VFR’s final entry on the GOP September 22 debate

Here is Dick Morris’s video on who won and who lost. Also, in the video of the debate, at 1:30, check out Perry’s collapse into gibbering incoherence when he went after Romney for his flip flopping. Gail Collins wrote about it in the Times yesterday:

Perry appeared very cheerful during most of the debate—he has a way of cocking his head and grinning as if he saw a waiter entering the room with a large dessert. Perhaps he was anticipating the triumphant moment when he would be able to nail Romney for being a flip-flopper. This appeared to be something he had prepared for. When the opportunity presented itself, this is what Perry said:

“I think Americans just don’t know sometimes which Mitt Romney they’re dealing with. Is it the Mitt Romney that was on the side of—against the Second Amendment before he was for the Second Amendment? Was it—was before—he was before the social programs from the standpoint of—he was for standing up for Roe versus Wade before he was against first—Roe versus Wade? Him—he was for Race to the Top. He’s for Obamacare and now he’s against it. I mean, we’ll wait until tomorrow and—and—and see which Mitt Romney we’re really talking to tonight.”

So there you are.

But as Marc Theissen points out at the Washington Post, Romney, notwithstanding his overall superior debate performance, also blew it, when he bizarrely said, “There are a lot of reasons not to elect me.” Theissen says Romney’s opponents will use that line relentlessly again him in TV ads.

Here’s Romney’s odd statement, from the transcript of the debate:

There are a lot of reasons not to elect me, a lot of reasons not to elect other people on this stage, but one reason to elect me is that I know what I stand for, I’ve written it down. Words have meaning, and I have the experience to get this country going again.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 24, 2011 10:21 AM | Send