Who Won Monday Night's GOP 2012 Debate?

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Very interesting poll! But it makes sense. Liberarian voters have always had a place in the GOP, except that they only made up a tiny sliver, probably less than 3%.
All that has changed since 2008.
The Republicans have repudiated the GWBush Administration, which ended with an economic fiasco that punished the middle class and rewarded the very top.
And without any empirical evidence that Libertarianism has worked anywhere on Earth at any time, in terms of building a middle class, the GOP has fully turned to Ron Paul-ism.
To me, the most striking thing about the debate is how Ron Paul didn't stand out. Everyone there agreed with his basic philosophy. The GOP: they're all Libertarians now.

Jefferson Humphries of MO 1:16PM June 15, 2011

.... again!!!!!! If Ron Paul doesn't win the Republican Nomination!
Ron Paul in 2012

aRocketScientist of TX 8:02AM June 15, 2011

It's pretty interesting to me how the media can ignore Ron Paul and the fact he wins all the straw polls. I think the wake up day will come when Obama wins the election due to the Ron Paul supporters refusing to compromise with any vote for an Oath Breaker. None of their Oath's of Office is binding on them. Democrat and Republican are just two wings of one very ILL EAGLE. When people have had enough of the Totalitarianism they will vote for Liberty. I just hope they don't all try to get on the last train out of town. As for me my vote MUST go for Ron Paul. He has not compromised with Liberty and in reality, that's all I'm voting for . . . Liberty!

Don Wood of PA 7:31PM June 14, 2011

I have to laugh when the lamestream press calls the Republican field "nebulous". This the same press who worked to coronate Barack Obama as one of the greatest Presidents even before he set foot in the office ---a man who had never so much run a business as big a lemonade stand, a man who had never governed a political entity even as big as tiny Wasilla, Alaska, let alone been Governor of a State. Everyone of these candidates in their business and governing experience has more useful experience than Barack Obama.
If what they bring to the table is "nebulous", then what was it that Barack Obama brought to the table? Academic, left wing socialism that has failed to produce the innovation and living standards that capitalism in the United States has produced everywhere it has been tried?

John Stevens of VA 7:10PM June 14, 2011

Real policy recommendations, true changes to reduce expenses - across the table. He is the true egalitarian in the group. He wants less of all of it - not cherry-picking who and what to control. Cut everyone's stuff - balance the budget and pay some taxes that go solely to pay off the debt...but no new debt.
The GOP/TP I saw there is the one who really wants big government - one that tells you what to worship, what to do in bed, who to love and marry, whether you can join a union, refuses the right to have a national healthcare system, wants the right to torture, the right to listen in on your conversations, the right to limit people's right to vote, and wants to put your education, prisons, and local government in the hands of corporations who make a profit from these things that should be non-profit.
Ron Paul is a better choice. But the media and the status quo is too fearful that he would kick the lobbyists out of DC, cut the military and cut big corporations out of the power circles.... Too much money to keep it as-is.
The rest on the stage stand for tax cuts for the wealthy, for corporations, and a falling standard of living for the middle class. Why anyone in the middle class would vote for any of them is beyond me. It is definitly a vote against your own best interests...

DeeToo of SC 5:40PM June 14, 2011

Since most of the candidates parroted Ron Paul, it's awesome to see that the message of freedom and liberty is growing! We don't need the government getting us in more debt, and bailing out failed companies... We need to get rid of the Federal Reserve who has destroyed our country. The fed does not pay taxes and they are a privately owned bank. We need to get our troops out of 700 bases around the world!!! Thank God people are waking up, even if the slave media marginalizes Congressman Dr. Ron Paul!!! The REAL Tea Party is on the move!

Patrick of CA 4:20PM June 14, 2011

I don't think anyone was a big loser, but Ron Paul won the debate. The pundits aren't giving him the credit, but he's winning in all the online polls. He was the only candidate to really talk monetary policy in detail, describing what happens when you have central economic planning. He also managed to mention his military experience, and that he has spent time in the middle east. Being the only candidate on stage with military experience, it was good that he brought that up. He seemed to get the most applause, and maybe even more notably, the biggest laughs of the night.

Dave of TX 4:19PM June 14, 2011

Newt Gingrich has been a "president-in-waiting" for a long. Yesterday's debate, if anthing, confirms that title-without any trem limits,

Mike & Jessy Jacob of OH 4:05PM June 14, 2011

Someone always asks "who won the debate?" To me, no one. They were all losers. More than a half dozen people on stage playing the usual republican Blame Game, but when it came to ideas, potential solutions or monetary concepts there was a feeling where you could hear crickets.
No IDEAS whatsoever. So why should we send the people who devised these economic problems in the first place back into power? One even had the nerve to suggest that all corporate taxes be eliminated (to further the deficit?????) Cutting taxes has been a dismal failure since Reaganomics. Bush reinstated it and we got the same results. Cutting taxes only INCREASES corporate profits, doesn't reflect to wages and puts us into further debt. Typical republican solutions...screw the middle class and balloon corporate profits.
We need ideas. Anyone's ideas. But this set of candidates just played to the republican Kool Aid. Out of touch and still in the 80s. They just cannot come to the present and will forever be locked into the evangelical dogma. Rush must be proud. Beck will find a Nazi in there somewhere and probably is still looking.

oskar kirsten of CA 3:39PM June 14, 2011