist — ergo anti-war — paleo-conservative outlet. As it is, all I can really count on are the Libertarians of Reason and Lew Rockwell to counter the Weekly Standard and National Review (bluntly put it: “Go Away. We’re through with you.”).

I have every confidence that Rudy scripted his response in his debate planning. Bully for him, that’s what you are supposed to do, the other candidates can only wish they had thought of using Ron Paul as effectively. What strikes me is how patently false Rudy Giuliani’s comments are. Try it on for size:

That’s really an extraordinary statement…that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don’t think I’ve ever heard that before, and I’ve heard some pretty absurd explanations.

I can state with absolute confidence that Rudy Giuliani has heard of Blowback Theory.

I can state with absolute confidence that Rudy Giuliani has heard more absurd explanations for 9/11 than Blowback Theory. I can dredge some things up from the Internets if you want me to.
I will state that if what Rudy Giuliani says here is true, that he has never heard of Blowback Theory and that he has never heard any more absurd explanation for 9/11 — which if you consider are likely to include him personally makes it doubly incongruous, than he is — without gauging any other aspect of his political or personal characteristics — Utterly and Completely Disqualified to lead this nation. And I guess it is a good thing that Ron Paul introduced him to the concept here, or else he might find himself president and have the displeasure of CIA officials telling him about it on his first day of the job.

This is fine, though, because we all know Rudy Giuliani was lying and simply affecting a false pose of shock — SHOCK — in a fit of demagoguery. Really, only because the other candidates didn’t come up with the idea first.

At any rate, Rudy further disgraced himself when he said that he “lived through 9/11”. As though nobody else did. As though the other candidates didn’t.

Apparently Ron Paul kicked ass in Fox News’s text-message poll of text-messengers in the question of “Who won the debate?” He lead for most of the night, and at the end faltered to Mitt Romney, with Giuliani in a distant third. This is due to the nature of Ron Paul’s supporters versus everyone else’s, and Sean Hannity was, reportedly apoplectic in reporting the poll results. The question here is: what is the point of having a text message poll? I suppose it gives an illusion of interactivity, but it also gives the opportunity for the Paul supporters to completely destroy Fox News’s narrative illusion.

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Ron Paul, from the debate:

Right now, we’re building an embassy in Iraq that is bigger than the Vatican. We’re building 14 permanent bases. What would we say here if China was doing this in our country or in the Gulf of Mexico? We would be objecting. They are delighted that we’re over there because Osama bin Laden has said, ‘I’m glad you’re over on our sand because we can target you so much easier.’ They have already now since that time they’ve killed 3,400 of our men and I don’t think it was necessary.

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Ron Gunzburger: Whatever points Ron Paul scored in the first debate as the lone anti-war GOP candidate were probably lost in this debate […]True or not, Paul’s comments will relegate him to a fringe GOP following or a third party run. Um. Ron Paul was always held a “fringe GOP following”. At any rate, Paul is basically incapable of not telling his truth. More from his natural flock found here.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 10:38 pm and is filed under Ron Paul, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.