The debate is on. I came in about 8 minutes late, just in time to hear Romney, Giuliani, McCain and Thompson take each other down. It got nasty for a little while. Mostly, I'm interested in Rudy, Mitt and Huckabee at this point, so my comments will focus on them.
Huck's first question: How does faith relate to politics? He doesn't answer the question directly, but he waxes eloquent on the sanctity of human life after joking that he's going to stand up there, let all the other candidates beat up on each other, and then run for president. He points out that Republican candidates should focus on Democrats, not on kicking each other.
He sounds great doing it, and people recognize it. There is big applause at the end, so big that it actually runs over into the next question. This could be a great night for Huckabee.
It switches to health care, where they discuss Romney's plan. He has a great response to him defending his plan on health care. At which point, Huckabee jumps in and advocates.......personal responsibility and power to the consumer??? He advocates changing the health of the nation, rather than the health care system, as 80% of money spent on health care goes to chronic diseases--work on changing some of those things. Again, huge applause.
Giuliani gets a question about education, as teachers hated him. His solution? More choice, because he cares about the children and because parents--not the government--should be ultimately responsible for their childrens' education. met your match with the schools.
Matthew Lee Anderson
Matthew Lee Anderson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Theology in Baylor University's Honors College. He has a D.Phil. in Christian Ethics from Oxford University, and is a Perpetual Member of Biola University's Torrey Honors College. In 2005, he founded Mere Orthodoxy.
