What I'm Watching - The CNN Republican YouTube Debate

I have to say, watching the CNN YouTube Republican Debate, they are a much more entertaining group, in terms of going after one another, than the Democrats are. Hillary and Barack Obama have been going head-to-head lately (and, wow, has John Edwards become irrelevant and invisible the past two weeks -- Everything is focused on Obama and Clinton, and that's good news for the Obama campaign) and added a bit of a spark to the Democratic campaign, but the way that Rudy and Mitt Romney went after each other early in the debate, and how Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee joined in, it's intense there. Even John McCain and Ron Paul are going after each other on interventionism v. non-isolationism.

Like their last debate, CNN is allowing the crowd to be a "12th Man" and it's incredibly distracting, not just to the candidates, but the television audience. When Rudy starts talking about gun control, I want to hear his answer, not hear the crowd booing him before he's even able to get an answer out. Same with Ron Paul being booed on Iraq. And these "campaign videos" just as they were for democrats, are worthless. Mitt Romney aired a campaign ad. Fred Thompson spent his video attacking Romney and Huckabee. Rudy's was pretty good, and funny. More people need to take these videos in the light-hearted nature Rudy did. I'm waiting for Mike Huckabee's, I wonder if it will feature his endorsers Chuck Norris and professional wrestler Ric Flair.

I'm not a Republican expert, so I don't have much real "analysis" so far, other than Fred Thompson looks tired to me, and I haven't been overly impressed with Rudy tonight. Though I don't really like the way Mitt Romney has been answering questions either, he just seems too smug and too "I know more than you." Huckabee's been good, but he's a likable guy so I'd expect him to do well (though as Chris Matthews was talking about on Hardball tonight, his stance on guns, and the need for all citizens to have them in order to protect themselves against the government is nutty, but that's a separate issue). And John McCain's been solid and he said "life is not like 24 and Jack Bauer" when discussing torture, so bonus points for talking about Jack's torture techniques and history.