Debates: The morning after

Over at FDL, scarecrow writes the post I wish I wrote last night but I was too tired after breaking it all down. Here's a sample, but read the whole thing:

They do not see a nation angry at them about the war nor shamed by a government that sanctions torture. With their Reaganesqe optimism, they do not see families struggling with health care costs, job security, retirement security, and college tuition. They don’t seem to worry whether the government is doing enough to protect us from unsafe working conditions, unsafe products, unsafe foods and drugs. They apparently don’t see global warming as a national security or economic threat. American democracy is not threatened; the Constitution is not under siege, and Americans don’t hate the Bush regime for what it has done to our liberties (Paul excepted). Attacks on the rights of women, gays, and immigrants and anyone who looks like the “enemy” are non-issues.

The collective denial shown by these men was even more surprising because one of the first questions asked concerned the fact that about only 22 percent of the American people think the country is on the right track, but you’d never know it from listening to these men. And because they seem so completely disconnected from what the American people believe, there is no possibility that any of these men could successfully address the nation’s concerns. Last night, the Republican Party declared itself to be in denial and irrelevant except as an out of touch opposition party with no ideas left for any of the hard questions of governnance.

I missed spelled Giuliani a bunch of times last night, so that's been corrected.

Ron Paul has now dropped to 30% positive, 30% negative now in that MSNBC poll, with 53,972 votes in. He's still the only candidate without more unfavorable ratings than favorable ones, but he now trails Romney by one point in the positive ratings. It must be his "optimism."