What went down in the FINAL Republican primary debate?

Five minutes out of the gate and Romney slammed McCain saying "you can't be that great of a republican candidate when you have the NY Times endorse you!"

This is ALREADY looking just like the democratic debate where McCain and Romney, the top 2 contenders, are going back and forth.

Romney is defending the slams from McCain that his administration in Mass. never did anything that he says he will do as a president including making jobs and building health care in Mass. Romney said no debt was left when he left Massachusetts and they were in the surplus over 2 billion dollars?! Anyone know if that fact is true?

Huckabee just played the "Edwards" card aka "Pay attention to me!"

Apparently Romney passed a bill in his former governing state of Massachusetts where if they didn't buy into his health care plan they would be fined.

His explanation of the ultimate conservative approach to health care in the US: "If someone can afford insurance, they should have to buy insurance or pay there own way through the hospital bills...no more free riders!"

"The people of CA want no oil drilling and I applaud his efforts to try and eliminate the green house gas admissions that are causing climate change...if we do nothing, if we don't try and solve this 400 billion dollar problem, what can we then tell our children!"

--McCain on Gov. Arnold S. of CA efforts against oil drilling and making California a more environmentally friendly state.

Oh boy...McCain wants us to move toward more Nuclear power...anyone disagree or agree!?

Looks like Romney agrees with him on the US becoming more energy efficient and independent but says if they go the way McCain wants it will lead towards a new tax on the American people and that it is NOT a United States issue but a GLOBAL issue.

as usual, despite being rudely cut off every time he tries to speak the truth, Ronn Paul is winning this debate

Discussions now turn to the economy. Huckabee says they should widen the highway in Florida and that would do more for the economy then giving Americans a rebate...his reasoning was a bit convaluded for me...anyone get what he was saying!? Something about traffic, yadda yadda...who knows how that relates to the economic stimulus plan.

Romney is completely for the stimulus plan. Criticizing Huckabees plan of building bridges to bring in more money which would ultimately take years.

Ron Paul said that he wants tax breaks and to free up the money to make the market soar -- NO more borrowing money from other countries and spend the money we free up here in the US not overseas.

Oh, ya, ho hum! It's the Ripusoffican's smoking some!

Blah, blah, blah blah blahly bablah, beblah blaw blaw!

Sing a long to the tune of the Beatles song "Yellow Submarine": We don't have any brains in our heads... in our heads. We don't have any brains in our heads... in our heads...

"We need to make the tax cuts permanent. The spending is out of control and I'm tired of borrowing money from China."

-- John McCain on the economy

Romney literally just broke down the entire budget in this country and with the money spent in percentages on social security, Medicare, other social programs, the war, the military; it left less than 10% to be spent on other programs in this country.

No wonder we are borrowing money from other countries. We are broke!

Huckabee thinks its not cruel to crack down on immigration but a necessary and needed plan to crack down on Illegal immigrants.

Romney agrees but said anyone that has come here within the past 12 months would "have to go home!" There will be no special deals with illegal immigrants based on how long they have been here. He considers this a humane and passionate way...

Umm okay!?

Huckabee - Pro-life
Paul - Pro-choice
McCain - Didn't give clear answer...
Romney - Pro-life

Are the candidates tonight really arguing the fact of "Who is more conservative!?"

Interesting? Talk about eliminating any democrats or liberal/moderate republicans from voting for you!

Here we go...Foreign Policy (Iraq War):

Romney -- Never supported a time table to get out of Iraq, slammed McCain for insulting him by saying that, he is apposed to any time table on pulling out of Iraq, he will NOT pull the troops out until we have success in Iraq.

McCain -- Says Mitt for sure said he was for a time table on Iraq, was prepared to fight democrats on time table unlike Romney, McCain is proud to have supported Bush and proud to support the war

Umm...McCain and Romney are GOING AT IT!

Paul -- Didn't support the war in the first place, doesn't think troops should stay, we should be working on foreign policy not technicalities or number of years..."how many men are we are going to let die...its an undeclared war!"

