Once again the political debate left a lot of people wondering who will be the Republican Candidate to take lead against Barack Obama in the upcoming elections. The remaining eight candidates (Rick Perry, Herman Cain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman and Rick Santorum) all stood firm during the South CarolinaPresidential debate sponsored by CBS, the National Journal and the Republican Party of South Carolina. From the beginning, candidates such as Jon Huntsman and Herman Cain wrestled for time against the mediators, who enforced the time limit strictly. The candidates longed for those extra seconds that could have them achieve the highest form of approval; the wave of applause by the public. Unfortunately there were times when the candidate’s extended responses caused tension between the mediator and the candidate, making the candidate appear childish to the public.
The main topic of the night was foreign policy and national security. It was emphasized from the beginning by the mediators that when the president assumes power it will be expected and demanded that he or she is able to make drastic decisions in a short amount of time. For most of the debate candidates spoke of reasonable answers that they would implement if they became president until the mediator asked what their stance on torture was, more specifically water boarding. On this question all hell broke loose, as the alliances that the candidates had formed, enforcing each other’s theoretical policies were broken; it became Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman vs. Michelle Bachmann and Herman Cain. The group of republicans was divided on the issue of “should torture be legal”. Herman Cain played around with the subject, calling it an “enhanced interrogation technique” instead of torture, saying it was vital way to get the truth. Cain teamed up with Michele Bachmann who agreed with Cain that torture should still be implemented since it was very effective against terrorists on previous years. She explained that “we have no jail for terrorists” and if torture is not used, is as “if we have decided to loose in the war on terror under president Obama”. Those words struck the public who eagerly applauded to finally hear Bachmann speak defiantly in the debate.
Then Ron Paul entered the debate. At first he shyly stood as he said “torture is illegal by our laws and international law”, then gained height as he continued stating that not only is water boarding “immoral and impractical” its “un-American”, the ending he needed to get the audience up and cheering. Michelle Bachmann quickly tried to add in a side comment in her defense but was shot down by the mediator who sensing a victory for Ron Paul, introduced Jon Huntsman who had yet to speak in the debate. He started off with a personal anecdote about his two boys who serve in the Army and all they want to do is “protect” the American values. As an ambassador he saw that “we should not torture we dilute ourselves down”, implying that the United States has an international image to keep up, which a “lot of people in corners of this world still look up to”, a point of view that most of the public agreed with hence the loud cheers that erupted. Even with their divided views on certain topics all Republican candidates agreed with Newt Gingrich statement that “Every single one of us is better than Barack Obama “
It’s unfortunate to say, but some candidates took the floor more often than others, leaving some candidates on the dark while having other’s outshine them. The next republican debate will be broadcasted Nov.22 which hopefully will allow those candidates that didn’t shine their turn at the spot light.
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