Posted by
Joe Clark on Friday, June 13, 2008 1:12:52 PM
Yep, the Republican argument usually wins out with even Democrats or Liberals when they are not getting their information exclusively from their own echo chamber. Not surprising that the tag team of Krauthammer and Ferguson destroyed the Democratic team of Samantha Power (former foreign policy adviser to Obama) and Richard Holbrooke (former U.N. ambassador and Assistant Secretary of State under Pres. Clinton) on the issue of what party would keep America and Canada safer -- the Republicans or Democrats. The debate was held in Toronto, Canada in front of a "mostly liberal and deeply anti-Bush crowd ". Before the debate, 21% of the crowd agreed that a Republican in office would keep us safer. After a 2-hour debate, that number had gone up to 43%.
The lesson here is that when you have good messengers who can articulate the Republican point of view (unlike Bush I, Bush II, and probably McCain -- but we'll see about that), then the message usually wins out. I can't even tell you how many times I've discussed issues with Democrats who have had at least some change of heart once I've explained things from the Republican point of view...
Some audio on the debate is here:
hat tip: The New York Daily News