Ten years later

Texas Gov Rick Perry wins GOP debate by default

There’s not much to really write about after the GOP Presidential Debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California a few hours ago. I give the overall debate a 3 on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being off the hook and 1 an absolute bore.

Current GOP front-runner and Texas Governor Rick Perry won. Well, he won by default. He won because none of the other candidates could actually land a political punch that didn’t seem contrived and insincere. When Romney and Perry attacked each other’s job record, early in the evening, the entire exchange between them with each pointing out that previous Governors Michael Dukakis in Massachusetts and George W. Bush in Texas were the real job creators in their states it seemed almost childish.

In addition, when Representative Ron Paul attacked Perry for not being nearly as conservative as he says he is, Perry accused Paul of betraying Ronald Reagan’s GOP. If you’ve seen Ron Paul’s latest ad TRUST which completely disses Rick Perry you may have thought Paul would’ve hit Perry a lot harder than that but he didn’t. I guess Paul decided he had more important things to tell the American people for example how he would eliminate airport security, dismantle FEMA and get us a gallon of gas for a silver dime!

And Former Governor of Utah Jon Huntsman, oh man, the guy just seemed out-of-place up there.

Yes, really that’s the best they could do. And Tea Party favorite, Representative Michele Bachmann, wasn’t really given the chance to say much she was thrown a couple of questions here and there but nothing that could really get her going. And the other three candidates, Herman Cain, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum received the same treatment as Bachmann.

So with just a few sparks here and there from the other candidates Romney and Perry were allowed to pretty much go after each other and we expected that since the two have been declared the ones to beat with Rick Perry now leading most of the national polls.

But what was surprising, to me, was how easily the six other candidates were marginalized and dismissed. When either moderator, NBC’s Brian Williams or Politico’s John Harris decided to ask any of the other candidates a question I’m sure I’m not the only one who was thinking “Why are you guys even bothering?” since most of the debate was centered on either Romney or Perry.

To be honest,  if I had been one of the other candidates on stage tonight I wouldn’t be hard press to consider the entire evening a waste of my time.