SC Republican debate transcript

@ NYTimes

brief comments to come

Edit: I decided I should put my time to better use... someone should offer a point-by-point rebuttal or confirmation of what was said though.

If democracy cannot take root in Iraq, it is not clear to me why Gov. Thompson's proposal to introduce elections at the regional level would have the effect that he claims it would have. How are the people empowered if those who have the real power (money and force of arms) continue to successfully oppose the government?

Gov. Thompson also said:

And if you split the oil revenues -- one-third to the federal government,
one-third to the territories, and one-third to every man, woman and child --
every man, woman and child will feel they have a stake in their government,
stake in their country, and they'll start using that money for peace and for
building businesses and making sure they build their country.

So we need to bribe the people? By getting them to depend on a government which gives them a dole to survive on, they will have a vested interest in seeing it remain in power? Brownback's
"three state, one country solution" has more of a connection to reality, in so far as ethnic identity remains strong.

MR. WALLACE: Congressman Hunter, you talk about standing up the Iraqi military
and that at some point soon they may be able to replace some American troops. Now the Bush administration has been saying this, the same thing for basically four -- more than four years, and we now have as many troops in Iraq, U.S. troops in Iraq, as we did when we invaded the country.

Why should we believe that this replacement is going to start happening any time soon?

REP. HUNTER:
Well, Chris, because the Iraqi forces that were running a couple of years ago in places like Fallujah are standing and fighting. We've got to get all 129 Iraqi battalions into a three- or four-month military operation -- most of them have been in there by now -- and then we rotate them into the battlefield and we rotate out the American heavy combat forces.

And how does Iraq differ from South Vietnam in this regard? How will we avoid the sort of problems that the U.S. faced when trying to build up the ARVN?

Brownback is wrong about ethanol.

MR. GOLER: Governor Gilmore, in the next president's term, baby boomers will retire, the costs of Social Security and Medicare will soar, sir. Tell me whether you'd be willing to reduce benefits even for wealthy Americans in order to avoid raising payroll taxes?

MR. GILMORE: Well, Wendell, one thing's for sure, and that is that we have developed a whole system, Social Security, of all these entitlement systems that are going to eat up the ability of the taxpayer to be able to pay for them. So we're going to have to address with the American people exactly what these programs are like and how we can put a cap on these in such a way that we're going to be able to pay for them and create a culture of independence in this country so people can provide for themselves through education and entrepreneurship in a way that liberates them for this.

The typical Republican nonsense about diminishing the welfare state by fostering business. And how successful has this been, given the power of corporations? When are the Republicans going to address the structural causes of wage slavery?

Tancredo: But did they vote for the No Child Left Behind bill, something of course the federal government has absolutely no involvement with? Did they vote for the Medicare/prescription drug bill, a $400 billion to some trillion dollars that we're not sure exactly where that's going to lie? What's the federal government role there? Did they vote for that? And then if they did, how in the world can you come back here and say, "We've got to be careful about spending and get it under control"?

iirc, Ron Paul did not support any of these measures.

Giuliani is sticking to his abortion stance, and pro-lifers see through him. All this talk about reducing abortion means nothing if Republicans do not support relocalization and the strengthening of communities, and this has to be done at the local level not at the Federal level. I doubt Giuliani knows anything about subsidiarity.

MR. HUCKABEE: Well, it's a form of flattery to be attacked, but I wish my name would get in the moniker that Governor Gilmore is putting out there. I could use the bump. (Laughter.)

But the truth is I cut taxes 94 times when I was governor. Yes, we raised gasoline taxes in my state to build a road program that we desperately needed, but 80 percent of the people of my state voted for it. Do I apologize for going along with what 80 percent of the people of my state supported? No. Nor do I anyway apologize for building roads.

Do I apologize for complying with a Supreme Court order to improve education in a state that desperately needed it? Of course I don't, because our education system did improve.

Huckabee needs to talk to James Howard Kunstler if he thinks the need for roads is that serious, instead of coming up with alternate ways as a governor to protect the political and economic life of the state. As for improving education, I'd like to see exactly what he did, because I don't believe measurements give an accurate picture of what is going on in the classroom.

MR. ROMNEY: Well, let's get the record straight. First of all, there's no question that I support Second Amendment rights, but I also support an assault weapon ban. An in the -- with regards to gay rights, I have always been somebody who opposes discrimination. But I also consistently feel that it's critical to have marriage as a relationship between one man and one woman.

So what about maintaining parity between the individual and the state military? No point in having a Second Amendment if the Federals are armed with modern weapons and citizens can only have flintlocks.

Romney is an idiot if he thinks he can support civil unions without being required by his own logic to support the provision of benefits to alternate domestic arrangements.

MR. GIULIANI: Well, there is no circumstances under which I could possibly imagine anyone choosing slavery or supporting slavery.

Apparently the former mayor of one of the world's largest cities knows nothing about sex trafficking. Is he this clueless? A weak answer to the question of whether he is consistent. (And we all know that he isn't.)

He was asked again about the ID card that would be required of non-citzens. Laughable. Who's talking tough about the employers who refuse to comply with the law?

SEN. MCCAIN: It is not flying on top of the capitol.

Yes, I was wrong when I didn't say it -- well, when I said that I believed that it was up to the state of South Carolina. That was a wrong statement on my part.

Now, after long negotiation amongst most parties, there is an agreement that that flag no longer flies on top of the capitol of the state of South Carolina.

Almost all parties involved in those negotiations believe that that's a reasonable solution to this issue. I support it. I still believe that it should not have flown over the capitol, and I was wrong when I said that it was a state issue. But now I think it has been settled, and I think it's time that we all moved on on this issue -- especially the people of South Carolina. (Applause.)

So it's a Federal issue then? Why should the South support a McCain candidacy if McCain does not respect Southern identity?

MR. HUME: Governor Huckabee, there might be a need for economic policies to change. What policies would you propose?

MR. HUCKABEE: One of the things that happened after 9/11, the president told us essentially that we all needed to get back on airplanes and fly, we all needed to go back to shopping centers and shop, we need to go ahead and travel. And I understand what he meant by that -- to put our economy back in motion. And I think that was a good thing to say, but it may have been interpreted by the American people as business as usual.

The problem is, it'll never ever be business as usual when you attack innocent Americans on our soil. It can't be business as usual. We've got to make a different kind of business -- go after those who murdered -- and let's use the word "murder" -- murdered fellow American citizens, then let's make sure that we do more than simply protect our borders and bring justice to those who did it; but that we ask the American people to join together in a sacrifice, the same kind of sacrifice that we had when we were attacked at Pearl Harbor, the same kind of sacrifice that we've been called upon as a nation repeatedly to do.

That's what America would have to do.

I don't see any concrete proposals with respect to the economy.

Romney thinks it's ok for the Federal government to hold states accountable for what they do with regards to education. Did he go to public schools?