CNN hosts fight night

Prior to Tuesday’s debate, the Heritage Foundation and the Nevada Policy Research Institute in conjunction with CNN hosted an issues forum. This forum was moderated by David Gergen of CNN and the panel was made up of Mike Franc of the Heritage Foundation, Andy Matthews of NPRI, Alex Garza of the Latin Chamber of Commerce and Heidi Harris a local radio show host. There was a diverse audience present that represented the media, regular people from the western states region and local politicians. This forum was designed to address issues important to the western states and Nevada in particular, but it quickly was dominated by immigration. Those on the panel and in attendance traded jabs on what the role of government should be in immigration. It was such a hot button topic; it dominated nearly the entire forum and left little time to discuss any other issues.
I did not realize at the time, that the fiery debate that afternoon was going to carry over to the Presidential debate that evening, but it did. Right off the bat, Herman Cain’s 999 plan was under attack. Rick Perry and Mitt Romney were also under a constant barrage of attacks from the fellow republicans. The fight within the fight consisted of Romney and Perry arguing so intensely, I thought they were going to go to blows. Maybe next time, CNN will keep some boxing gloves handy just in case. Newt Gringrich again tried to keep the focus on the goal of regaining the White House in November. After Anderson Cooper quit pitting the candidates against each other, they actually had a couple of minutes to discuss some of the issues.
What did we learn from this debate? That the chance of a Perry – Romney ticket is not going to happen. That Ron Paul continues to draw minimal attention from the media and the moderators. That Newt Gringrich may be the smartest person in the race and that Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachmann are trying to stay relevant. Who won the debate? My knee jerk reaction would be Jon Huntsman, the candidate that boycotted the event because it was in Nevada. As for the candidates on stage, Newt always does well. Ron Paul also did very well on the few answers he was asked and his comments were backed up by the others on stage (with the exception of some foreign policy issues). Perry, Romney and Cain did not look very good, although it would be hard with the constant barrage of attacks they were under. If you could really pick a winner from the candidates on stage, it was probably the same candidate you were supporting prior to the debate.