Incidentally it now looks as if we're far enough ahead for Google to have caught up indexing Twitter prior to May 8th (Twitter times are not accurate, Google doesn't index everything nor immediately, email is not always immediate...fun, fun, fun) so searching Mike's tweets will no longer need going via Topsy or plowing thru bl**dy twitter
Cruz is cruzing it now, on automode against Obama over abortion. Oh Chris Christie is trying to ride the abortion wave, and accuses Hillary for murdering babies.
Fiorina is trying to connect Iran and Abortion, she promises to make phone calls about it.
The candidates are speaking too fast for people to understand what they are saying.
A Kim Davis question, "Is Bush on the wrong side" question for Huckabee.
Huckabee trying to fire up the evangelicals, so far he makes a good case. Bush is trying to extradite himself from this.
Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes of the debate, this is a good debate so far, much better that the Fox one.
Agree this is a better debate. All the participants are more forceful and sharper. Not heard Carson's voice at all yet, but I came in at Trump on Syria.
A Kim Davis question, "Is Bush on the wrong side" question for Huckabee.
Huckabee trying to fire up the evangelicals, so far he makes a good case. Bush is trying to extradite himself from this.
Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes of the debate, this is a good debate so far, much better that the Fox one.
Agree this is a better debate. All the participants are more forceful and sharper. Not heard Carson's voice at all yet, but I came in at Trump on Syria.
A Kim Davis question, "Is Bush on the wrong side" question for Huckabee.
Huckabee trying to fire up the evangelicals, so far he makes a good case. Bush is trying to extradite himself from this.
Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes of the debate, this is a good debate so far, much better that the Fox one.
Agree this is a better debate. All the participants are more forceful and sharper. Not heard Carson's voice at all yet, but I came in at Trump on Syria.
So far the moderators are attacking Bush.
Wonder if that is in fact a reverse tactic of support - the person attacked gets the opportunity to respond. So by seeming to attack, they are giving him more time and more opportunities to put out his policies in response.
A Kim Davis question, "Is Bush on the wrong side" question for Huckabee.
Huckabee trying to fire up the evangelicals, so far he makes a good case. Bush is trying to extradite himself from this.
Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes of the debate, this is a good debate so far, much better that the Fox one.
Agree this is a better debate. All the participants are more forceful and sharper. Not heard Carson's voice at all yet, but I came in at Trump on Syria.
So far the moderators are attacking Bush.
Wonder if that is in fact a reverse tactic of support - the person attacked gets the opportunity to respond. So by seeming to attack, they are giving him more time and more opportunities to put out his policies in response.
The moderators use their position to remind the audience what the person said, Bush in contrast to Trump didn't succesfully defend or deflect the question.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Trump refuses to apologize to Bush's wife for unrelated stuff, Bush is trying to get Reagan in this, Trump brings Bush's statements about loving immigration.
Fiorina is trying to make the case that people are bored of talking about illegal immigration. Bush is trying to make a case that deporting people is too expensive.
Now the language question, Trump is making a good point about assimilating immigrants, Bush is talking about voucher programs.
Rubio "my father loved Reagan", spanish is free enterprise or something according with him.
Trump is booming with the "anchor babies" issue, Fiorina is trying to bore the audience, still trying to make the case that immigration is going on for so long it shouldn't be addressed.
Rand Paul is defending Trump! Trying to prove the case that Trump is right about the 14th amendment.
Fiorina reminds people about the Nasdaq tech crash. Trump is killing Fiorina on the Compaq deal, Fiorina is trying to defend herself with the debt of Trump's casinos, Trump fires back that Christie destroyed Atlantic City and the casinos.
Christie attack both Fiorina and Trump, Fiorina tries to interrupt gets flack on her face. Fiorina jabs Christie's career.
Now a minimum wage question. Walker: Reagan tax cuts, cut taxes, education , energy ect, he's a mess really. The moderator accuses him of not answering the question.
Carson says that he probably wants a minimum wage increase, he want's to make a 2 tier minimum wage.
The moderator accuses Kasich of refusing to attack Hillary.
Kasich once more wants to talk about his record about 1972. People don't care what he did in 1972.
Fiorina is going back to Christie, talks about her difference with Hillary.
Christie wants to prosecute Hillary, because he was a prosecutor of course.
My take so far is that it's a very even debate, but Bush and Kasich especially are terrible. Fiorina is very boring but has a very sympathetic audience. Trump is not his usual self, with all the shouting done by everyone he doesn't register so much as the previous debate.
