GOP Debates in Florida on CNN

Tonight is a first for me—I’ll be tweeting my thoughts about the debate on my new PoltiChicks.tv Twitter account while writing this article.  Pretty good for a blonde, huh?

CNN again…ugh.  And Wolf Blitzer again without the comedy relief of Herman Cain messing up his name!  Why oh why do we have to continue letting these liberals who hate us moderate our debates?  Maybe I’m getting cynical in my old age, but it always feels like we’re letting the wolves take care of the sheep.  There are ulterior motives to every one of their questions, guys…but I digress…

We all knew this was going to be an immigration-centered debate because of the Florida locale and that’s exactly how they started.   I’m sure they’ll twist around Santorum’s statement that “people who come to this country illegally have broken the law repeatedly.”  Yes, it’s the truth—but ‘ya just know the liberals will eat that statement up (allergic as they are to the truth).

And wow, could the crowd look any more somber?  Not much applause at first.  Newt’s gonna be mad…

Speaking of mad, Romney showed the most anger I’ve ever seen when Gingrich said he believed Romney was the most ‘anti-immigrant candidate’.

Romney blew a Mitt-gasket.

“The idea that I’m anti-immigrant is repulsive!” he said.  “Don’t use a term like that—you can say we disagree on certain policies but to say enforcing the US law to protect our borders, to welcome people here legally, to expand legal immigration as I approve is somehow anti-immigrant is simply the over-the-top rhetoric that has characterized American politics for too long and I’m glad that Marco Rubio called you out on it, I’m glad you withdrew it, I think you should apologize for it and I think you should recognize that having difference of opinions on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epithets.”  (the audience cheered)

Wolf Blitzer is getting giddy.

It kept going back and forth like that between Gingrich and Romney, with both candidates getting wild applause after defending themselves.

Ugh.

I’m so glad Rick Santorum is standing strong on the threat of Islam and other terrorist organizations around the world.  Ron Paul’s response was to once again call America a “bully”.

“I don’t know what answer Congressman Paul was listening to but he obviously wasn’t listening to my answer,” Santorum said to applause.  “No one’s talking about force, no one’s talking about going into Cuba or Venezuela.  It’s talking about the other countries in the region which are being influenced greatly by those countries…the president of the United States sided with organized labor and the environmental groups and held Columbia hanging out to dry for three years,” Santorum said passionately (applause).

Wolf Blitzer gave a major ‘gotcha’ to Romney.  Earlier in the debate Gingrich said Romney had an ad out claiming Gingrich said Spanish was a ‘ghetto language’.  Romney denied knowing about the ad—but a few moments later, I guess CNN’s fact checkers came back to them.

“That ad where I quoted you as saying that Speaker Gingrich calls Spanish ‘the language of the ghetto’—it was one of your ads, it’s running here in Florida on the radio, and at the end you say, ‘I’m Mitt Romney and I approve this message.’”

Ouch.  The audience went insane, both cheering and booing.

This is horrible.  The candidates have completely fallen into that creepy political thing where they go after each other rather than going after Barack Obama.  They’re talking more about each other than how THEY are going to get America back on her feet.  This is painful.

Romney continuously went after Gingrich for his Freddie Mac dealings.  Gingrich finally responded by saying, “To compare my investments with his is like comparing a tiny mouse with a giant elephant.”  (laughter)  “The only time I spoke to Congress about this issue was in July of 2008—the New York Times reported it.  I told the Republicans in the House ‘vote no, do not give them any money.  They need to be reformed.’”  (applause)

I was happy when Gingrich responded to Wolf’s question as ‘nonsense questions’.   Wolf got booed.  Gingrich sided with Romney but then Romney sided with Wolf.

I feel like I’m watching a bunch of kids fighting on an elementary playground…

Wolf Blitzer is officially a creep.  He was baiting the candidates and they were gleefully taking whatever he handed to them and I’m not learning ONE THING about how any of them are going to save America.  Yuck.

Rick Santorum is doing brilliantly on taking advantage of the battle Blitzer’s instigating between Romney and Gingrich.  I’ve never seen him stronger.   He broke down Romneycare completely saying, “Now think about what that means going up against Barack Obama.  You’re going to claim that ‘top down-government-run medicine on the federal level doesn’t work and we should appeal it’ and he’s going to say ‘wait a minute, Governor, you just said that top-down- government-run medicine in Massachusetts works well.’  Folks, we can’t give this issue away in this election!”  (applause)

In the split screen while Santorum was saying this, Romney looked very uncomfortable with a frozen smile on his face.

Santorum looked especially proud when he said, “Your mandate is the exact same as Barack Obama’s mandate.”

Like prodding a hornet’s nest, Wolf Blitzer asked Ron Paul, “Who’s right?”

Paul laughed and said, “I think they’re all wrong.”

Me, too.

Blitzer brought up the recent media attack about how Gingrich allegedly didn’t like President Reagan.

“It’s increasingly interesting to watch the Romney attack machine coordinate things,” Gingrich said.  “All of a sudden today there were four different articles by four different people that ‘randomly’ showed up.  I’m thrilled that Michael Reagan has endorsed me,” he said, and then went on to talk about the times he spent with the Reagans.

“For those of us who were in the trenches in the 1980’s,” Gingrich added, “it would be nice to be recognized for what we actually did and not to have orchestrated attacks and try to distort the history of that period.”  (applause)

Romney responded by not denying that he placed those attack ads but instead said, “I’ve never voted for a Democrat when there was a Republican on the ballot.”

Ron Paul again underestimated all our enemies, especially the potential threat of Islam—which NO, we did not instigate.  They’ve hated us  (meaning anyone who isn’t Muslim) since the beginning of time.  I know people will get mad at me for this but his naïveté regarding foreign policy is downright scary.

I was thrilled that both Gingrich and Romney strongly stood up for Israel and called Obama out on turning his back on our ally.  It was the only time all night they agreed on something and didn’t snipe back and forth.  Sigh.

I was also happy that Gingrich again pointed out the fact that Christianity is fighting discrimination in America.

Overall, in my opinion this is the first time Rick Santorum won a debate.  After tonight I won’t be surprised if he wins the Florida primary.

The main thing I used to like about Romney is that he was trying to focus on his own candidacy instead of infighting.  Same with Gingrich.  Not tonight.

Ann-Marie Murrell

Ann-Marie Murrell is one of the creators of PolitiChicks and co-owns the site with Morgan Brittany. Ann-Marie is co-author of two bestselling books, “What Women (Really) Want” and "PolitiChicks: A Clarion Call to Political Activism". She has appeared on dozens of television shows including Fox & Friends, CNN, Hannity, the Dr. Phil Show, Huckabee, Lou Dobbs, C-SPAN, One America News, Stuart Varney & Company, Newsmax, MSNBC, and more. In addition to PolitiChicks, Ann-Marie has written for multiple other news sites. You can find Ann-Marie Murrell on Facebook and Twitter: @PolitichickAM E-mail: thepolitichicks@gmail.com

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