one of the most entertaining, funny debates I can ever remember seeing. Over and over again it felt like I was watching Saturday night live.

::::::::

The biggest take-away from last night's debate is that the GOP presidential primary is Rick Perry's to lose. 

The comedic team at the debate last night was highly entertaining and illustrative of how mindless automatons can parrot tea party talking points. Then there was Ron Paul, who stood out for speaking truth to power. He was repaid, after the debate, by being ignored.  

On Fox News, Sean Hannity had most if not all the other primary candidates on his show, with Ron Paul conspicuously absent. 

On MSNBC, the anchors and pundits totally left him out of the discussions, though his comments during the debate, attacking the continued wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, questioning the efforts to block Iran from becoming a nuclear power, brought the loudest  applaud. 

Much of the debate seemed like a cat fight on the surface, with the debate moderators feeding accusations. But it also seemed like they'd been prompted to ask the questions, so the candidates could spin responses. For example, Byron York asked Michele Bachmann whether she was submissive to her husband. This was an issue that has come up, because of the marital relations policies of the Church she belongs to.  While the crowd reacted negatively, Bachmann dove in with a response that appeared to be canned, that there was mutual respect in the relationship. 

A commenter on the huffingtonpost posted this comment:

"Hahaha-- Subservien -t means respect?! I like how words mean whatever she wants them to mean. In case she, or anyone else was wondering here is the definition in reality;

sub ser vi ent/səbˈs ərv"ənt/Adjective

1. Prepared to obey others unquestioningly.

1. Less important; subordinate."

Two of the candidates-- Huntsman and Pawlenty-- were so bland and boring, they made Al Gore, who had a reputation while running for office, as being wooden, seem downright dynamic. It is clear they do not have the charisma factor needed to get ahead of the pack. Their wonky way of trying to prove they are competent hurts them. They are so boring, I'm sure a lot of undecided people stop listening after a few words. 

Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum were both pathetically whiny-- Gingrich complaining about tough questions, Santorum complaining about not getting enough attention. I think they're both, Gingrich in particular, trying to pull a Joe Biden. Biden never had a chance as a presidential candidate, but getting out on he trail made him a more visible "brand" to be considered as a vice presidential running mate. I think Santorum might have the upper hand in that category, since his name on the VP slot on the ballot might be seen as a way to improve the chances of pulling Pennsylvania, which is looking more and more like a swing state. 

The more we see of Romney, the less he looks like a winner, the more he looks like a hack who is trying to say the right talking points. The problem is he has so much history as the former moderate governor of a blue state, he will never pass the tea party tests that are ruling all any and all moderate republicans. Only extremists may apply. 

Cain is trying to sell himself as a businessman, talking about the nation as though it's a business. He suggested that all programs should be assessed for their efficiency. It made me wonder. If a program like medicare is inefficient, would he can it altogether? He is not a serious contender. 

Bachmann. Michelle Bachmann is riding fairly high in polls, but what does she bring to the table? Pawlenty accused her of accomplishing nothing as a member of congress. She used a phallic symbol reply-- "I've been at the at the tip of the spear" fighting President Obama's healthcare plan and the debt limit increase. Pawlenty replied that with all her efforts, Obama's actions have still succeeded. Yet the pundits seem to have given her the victory... because Pawlenty was too negative and she had attitude. 

Ron Paul is the candidate who stands out, in terms of audience response. He takes stands that are highly independent of the usual Frank Luntz right wing echo chamber talking points.  According to AllFacebook , " Rep. Paul won the debate with 46.52 percent of the vote according to Fox News' Facebook poll"

If you're an independent,  Paul, Huntsman and Pawlenty are the three non-teaparty faces in the race.  But this race is not about independents. It's about Republicans and the Republican party has been-- some say hijacked, I say courted and charmed by the tea party-- so it is now run by tea party ideology. 

Rick Perry will feel quite comfortable there, because his politics gibes with the tea-party's and because the rest of the candidates were unable to really stand out as leading the pack. 

Bottom line, this was one of the most entertaining, funny debates I can ever remember seeing. Over and over again it felt like I was watching Saturday night live. Every 45 seconds, it seemed like there was some observation I could have tweeted.  You won't learn much if anything new, but it'll be a fun watch. 

Each candidate had 30 seconds to give closing remarks. Outside of Ron Paul, most of them used the time not to talk about THEIR strengths, but rather, to attack Barack Obama. Apparently that's the way, along with religiously hewing to right wing talking points, that they expect to win.

Authors Bio:

Rob Kall is an award winning journalist, inventor, software architect,
connector and visionary. His work and his writing have been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, ABC, the HuffingtonPost, Success, Discover and other media.

Check out his platform at RobKall.com

He is the author of The Bottom-up Revolution; Mastering the Emerging World of Connectivity

He's given talks and workshops to Fortune
500 execs and national medical and psychological organizations, and pioneered
first-of-their-kind conferences in Positive Psychology, Brain Science and
Story. He hosts some of the world's smartest, most interesting and powerful
people on his Bottom Up Radio Show,
and founded and publishes one of the top Google- ranked progressive news and
opinion sites, OpEdNews.com

more detailed bio:

Rob Kall has spent his adult life as an awakener and empowerer-- first in the field of biofeedback, inventing products, developing software and a music recording label, MuPsych, within the company he founded in 1978-- Futurehealth, and founding, organizing and running 3 conferences: Winter Brain, on Neurofeedback and consciousness, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology (a pioneer in the field of Positive Psychology, first presenting workshops on it in 1985) and Storycon Summit Meeting on the Art Science and Application of Story-- each the first of their kind. Then, when he found the process of raising people's consciousness and empowering them to take more control of their lives one person at a time was too slow, he founded Opednews.com-- which has been the top search result on Google for the terms liberal news and progressive opinion for several years. Rob began his Bottom-up Radio show, broadcast on WNJC 1360 AM to Metro Philly, also available on iTunes, covering the transition of our culture, business and world from predominantly Top-down (hierarchical, centralized, authoritarian, patriarchal, big) to bottom-up (egalitarian, local, interdependent, grassroots, archetypal feminine and small.) Recent long-term projects include a book, Bottom-up-- The Connection Revolution, debillionairizing the planet and the Psychopathy Defense and Optimization Project.

Rob Kall Wikipedia Page

Rob Kall's Bottom Up Radio Show: Over 400 podcasts are archived for downloading here, or can be accessed from iTunes. Or check out my Youtube Channel

Rob Kall/OpEdNews Bottom Up YouTube video channel

Rob was published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com for several years.

Rob is, with Opednews.com the first media winner of the Pillar Award for supporting Whistleblowers and the first amendment.

To learn more about Rob and OpEdNews.com, check out A Voice For Truth - ROB KALL | OM Times Magazine and this article.

For Rob's work in non-political realms mostly before 2000, see his C.V.. and here's an article on the Storycon Summit Meeting he founded and organized for eight years.

Press coverage in the Wall Street Journal: Party's Left Pushes for a Seat at the Table

Talk Nation Radio interview by David Swanson: Rob Kall on Bottom-Up Governance June, 2017

Here is a one hour radio interview where Rob was a guest- on Envision This, and here is the transcript..

To watch Rob having a lively conversation with John Conyers, then Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here. Watch Rob speaking on Bottom up economics at the Occupy G8 Economic Summit, here.

Follow Rob on Twitter & Facebook.

His quotes are here

Rob's articles express his personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.

Join the conversation:

On facebook at Rob Kall's Bottom-up The Connection Revolution

and at Google Groups listserve Bottom-up Top-down conversation