The First GOP Presidential Forum

++I've watched all candidates in round one. The GOP thrust will be to go after manufacturing. The arguments of several candidates were to cut the tax rates for manufacturing and stimulate the manufacturing base. Kasich actually criticized NAFTA and said he was for fair trade not free trade. Santorum actually got even more specific on repatriating corporate money. It was a populist sounding message but favorable to big business.

++All candidates were running against Washington. Cruz invoked 2010 and 2014 as the elections that mattered and that the GOP establishment had failed.

++All candidates pledged to shrink the federal government. All of them insisted it had grown over the last decade. In fact, the federal government is about the size it was at the end of the 1960s.

++All had some tax cut proposals, ranging from a flat tax to a maximum of 25%.

++All wanted to repeal Obamacare because it was a drag against economic growth. All hedged and said they want to have a replacement treating Americans as consumers and having greater choice in halt care providers. I could not think of any greater choices than that offered under the ACA.

++Jeb! and Ms. Lindsey said they would not hesitate to use boots on the ground in Syria. Although Jeb! waffled on this.

++Rand Paul tried to be the civil libertarian in the group on NSA surveillance.

++Everyone said Americans were frustrated and that Americans would have to sacrifice Medicare and Social Security if we were to have a balanced budget.

++All the governors talked about a balanced budget, although they thought our military had been gutted.

++All were against the Iran nuclear deal. All insisted that Iran must dismantle all centrifuges and recognize Israel. 

++All said immigration was one of the top issues. They all pledged to seal the border and they each finagled their solution.

++All criticized President Obama as a weak President who is responsible for only 2% growth. Jeb! pledges 4% growth. And because of President Obama we are all going to die.

++Madame Fiorina got the role of attacking Hillary Clinton as a liar,someone who knew # Benghazi! was a terrorist attack and she lies about her e-mails. Pyush Jindal said that Obama and Hillary were socialists and Bernie Sanders was honest about his ideology.

++Kasich made hay out of his call for a constitutional amendment for a blanked budget.

++They all wanted Planned Parenthood defunded because it had fallen into depravity. 

++Marco Rubio was against legalizing marijuana. Chris Christie sounded the most humane as talking about the war on drugs being a failure and that every family faces a crisis of alcoholism, drug use or mental illness and that treatment is the solution. He said he instituted a program that drug users had to undergo mandatory treatment instead of jail. He said these were sicknesses and we should treat them as such.

++I thought Madame Fiorina hedged on abortion suggesting that is everyone's choice.

++Jeb! came off boring but reasonable and provided a solid performance. Chris Christie came off well. Scott Walker just lied like hell about his record. Rick Perry did better than usual but probably doesn't make the cut.

++The broad outlines of the platform were clear. An emphasis on tax reduction, deregulation of the economy and a North America Energy Zone. Repeal Obamacare,increase military spending and not refrain from using troops. It was the same "fight them over there , not here" mantra. Jeb! wouldn't buy into the notion we are more threatened today than since 9-11.

++But President Obama is bad. Ted Cruz doubled down on that Obama was the biggest financier of Islamic terrorism because of the Iran deal.

++Mentions of other countries concerned their theft of our jobs,inventions and that the Chinese steal everything. 

++The good news was that they all had to be so tried that you could follow everyone. It is going to be awful.

++Oh and on global warming--the mantra is that we have to have a sustainable energy policy at the same time we have sustainable economic policy. Scott Walker said that President Obama's new regulations would take a buzz saw to the economy. I guess like Obamacare.