Huckabee -- "We need to leave with victory and honor!", it will erupt if we don't leave with everything in place and stabilized, if we leave it a mess, the rest of the world will have an even bigger problem on there hands.

after 10 minutes of juvenile bickering between McCain and Romney, Ron Paul makes them look like the fools they are, much to the delight of the crowd!

McCain - that anti-American idiot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Doesn't that fool know it isn't what the Democrats what, it's what the American people want that matters!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See what fools they are?

The Beatles tune: We don't have any brains in our heads... brains in our heads, We don't have any brains in our heads... brains in our heads...

A slight variation on the earlier version.

Ron Paul to me...with all of 2 things said...has won this debate thus far.

Huckabee is lost...bow out buddy!

Does Romney think insulting foreign countries that HELP us out like China is a good idea?

Love how they (McCain, Romney, Huckabee) ALL support the war and war in general but all have said they would put policies in place so the children of this country would never have to worry about war.

What about the children fighting this war that are DYING!? Do they not count!?

Romney referred to running this country as to like playing a chess game...

Interesting!

McCain has not been clearly answering questions tonight...dodging left and right and just not making sense!

Paul wants to put the power back in the hands of the people with guidance of the federal government and the president.

Anyone see the way Romney and McCain look at Paul; sorta like the way we look at that crazy guy on the bus?!

"Washington doesn't understand how states operate but states understand how Washington operates...this creates a horrible relationship within our own government!"

-- Mike Huckabee

Romney just said "Ronald Reagan" over 45 times in a 30 second period. Can McCain top him??

Romney - Regan would endorse him based on his policies based on pro-life, protection of marriage, policy on war;

McCain - Regan doesn't approve of someone who changes positions based on years, he would endorse Regan because McCain sticks his principals and puts his career on the line no matter what.

Paul - Supported Regan when only 4 members of congress did, Regan then campaigned for him when he ran again; he to would endorse him based on his policies on economy and the dollar.

Huckabee - "I'd be arrogant to say he would support me, I wish he would but I don't know what he'd do. I know what we do have in common is that we both love America, whether we are democrats or republicans, he brought us back together!"

Okay! Republican debate is OVER!! What did you guys think!?

The republicans really took a page out of the last democratic debate and were at each others throats though I was able to see a clear plan of actions on policies for John McCain and Ron Paul. Mitt seemed angry a lot of the time and I just didn't get what he was trying to get across!

Well, from reading the comments, it doesn't look like I missed much.

Hell of a job on the analysis woodywoodbeck. Thanks! :)

I'm voting for Ron Paul.

Ron Paul is the truth. He's easily the best of all these knuckleheads. Now, if he only believed in evolution...

What went down......we trying to determine who will be sacrificed in the election process.....cause we know Dems are going to win anyway! Lets see now......lets sacrifice McClain.

i was there and it's very sad to see that out of all 4 candidates, ron paul is the only one whose supporters actually back him up enough to show en masse. romney and huckabee each had a handful of lonely sign-holders and ron paul's throngs lined the streets of simi valley up until dark when they all headed over to the hotel to meet him and throw a rally! the media, of course, doesn't want to show that.

let mccain and romney duke it out with mudslinging and they'll each throw some flack at huckabee for unreported gifts, but you know what they say- bad press is better than no press at all...Ron paul gets ignored. they wouldn't do that if they didn't want to distract from the real issues he continually raises- "where's the money going to come from?"

after watching the debate, i realized that the less rep dr. paul was asked, the more moronic sen. mccain and gov. romney revealed to be. when he did speak, it was eloquent and, like always, resonating. i don't agree with everything he's about, such as abolishing programs for poverty stricken families but, i have to admit, after educating myself some more, i solidly have respect for him.

oh, btw, dr. paul is pro-life. he is also anti capitol punishment, the only issue he seems to have had a change of mind on from his platform in '88.

race and gender aside, i believe that he would make a more profound 'change' in american society by virtue of his principles and integrity. i was completely disgruntled by the american political system and dissociated from it all after the bush hijack in '00. dr. paul had re-ignited my youthful ideologies and i'm glad that there's someone like him challenging the status quo...like for real and not just using race and gender cards to swing the votes.

I would love to see a billboard with the face of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, with a single word written in all caps next to it: PLACEBO.