The Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina this past Thursday, the first in a long group of debates over the next year, tells us a lot about both the Republican race and South Carolina at the same time, and it is not good!
The focus audience at the debate sponsored by Fox News Channel seemed like aliens from another planet, certainly not the mainstream of the nation, and doubtfully, of the Republican party future.
Asked their favorite candidate among the five who showed up, the majority said Herman Cain, the African American former Chief Executive Officer of Godfather Pizza, also a talk show host on radio. His main point was to get government out of the way of business, a typical Republican viewpoint, but his chances for the nomination can be seen as zero!
Their second favorite was former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who has made himself look foolish and extreme on social issues, and no serious observer takes him as a likely nominee, either!
It was interesting that Ron Paul, despite his support among libertarians, and actually making quite a good debate perfromance, failed to excite the South Carolina focus group.
It was also noticeable that Tim Pawlenty, often considered one of the more likely nominees as a “dark horse”, seems to have had no positive impression among the participants in the focus group.
The sum total is to demonstrate that Pawlenty probably lost some advantage by NOT impressing that group of voters, and that the focus group made one realize that there are a lot of people in the Palmetto state who seem not to have advanced beyond the times of John C. Calhoun and Strom Thurmond–meaning continued hatred of the national government as somehow the evil incarnate!
Without the “serious” candidates in the race–Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee–and the controversial candidates–Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, Newt Gingrich–the debate was basically a waste of time since nothing came out of it that could promise a good future for the Republican Party in the 2012 Presidential race!