So, did you guys watch the CNN/Youtube Republican Debate yesterday? I missed the last Democratic Youtube Debate (even though I'm a Republican, so it wasn't too big a deal) and almost missed this one too. I only just happened to turn the TV on and hear them talking about it.

I thought the debate was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! I was so glad that I got to watch it. I watched it live on CNN. I was really surprised at how heated it got between the Republicans, to my knowledge this was the most heated it has ever gotten, although it's not unexpected of course, but I was still surprised at the exchange between Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani. I did think that his accusation of Mitt having illegals on his property was unfounded and not a good way to go. Rudy didn't look like he did too well with a confrontation like that, although either did Mitt IMO. I think that exchange really made mefocus my attention on the other candidatesthe entire debate since it happened at the beginning. A bit of a shame since I do like Rudy, and Mitt isn't too bad either.

In my opinion it was Mike Huckabee and John McCain that did the best and won the debate. I also took more notice of the lower candidates, particularly Tancredo and Duncun Hunter, both of who I think are good but obviously they will note win the election and thus won't get my vote. Which is too bad cause I do really like Hunter, and I think he'd make an excellent president.

I thought Fred Thompson did good in the debate as well, some people disagreed but I thought he did fine.

But I thought John McCain has once again really proved his toughness with this debate. He really shone through and I think that, especially standing next to Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama (I won't even utter the other guy's name, this isn't a clown show afterall), John McCain would simply crush them. There is no way they can even begin to TOUCH him in the area of national defense and foreign affairs. And I think that he would be an extremely strong, non-partison (he's shown that he can work with Democrats and go against the grain of the Republican Party) leader that this country really needs at this time.

And as much as I LOVE Huckabee and think that Huckabee would be a great President, it's the whole war issue that puts McCain above the others, this guy KNOWS what he is talking about. And the others can't even pretend that they know more than he does or have more experience in that area. (although Giuliani gets my next vote in this area obviously);Just as Romney tried to do, you simply can't argue with McCain's credentials. He is ALSO a Senator from my state (I live in Phoenix, Arizona) and that's just the icing on the cake. Maybe Mike Huckabee would make a good Vice President though.

I must tip my hat to CNN as well, I'm not one to watch CNN, my remote stays on Fox News, but I thought CNN did an excellent job and even though the debate was two hours I wanted it to continue!!!!!! I also thought the whole youtube question format is an awesome idea and worked really well (even though it's impossible for the candidates to not argue with each other and stay within the time limit). Some of the questions were a bit suspect though . . . two questions on gay rights . . . And then there was the question on if you believe "every word of the Bible", which is one of those tongue-in-cheek/mocking questions the way it was given, but I thought all the candidates did a great job on answering it. Of course Huckabee shined in his answer as you'd expect.

And then they had the whole "What would Jesus do?" question, and Huckabee once again shined like a glittering angel with his line, "Jesus was too smart to run for public office" which got laughs by everyone. As the commentor on CNN said, that was proably the smartest answer you could give on a question like that.

Overall though I thought the questions were pretty well given. And I was impressed that none of the candidates moved or apoligized for the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy when confronted by the gay General. I felt his pain and emotion and indeed felt pity for the person not for what he is but for what he had to go through beinga gay person, but like the others I have to agree that the policy we have in place works and doesn't need changing. A person's homosexuality IMO is a private issue, it's not something you need to bring out for everybody to know. But I do think that it shouldn't be damaging if they come out, but they don't need to put it on display in the course of their service, and I think this also applies to heterosexuals. That should be reserved for when they are off-duty and home visiting with their families and whatnot.

So anyway, great debate I was really happy I watched it. I wish I had a DVR, I would've recorded it, even though you can watch clips from the debate on youtube by clicking on the link at the beginning of this blog.

So what did YOU think of the debate? Did any one candidate stand out to you?