Last night, the Republican presidential field took questions from average Americans through CNN's YouTube.com Debate, where questions are posed through YouTube videos.
For those of you who missed it, I watched closely and drank heav - er, took careful notes. You can watch it online and follow along.
Remember, anytime someone says "Reagan," you have to chug.
8:08 p.m.: Illegal immigration is the first topic discussed. Former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.)confirms the prevailing wisdom that former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the only candidate he's worried about by attacking him immediately for leading NYC as a "sanctuary city for illegal immigrants."
Giuliani swats back with a clever line - while Romney was governor, his house was a "sanctuary mansion" because the governor's mansion employed illegal immigrants. The two then ignore the moderator and spend five minutes arguing. Romney comes off clean, and Giuliani retreats to lick his wounds. Romney vs. Giuliani is the most important dynamic in the Republican race, and this was a microcosm of it.
8:19 p.m.: Former Sen. Fred Thompson (Tenn.) reminds everyone that he won't go quietly. He jabs Romney over flip-flops on immigration, and reminds Giuliani that we've all made some embarrassing hiring decisions - a veiled thrust at Rudy's hiring of the insanely corrupt former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik. Both men glare daggers at the tall Tennessean.
9:04 p.m.: Giuliani badly fumbles a gun control question. In a Republican primary, you don't want to sound like you respect the second amendment grudgingly - you need to sound genuine. Giuliani goes through the motions, but doesn't sound thrilled about gun rights. Romney smiles, sensing fodder for a campaign commercial.
9:17 p.m.: Giuliani's claim to read the Bible frequently rings a bit false. The question, "Do you believe every word of the Bible?" trips up Romney worse though. Worried that it's a trick to get him to talk about his Mormonism, he takes a very uncharacteristic deer-in-the-headlights pause and stammers out a focus-group approved "I believe the Bible is the word of God."
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's career as a Baptist minister serves him well here; he speaks with eloquence on the topic. This is the driving force behind Huckabee's meteoric rise in the Iowa polls: conservative evangelicals sensing one of their own and rallying to him.
9:26 p.m.: Watching Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) speak on Iraq is a reminder of why he used to be the frontrunner: The topic engages him like no other, and he speaks with conviction, sincerity and passion. For a brief minute, the old McCain is back, and all the other candidates are just kids in Dad's shadow.
9:29 p.m.: Romney is chosen by moderator Anderson Cooper to go toe-to-toe with McCain on torture. As a POW, McCain was tortured for years in Vietnam; you cannot go against him and not look like a jerk.
The other candidates quietly thank God they weren't selected to disagree with McCain. Romney takes his lumps and slinks away.
9:48 p.m.: A 72-year old retired brigadier general asks why gays can't serve openly in the military. Judging from the candidates' embarrassed looks while telling the man (who is in the audience, and has come out as gay) that he ruins "unit cohesion," I'd say this stance is going out of favor even in conservative circles.
For now though, they give the safe answer.
Michael Sherry is a junior majoring in poltical science. He can be reached at michael.sherry@tufts.edu.