Why is Trump not knowing about some guy in middle east, question.
Trump is saying that Rubio apologized to him on TV earlier about that.
Rubio says that is an important question, the world is about to invade America according to him. Rubio is trying to say that the most important thing ever is foreign policy. Trump is waving the white flag about foreign policy, says that he's just a businessman so he doesn't know about it.
Rubio says that he's leaving the senate, that's news.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Christie was US Federal Attorney for New Jersey 2002-2008 and was one of the most impactful federal attorneys over that period, focusing on stamping out corruption. I think he can claim some expertise in the law.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Christie was US Federal Attorney for New Jersey 2002-2008 and was one of the most impactful federal attorneys over that period, focusing on stamping out corruption. I think he can claim some expertise in the law.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Christie was US Federal Attorney for New Jersey 2002-2008 and was one of the most impactful federal attorneys over that period, focusing on stamping out corruption. I think he can claim some expertise in the law.
He might end up in prison.
Now it would be ironic if someone who made his name fighting corruption should end up in prison on corruption charges. But Bridgegate has run its course, so I don't think it will happen at this point.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Christie was US Federal Attorney for New Jersey 2002-2008 and was one of the most impactful federal attorneys over that period, focusing on stamping out corruption. I think he can claim some expertise in the law.
He might end up in prison.
Now it would be ironic if someone who made his name fighting corruption should end up in prison on corruption charges. But Bridgegate has run its course, so I don't think it will happen at this point.
Immigration. Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan. Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Christie was US Federal Attorney for New Jersey 2002-2008 and was one of the most impactful federal attorneys over that period, focusing on stamping out corruption. I think he can claim some expertise in the law.
He might end up in prison.
Now it would be ironic if someone who made his name fighting corruption should end up in prison on corruption charges. But Bridgegate has run its course, so I don't think it will happen at this point.
It's more than Bridgegate.
I presume you mean Sandygate. I haven't seen any news on that scandal at all for about a year. Is there anything happening, or has it died on the vine?
So far the debate is working against Trump, when everyone sounds like their on drugs or drunk, Trump doesn't stick out.
Huckabee is so far only about abortion as much as Kasich is about his record in 1972, terrible candidates.
I'm now at the point were I can predict what the candidates will say on any question. Rubio will connect everything on foreign policy, Walker with trade unions, Trump with immigration, Carson with intelligence, Christie with him being an attorney long ago, ect ect.
Bush is a little unpredictable because he simply answers his questions randomly with something that sound like white noise.
A Trump is rich question. Should rich people have social security?
Trump: I don't need social security, some people don't need it.
Christie is making a large proposal about social security reform.
A climate change question.
Why not take an insurance policy like Reagan with the ozone layer?
Rubio: left wingers want to destroy the economy and america is not the planet, china is at fault. Christie: "Rubio is not a climate change skeptic", I agree with Marco, we can have nuclear power like in N.J., George Schultz is wrong.
So far I can see those performing the worst on the debate, but there is no one that is ahead on this.
I'm seeing now an attack ad against Bloomberg for president on CNN, why i'm seeing this, the guy isn't even running.
That struck me too. It is preemptive. If Bloomberg sees a viable track as a third candidate - say a mortally wounded Clinton as the Dem nominee and Trump on the GOP ticket - he is well capable of stepping in as a self-funded third party candidate.
In 'The Voice', they always talk about the need for contestants to keep on upping their game each successive week. Kasich hasn't got the memo, with his record stuck on his record. A shame, I think he would be the best on policies.
The Fox debate had incisive questions designed to take candidates out of their comfort zone.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
I don't think so, she talked all the time about women and unrelated things, as I said she is the american version of Yvette Cooper. No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
The Fox debate had incisive questions designed to take candidates out of their comfort zone.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
I don't think so, she talked all the time about women and unrelated things, as I said she is the american version of Yvette Cooper. No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
I don't know who Yvette Cooper is, so cannot comment.
I suspect you are looking at this through British eyes. There will be winners and losers.
The big problem for me was that I missed the first hour of the debate. But in the other 2 hours I can say that the debate was too long and too chaotic, as a result I didn't see Trump shining, in fact I didn't see anyone winning this debate.
