Republican Debate, Take 2: in which I bite off more than I can chew.

I again missed the Democratic debate and caught the Republican one. Sorry. For this debate, I tried both to keep a running diary and some stats on the debate. Whew. I had to give up on the stat-keeping when we got to the town-hall part. Anyways, here they are:

Live blog
•9: times Huckabee raised his eyebrows in his 10 second introduction.
•Romney: We have to have a broad response against Islam in order to make sure that they are moving forward to modernity--his response to whether nuclear weapons are reasonable. Nuking Islamics will catch them up with the rest of the world? We'll have to revise Cheney's "we'll bomb you back to the stone-age" threat to "We'll nuke you up to the space age."
•"We are becoming a bilingual nation and that is not good." -Tancredo. Seriously?
•What the heck is going on with Tommy Thompson's hair? He has his sideburns shaved all the way back to mid-temple. Must be shooting for the 80's hair band vote…
•Pretty funny that lightening continuously struck while Giuliani was answering questions about being opposite the church.
•Giulliani seems to suffer disproportionately from the lightening strike phenomenon.
•Romney puts Putin, Abinojad, and Chavez all in the same answer: whoa. At your local theater this week: Cold War II, Vlad's revenge.
•Romney's a great staller. You couldn't take that mike from him with a gun.
•Gilmore gets in a dig on Russia, too. I'm terrified that Putin will respond to this debate by nuking NH.
•You'd think the "Live free or die" state would be more into a libertarian like Ron Paul.
•"This is not a time to deal with disruptive issues like this" -Giulliani on Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Then cites the fact that Clinton has already dealt with it. Not too many subjects that a Republican would dodge by saying that Bill Clinton already solved it.
•"I would put him out on the lecture cicuit"- Thompson on how he would include George W. Bush in his administration. This is hilarious: if elected, Tommy Thompson will turn President Bush into a motivational speaker. He's got my vote.
•Giulliani takes Romney's stalling crown with a 100+ word answer to a "Yes" or "No" question.
•Romney, irate, responds with 150 words.
•Half-time analysis: All doing their best to avoid the issues of abortion, global warming, evolution, gay rights, pardoning Libby. Trying to bring it all back to security.
•Wow, hard not to feel impressed by the first young woman to ask a question in the town hall portion.
•McCain scores big by realizing that you can get up from the chair in the town hall part. All other candidates follow suit.
•Huckabee seems pissed to be asked questions on "morality".
•Apparently, Communism fell because Ronald Reagan was able to talk them out of it (Giulliani). We're approaching Chuck Norris level reverence.
•CNN uses some weird low and high angle shots to make Ron Paul look crazy. Paul helps them out.
•Romney scores with a reference to the "Kennedy-McCain" bill. Republicans hate JFK's little brother, so any linking to his name is poison.
•This standing up revelation is incredible.
•"Bilingual countries don't work, and we should not encourage it." -Tancredo. Take that, Switzerland.
•John McCain points out that many of our armed forces are Hispanic. Right on.
•I should've included a stat that tracked who got the big bursts of applause. Stupid.
•"The leading cause of fear in America is that you'll get cancer." -Brownback. Wow, I'd like to see the stats on that one. I wish that were true, but I think that if it were you would see the candidates trying to drag the debate back to health care rather than national security.
•"[The] tax system literally steps on [the American people's] head" -Huckabee. Yeah, I don't think that's true. Someone needs to explain the word "literally" to the good governor from Arkansas.
•To be an American means that you cut your ties with your past, according to Tancredo. Well, I guess I'm going to have to throw away my English rugby jersies if I hope to retain my citizenship during the Tancredo administration.
•Mike Huckabee stands for no man.
•Giulliani pulls a fake-out: first half of the answer sitting, second half standing.
•McCain's definition of what it takes to become an American includes a belief in the creator. Sorry Jefferson.
•Duncan Hunter, on whether the Republicans should be trying to work with the Democrats to forge consensus: "No". Unspoken: "F*** them."
•Romney 5, Blitzer 0. Wolf could hold Mitt underwater and it wouldn't stop him from talking.

Check back tomorrow for the raw stats.