Republican debate

[the captain]

Anyone watch tonight? Thoughts?

[Manchini]

To be fair, I didn't watch the entire thing.  But my observations on what I did see:  I still support Ron Paul, and -- as I suspected, and just like the Democratic debates -- nobody else's predictable "give-'em-what-they-wanna-hear" answers jibed with me at all.  I also think the debates are structured poorly, which I attribute partly to the fact that these are Q&A sessions and are much different than a debate, but I guess that's nothing new.  These things always leave me pretty unfulfilled.  I'd like to see full on, less moderated discourse between the candidates.  I know it's unrealistic, but it's the only way I can see the party debates actually being revealing and worthwhile.

[the captain]

I agree that such debates end up being reiterations of scripted responses--usually to scripted questions, although I understand last night's at least didn't include any foreknowledge of the questions. It was the first time I'd ever heard Rep. Paul, and he was the only one who impressed me, not as much for his politics as for his consistency of message and charisma. Odds of winning: probably 0%.

Overall, though, I lean left. But there is nobody over there I've ever been enamored with, either. Such is life, I guess.