If I have too keep score I will give:
Cruz: 6/10 Kasich: 0/10 Bush: 3/10
Everyone else 4/10
Everyone seemed to gravitate towards their favourite subjects on everything. Fiorina talked about women, Rubio about foreign policy, Paul about the constitution, Christie about prosecutions, Kasich about his record in 1972, Trump about immigration, Carson about intelligence, Walker about the unions, Huckabee about abortion.
Only Bush and Cruz talked about multiple subjects and Cruz was better at it. On points I call it for Cruz.
The big problem for me was that I missed the first hour of the debate. But in the other 2 hours I can say that the debate was too long and too chaotic, as a result I didn't see Trump shining, in fact I didn't see anyone winning this debate.
If I have too keep score I will give:
Cruz: 6/10 Kasich: 0/10 Bush: 3/10
Everyone else 4/10
Everyone seemed to gravitate towards their favourite subjects on everything. Fiorina talked about women, Rubio about foreign policy, Paul about the constitution, Christie about prosecutions, Kasich about his record in 1972, Trump about immigration, Carson about intelligence, Walker about the unions, Huckabee about abortion.
Only Bush and Cruz talked about multiple subjects
Trust me - you didn't miss the first hour, you merely didn't see it. It was way too long.
The Fox debate had incisive questions designed to take candidates out of their comfort zone.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
I don't think so, she talked all the time about women and unrelated things, as I said she is the american version of Yvette Cooper. No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
I don't know who Yvette Cooper is, so cannot comment.
I suspect you are looking at this through British eyes. There will be winners and losers.
The Fox debate had incisive questions designed to take candidates out of their comfort zone.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
I don't think so, she talked all the time about women and unrelated things, as I said she is the american version of Yvette Cooper. No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
I don't know who Yvette Cooper is, so cannot comment.
I suspect you are looking at this through British eyes. There will be winners and losers.
She came third in the Labour Party leadership race, Yvette = Mrs Ed Balls = Mrs 17%.
The Fox debate had incisive questions designed to take candidates out of their comfort zone.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
I don't think so, she talked all the time about women and unrelated things, as I said she is the american version of Yvette Cooper. No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
I don't know who Yvette Cooper is, so cannot comment.
I suspect you are looking at this through British eyes. There will be winners and losers.
Really? How much success has she had in the corporate world? Ms Cooper sounds lame and wimpy.
OK, so I have now watched PMQs. JC did well for a first outing, and it wasn't just him reading out the questions he had been sent (mine didn't get picked - and it wasn't the one about Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism either!).
Next up - conference. Maybe we will see some theatrical walk-outs or tearing up of party membership cards by the Blairite residue.
As an aside, will the BBC bother to cover the Lib Dem conference this year? It ought not get much more coverage than the Greens get together.
Fox News very influential on race.They like Carson but when push comes to shove will probably get behind Bush.The more leftish channels Bloomberg and NBC like Kasich.
"Political journalists have failed to predict all of the major events of the last year. They need to start asking themselves serious questions."
Good morning all. Well, the same can be leveled at all the western intelligence agencies. I remember reading an excellent paper from a CIA analyst which enumerated (and then attempted to explain why and offer remediations) all the intelligence failures since the Bay of Pigs. It was a hell of a long list. As the old saying goes, "predictions are hard, especially about the future".
More apropos, the Suzanne Moore article is excellent - I don't normally rate her, but her point about Labour needing to think, not feel, was the mot juste.
Comments
'Anyway onto matters less parochial... was it me or did Jezza's suit look utterly enourmous ?'
It's just his authentic Laundry bag with a beard dress code.
He obviously shops with Ruth Kelly.
Kasich is rudely interrupting the moderators and Cruz.
Huckabee trying to fire up the evangelicals, so far he makes a good case.
Bush is trying to extradite himself from this.
Unfortunately I missed the first 45 minutes of the debate, this is a good debate so far, much better that the Fox one.
Oh Chris Christie is trying to ride the abortion wave, and accuses Hillary for murdering babies.
Fiorina is trying to connect Iran and Abortion, she promises to make phone calls about it.
The candidates are speaking too fast for people to understand what they are saying.
Trump comes in.
He's killing Bush, about the "misquoting" thing by Bush.
Oh he goes against N.Korea.
Bush about N.Korea : There area 30 thousand about Planned Parenthood.
Trump vs Bush fight about the Bush statements.
Walker comes in, people get bored.
What about his persona.
Fiorina got her only applause so far tonight.
Trump flatlined a bit.
Trump: "I will build a wall that works, there are some bad dudes around in this country"
Chris Christie says he an expert on law, with his so many entanglements with the law i'm sure about it.
