Tuesday, December 13, 2011

The Huntsman/Gingrich Debate

There’s something that has escaped me regarding the Republican presidential debates: perhaps they are carried routinely by Fox, but none of the other channels mention when and where they can be heard.

This was doubly irritating yesterday when I really wanted to listen to the Huntsman/Gingrich debate.  I started consulting my TV Guide around 5 p.m. concentrating on the 8 pm hour.  Nothing.

Finally I went to Huntsman’s website and saw that the debate had been held at 4 pm and that it would be viewable on C-Span at 8 pm.  But C-Span was showing hour-long House speeches til well after ten.  Finally, on the C-Span website, I was able to hear the debate.

Huntsman’s responses were much more structured, reflecting real knowledge, as opposed to Gingrich, who always seemed to be improvising generalities.  The most important things Huntsman said concerned our relationship with China. Although I don’t think we should elect someone president just because they’ve been Ambassador to the Middle Kingdom, Huntsman’s views are significantly more evolved than those of Obama. At a time when China is our main competitor economically and ecologically, the President has adopted a nineteenth century policy, consisting of beefing up our presence in China’s neighborhood.  (This reminds us of our efforts to install missile defenses to ‘protect Europe’, close to a justifiably wary Russia.) Huntsman’s most salient comment was: “We’re good at tactical thinking, but China is the best long-term strategic thinker.”

Naively, I thought the debate would be all over the morning news.  Chuck Todd’s team were only concerned with the Romney/Gingrich battle.

Maybe tonight we’ll hear about Gingrich and Huntsman, who could almost have been a stand-in for the former Obama, were it not for his insistence that Medicare should be on the table. I don’t know whether he packed the hall, but the applause when he walked out on the stage was twice the volume of that reserved for Newt.

In an article for the Wall Street Journal on December 10th /online.wsj.com/article/declarations.html, Peggy Noonan says that Gingrich “ described himself as "definer of civilization . . . leader (possibly) of the civilizing forces,."  She added: “He is a human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, "Watch this!"

Just what we need in the China Sea.

2 comments:

  1. I'm adding this comment from the NYT article on the debate:

    GemmaAustin, TX
    Please don't insult Huntsman by implying he is in the same camp as that warmonger-wolf in sheep's clothing-smooth talking-hypocritical-lying-hateful Newt. Jon Huntsman has a realistic idea of the problems in that part of the world and has a plan, which begins with strengthening our own country first, while remaining engaged with volatile unreliable powers and working from a strong economic position (doesn't everything come down to money in this world?) rather than a military one. Ron Paul is an unrealistic isolationist, spouting theory and rhetoric but no detail. While I respect his consistency and his intellect, he would not be an effective POTUS. I don't have enough faith in mankind, unfortunately, to believe we would survive in the world of Ron Paul and his founding father fantasy. There were no nuclear weapons back then. He is right though-- we are responsible for much of our international problems and we have created multiple monsters in governments we have propped up over the years for our own interests. However, we don't get a do-over and simply leaving them all alone will not turn us into Canada or Scandinavia overnight.

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  2. The comment from Ms. Stryker was spot on. I only hope Huntsman does start doing some pandering to the media or buy them off as Obama did or we'll never get to know the guy. Our country is so desparate for leadership, yet we only want to elect "sound bytes". Every other country elects people on their substance-- not their media conntections. Look at the mess we are in just because Obama knows how to buy the media. Shame on us but we can learn and hope we show that by voting for leadership and solutions -- not the smile and ,thickness or catchy jingles. Wake up America!

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