Takeaways From the GOP Debate

Pizza and Politics:

Herman Cain is struggling to maintain some presence in this race as the candidate on the Right Side of Extreme (you’re free to decide what I mean by “Right Side of”), but he may have found a good hook last night.  Cain pitched his new tax plan in genuine infomercial style:

“ I call it my 9-9-9 economic growth plan. Throw out the current tax code, a 9 percent tax on corporate income, a 9 percent tax on personal income and a 9 percent national sales tax.”

I wonder if Cain’s plan would sound as good if he made the same commercial-esque sell regarding its effects:

“My 9-9-9 economic growth plan:  It creates unprecedented deficit problems, makes the maintenance of social benefits impossible, and is shockingly destructive to working class Americans who spend the vast majority of their income on living expenses!”

But the most unsettling part of Cain’s plan is the pitch.  We all know Herman Cain likes to keep things simple, but it’s hard to take the former Godfather Pizza CEO seriously when his economic policy seems to be a rip-off of the Dominos 5-5-5 deal.

Michelle Bachmann is Soooo July 2011:

Poor Michelle Bachmann.  She used to be the media darling, and no amount of Crazy could bring her down.  But with Governor Perry emerging as the potential frontrunner, Bachmann seems to have been Rick Roll’d out of relevance.  Bachmann had to wait fourteen minutes to speak as the moderators focused on making Romney and Perry fight.  She was only asked to answer questions 8 times throughout the entire two-hour event.

The most damning moment was when Bachmann shouted out to the moderator for a chance to respond, and was completely ignored as he instead requested a comment from Jon Huntsman.  When the media is more interested in Jon Huntsman than you, your campaign is in trouble.  It was almost sad to watch; it felt like Woody realizing he wasn’t Andy’s favorite toy anymore.  Michelle Bachmann might have been the media’s best plaything for the summer, but now that they have a shiny new Rick Perry, she’s quickly been discarded to the toy chest.

The Republican Nominee For Supreme Court:

Early in the debate, Mitt Romney said the following of Texas:

“Texas is a great state. Texas has zero income tax. Texas has a right to work state, a Republican legislature, a Republican Supreme Court. Texas has a lot of oil and gas in the ground.”

It’s a disturbing statement, isn’t it?  How could Mitt Romney not know that Texas has two Supreme Courts!  But in all seriousness, the aspect of the quote that’s disturbing is that Romney referred to the Court as “Republican.”  Even more disconcerting, the media has been virtually silent in correcting his label.  The idea of a court system being defined by a political allegiance flies in the face of everything our Judiciary is meant to uphold, yet lately it’s occurring again and again, now from a presidential frontrunner.  There were many policies and ideas put forward in this debate that I disagreed with, but none more so than the notion that our courts are either Democrat or Republican.

Image provided by DonkeyHotey.