Carson is asked to come in, he simply reiterates the immigration problem with great detail, opens a door to Trump's plan.
Trump looks terrible with that tie.
Fiorina is trying to make the case that people are bored of talking about illegal immigration.
Bush is trying to make a case that deporting people is too expensive.
Now the language question, Trump is making a good point about assimilating immigrants, Bush is talking about voucher programs.
Rubio "my father loved Reagan", spanish is free enterprise or something according with him.
Cruz is licking Trump's arse "i'm happy that Trump is running in this race", he brings the amnesty issue in a jab towards Rubio and Bush.
Rubio basically make the case that he supports immigration because he himself is an immigrant, he goes all Romney with E-Verify.
Carson makes his case by applying things that work, falls flat.
Trump is booming with the "anchor babies" issue, Fiorina is trying to bore the audience, still trying to make the case that immigration is going on for so long it shouldn't be addressed.
Rand Paul is defending Trump!
Trying to prove the case that Trump is right about the 14th amendment.
Fiorina reminds people about the Nasdaq tech crash.
Trump is killing Fiorina on the Compaq deal, Fiorina is trying to defend herself with the debt of Trump's casinos, Trump fires back that Christie destroyed Atlantic City and the casinos.
Christie attack both Fiorina and Trump, Fiorina tries to interrupt gets flack on her face.
Fiorina jabs Christie's career.
Kasich: "my record is that I did that and this in Ohio blablabla I did a balanced budget"
Kasich back on form on talking about his record in Ohio on every question.
Huckabee wants to abolish all taxes.
Carson: "it's all about America", accuses Trump of being a socialist on taxes, government should be abolished.
Trump makes a case against a flat tax, promises a reduction on middle class taxes funded by hedge fund taxes.
Now a minimum wage question.
Walker: Reagan tax cuts, cut taxes, education , energy ect, he's a mess really. The moderator accuses him of not answering the question.
Carson says that he probably wants a minimum wage increase, he want's to make a 2 tier minimum wage.
Kasich once more wants to talk about his record about 1972. People don't care what he did in 1972.
Fiorina is going back to Christie, talks about her difference with Hillary.
Christie wants to prosecute Hillary, because he was a prosecutor of course.
My take so far is that it's a very even debate, but Bush and Kasich especially are terrible.
Fiorina is very boring but has a very sympathetic audience.
Trump is not his usual self, with all the shouting done by everyone he doesn't register so much as the previous debate.
Why is Trump not knowing about some guy in middle east, question.
Trump is saying that Rubio apologized to him on TV earlier about that.
Rubio says that is an important question, the world is about to invade America according to him.
Rubio is trying to say that the most important thing ever is foreign policy.
Trump is waving the white flag about foreign policy, says that he's just a businessman so he doesn't know about it.
Rubio says that he's leaving the senate, that's news.
Who are Bush's advisors?
Bush gives a generic answer.
Paul disagrees, he gives Bush's head on a silver plate, makes the case against invading Syria.
Bush says it was wrong to get out of Iraq.
Carson says that he personally said to G.W. Bush to not invade Iraq in 2002.
Carson: " I was a personal friend of G.W.Bush", tries to make a connection between invading Afghanistan and NASA.
Christie: "Those people tried to kill us"
Carson is trying to make the case of putting smart people in charge instead of aggressive people, Rubio disagrees.
Huckabee raises the Pentagon scandal of the doctored intelligence reports, he doesn't go anywhere.
How many troops should we send?
Walker: Listen to our military experts, work with our sudi (yes sudi) and kurd allies.
Paul: The war was a mistake, I won't send troops back in Iraq and the Saudis are at fault they should solve it not us.
Kasich for once is not talking about his record in Ohio in 1972, talks about the superiority of western ideas.
Fiorina is making a long very long list of military equipment.
Did G.W.B made a mistake with John Roberts?
Bush is defending Roberts about Obamacare.
Cruz is accusing Roberts about changing his decision in order to defend Obamacare for political reasons.
It's now a back and forth thing about Roberts.
Huckabee is connecting the supreme court and Roberts with abortion (of course) again.
Huckabee is so far only about abortion as much as Kasich is about his record in 1972, terrible candidates.
I'm now at the point were I can predict what the candidates will say on any question.
Rubio will connect everything on foreign policy, Walker with trade unions, Trump with immigration, Carson with intelligence, Christie with him being an attorney long ago, ect ect.
