First Republican presidential debate

Yesterday, we took a look at some of the contenders for the highest office in the land, as we Americans have used television to do since the Nixon-Kennedy debate.

Overall I was pleased with the Republican field, save for Congressman Ron Paul's (R-Texas) decidedly un-presidential rant against the United States military effort in Iraq. Inexplicably, at this writing Paul is winning — by a landslide — the ABC News web site poll that asks, Who Won the Republican Debate? I suspect script kiddie robots — possibly from MoveOn.org. (Cue the Oliver Stone ominous conspiracy music.)

I thought that John McCain gave some good responses, but stumbled a bit in places. Rudy Giuliani showed his "9/11 mayor," large-and-in-charge persona. Mitt Romney at first ducked the opening punch from moderator George Stephanopoulos, a statement from Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), but later recovered with more direct answers and a presidential demeanor.

Romney definitely had the sound bite of the week, which was a reference to Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama's statement that he would be willing to meet with the leaders of rogue governments like Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran without pre-condition, and his subsequent statement in a speech last week in Washington, D.C., that the U.S. must be ready to take military action inside Pakistan to dismantle terrorist networks.

Romney observed, "I mean in one week he went from saying he's going to sit down, you know, for tea, with our enemies, but then he's going to bomb our allies. I mean he's gone from Jane Fonda to Dr. Strangelove in one week.'"

Sir, who are you, and what have you done with Jay Leno's joke writers?

Notably absent from the debate were undeclared candidates Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich, both of whom would have added significance to the proceedings.

These debates are a golden opportunity for these leading Republicans to articulate the core values of the party: faith, family, free markets, tax reform, a strong military, private enterprise, limited government, along with anything and everything that's good about America. It appears that whichever candidate wins the nomination in Saint Paul next year, these ideals will be well-represented going into the election.