Bush is a little unpredictable because he simply answers his questions randomly with something that sound like white noise.
Paul: the young users are innocent and the war on drugs is wrong, rehabilitation is needed.
Bush: "I smoked Pot", but drugs like heroin are wrong.
They are seriously talking about the use of drugs.
Christie: New Jersey is the first country to be pro-life about drugs, but not legalizing it because they are all victims.
What is it that Paul always has to put the constitution in every conversation?
Fiorina comes in the discussion, brings her dead child in this, makes the strongest statement of the night about the use of drugs.
Bush: It's complicated, no federal gun laws, babbles away.
Rubio: Criminals will ignore the law anyway so why have gun laws anyway, strong families, strong people, strong this and that.
Cruz: I fought the senate to keep gun rights.
Should rich people have social security?
Trump: I don't need social security, some people don't need it.
Christie is making a large proposal about social security reform.
A climate change question.
Why not take an insurance policy like Reagan with the ozone layer?
Rubio: left wingers want to destroy the economy and america is not the planet, china is at fault.
Christie: "Rubio is not a climate change skeptic", I agree with Marco, we can have nuclear power like in N.J., George Schultz is wrong.
And now a measles vaccines question.
Carson: Vaccines don't cause autism, vaccines are important to prevent death, people don't like the government telling them about vaccines.
Trump: Autism has become an epidemic, i'm in favour of vaccines but in smaller doses.
Carson on Trump: "He's an OK doctor", agrees with Trump now.
Paul: Vaccines are the greatest thing ever, George Washington had his wife vaccinated.
Huckabee: Declare war on disease.
So far I can see those performing the worst on the debate, but there is no one that is ahead on this.
I'm seeing now an attack ad against Bloomberg for president on CNN, why i'm seeing this, the guy isn't even running.
Paul: Susan B. Antony
Huckabee: My Wife.
Rubio: Rosa Parks
Cruz: I would change the 20$ bill with Rosa Parks.
Carson: My Mother.
Trump: My daughter, or Rosa Parks.
Bush: Thatcher.
Walker: Barcon.
Fiorina: I wouldn't change it, women are a majority and don't need gestures.
Kasich: Mother Teresa
Christie: The Adams family, Abigail Adams.
Christie: True heart
Huckabee; Unit 1
Fiorina; Secretariat
Bush: power drink
Trump :Humble
Carson: One nation
Cruz: Heidi angel
Rubio: Gater
Huckabee: Duck hunter
Paul: justice never sleeps.
Your airforce one question.
Paul :I met Reagan in 1976.
I'm stopping , this is rubbish, these questions are unbearable .
I have to hear the name Ronald Reagan a thousand times now.
Carson: " I was a radical democrat before Reagan".
I can't go on like this.
Trump looks and sounds tired.
Bush : 4% growth through stuff.
Walker: "I turned 13 dick (oops moment) years when Reagan became president"
Fiorina: Lady Liberty and Lady Justice.
Fiorina is the american version of Cooper, all feminist but sounds like Lane Smith.
My first take on the debate:
Nobody won, so Trump lost.
But Kasich was terrible, Bush was bad too and Carson was too slow for the fast pace of the debate.
I can say that Trump, Kasich, Bush and Carson lost this debate.
Fiorina is just the american version of Cooper.
I think that Cruz might have an opening.
The CNN debate was more "Candidate A said such and such about you. Would you like to respond." It was a bit lame. 3 hours 15 minutes is way too long.
I think Carly did good.
No one did good in this debate, no one won, it was too chaotic.
I suspect you are looking at this through British eyes. There will be winners and losers.
But in the other 2 hours I can say that the debate was too long and too chaotic, as a result I didn't see Trump shining, in fact I didn't see anyone winning this debate.
If I have too keep score I will give:
Cruz: 6/10
Kasich: 0/10
Bush: 3/10
Everyone else 4/10
Everyone seemed to gravitate towards their favourite subjects on everything.
Fiorina talked about women, Rubio about foreign policy, Paul about the constitution, Christie about prosecutions, Kasich about his record in 1972, Trump about immigration, Carson about intelligence, Walker about the unions, Huckabee about abortion.
Only Bush and Cruz talked about multiple subjects and Cruz was better at it.
On points I call it for Cruz.
Goodnight.
Speedy, is this true?
More apropos, the Suzanne Moore article is excellent - I don't normally rate her, but her point about Labour needing to think, not feel, was the mot juste.