Let the politics begin

By Charles Sowell  

MAY 5, 2011 10:13 p.m. (3)

UPDATED 10:35 pm:

10:35 pm: The big surprises in tonight's debate were how well Herman Cain and Tim Pawlenty played before mainstream South Carolina Republicans. Ron Paul will come out of tonight's debate with his tea party base intact. How far that will carry him through the primary season remains to be seen. In the end, Obama holds the bully pulpit of incumbency against a still unformed GOP field.

10:30 pm: We're down to the joke questions now, the feel good kind of stuff that's designed to take some of the sting out of earlier questioning. Not that there was much sting in this particular debate – unless you happen to be President Obama.

10:18 pm: Ron Paul defends his stance on freedom of choice (he's for personal freedom to use drugs if a state allows it) by comparing it to First Amendment rights. "We don't have the First Amendment to talk about the weather. We have it so we can talk about controversial things." Former New Mexico Gov. Johnson took a similar stance. How that will play with socially conservative South Carolinians remains to be seen, outside of the tea party.

10:12 pm: Tonight's debate, which is at best a dog-and-pony show this early in the election cycle, seems more like a cat fancier's convention than a true debate. Juan Williams, who built most of his career at National Public Radio before being fired and taking up station with Fox, asked the toughest questions. In particular, Williams focused on the National Labor Relations Board's citing of Boeing for moving jobs from unionized Washington State to South Carolina. The candidates escaped Williams' frying pan by saying they are not anti-union, but pro jobs. "It would be sort of like being anti-chicken and pro egg," said former Minnesota Gov. Tom Pawlenty.

9:54 pm: The cops are tired here at debate central. Lots of them have been on duty all day leading up to the debate and are now starting to show some wear. The officer at the door leading to the press room has learned most of the journalists by sight. "I'll be seeing you in my sleep tonight," he said. "I'll be seeing a lot of you guys (the press corps) in my dreams tonight. Police Chief Terri Wilfong said she's stretched thin on officers with the debate and the Hispanic holiday Cinco de Mayo falling on the same day. "A lot of my officers will go from here to rounding up drunks when the bars let out," she said.

The police department has backup from the Greenville County Sheriff's office, SLED, and private security. "These guys don't qualify for Secret Service coverage yet," she said. It seems unlikely that any of the candidates on the Peace Center stage will ever qualify for that kind of protection, but the election season is very young. Eight months to the Iowa caucus.

A break for police came in the absence of protesters, Wilfong said. "They could show up later, we'll just have to see what happens."

In the heart of ruby red Greenville, large protest seems unlikely.

9:44 pm: The debate seems less like a discussion of the issues than a rehashing of Fox News talking points. Since the questioners are all Fox staff that is to be expected. But in the press room lots of reporters are wondering just what the debate would be like if other news organizations had been included.

9:31 pm: The candidates play to potential South Carolina constituencies with most of their answers. Cain got loud applause for saying the way out of high gasoline prices is to have a real energy policy. Unlike the one put forward by the Obama administration. Obama seems to be the primary target tonight, which is to be expected this early in the political cycle, as the Fox News staff feeds the debaters questions that tend to play the president as a poor leader.

9:11 pm: The debate opens with surprising cheers for the lone black candidate, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain. Ron Paul got the loudest and longest ovation. His Libertarian politics plays well among South Carolina Republicans. The lead-in to the debate played up Fox News' role in sponsoring the event. Rick Santorum says, despite the killing of Osama bin Laden, the president is weak on terror issues. The things Obama has done right are all continuations of Bush policies, Santorum says.

Paul has wanted to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan and said he still feels that way. "Now that he's (bin Laden) killed, boy now is the time for us to get out of Afghanistan."

Cain says the U.S. is not clear on strategy and needs to rethink what the goals are. As president he would reconsider all of the aspects of the war.

Johnson would get out of Afghanistan tomorrow.

The doves comments falling flat.

7:41 pm: The police wearing full body armor and carrying M-16s let you know quickly that tonight's GOP debate at the Peace Center isn't your everyday kind of event. Not since the visit of British royalty for last year's Highland Games has so much firepower been concentrated downtown. Ask a police officer, or fireman, working the main doors to the Peace Center if they're expecting any excitement and they'll tell you "just a big crowd. I hear the debate is sold out."

Walk a few yards down Broad to the Old Hugenot Mill and you start to encounter more military-style garb, pistols are carried in low-slug combat holsters and bulky high-end body armor replaces the normal barely noticable police under-shirt vests.

Even within the various groups that make up today's Republican Party there is a serious security tone to this event. Lots of private security watches doorways. Somber men in dark sports jackets with little earphones tucked into their ears. Mainline state GOP seems a bit more laid back than the tea party patrons.

At this morning's press credential handouts, all you had to do was walk into the lobby, show the girl at the desk your driver's license and get the credentials. At today's tea party event at the Hyatt reporters got stopped at the door and directed down a hallway to the press sign in room. There you showed your license, had it taken from you and photographed, and were rewarded with a bright orange wrist band that enabled you to enter the main event.

Tonight, at this Fox Network sponsored event, the mainstream media is relegated to a loft in the back of the Old Hugenot Mill. There are guys with M-16s right outside the main door.

6:42 pm: While the mainstream Republicans got ready for tonight's debate in a typical low-key way, South Carolina's tea party was out in force a few blocks away at the Hyatt. They turned the debate into a day-long affair and plan a straw poll at 10:30 after the debate closes to pick that wing of the GOP's favorite. Since former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin isn't in ton for the event Texas Rep. Ron Paul Paul is the odds on favorite.

At 7 p.m. tea party members plan a procession from the Hyatt to the Peace Center where they'll hold a prayer rally before heading back to the Hyatt to watch the debate on television.

A tea party event anything but mainstream Republican. The lobby outside the conference room was filled with people hawking books on everything from some pretty strange interpretations of the Constitution to the latest conspiracy theories. No tri-corner hats were evident, but there was one woman wandering around in 18th Century garb.

Alabama Judge Ron Moore, of the 10 Commandments spat a few years back, spoke as did Gov. Nikki Haley and state GOP Chairwoman Karen Floyd. The pair kissed and jugged on stage, an interesting counterpoint to last year's election when mainstream Republicans pulled out all the stops to derail the Haley campaign.

4:04 pm: Tonight's Peace Center debate has the luster of a first-in-the-nation event, but at this point in the election cycle, the presidential debate is more about wooing potential constituencies than about substance, long-time South Carolina political activists say.

And that might go a long way toward explaining why only five in the potential GOP field in next year's presidential election are to show up tonight at the Peace Center.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Texas Rep. Ron Paul are the best known, and only Pawlenty is considered even remotely a true contender to take on President Obama in 2012.

Appearing on the Peace Center stage will also be Herman Cain, former chief executive of Godfather's Pizza: Gary Johnson, the ex-governor of New Mexico; and Rick Santorum who worked for a while as the U.S. senator from Pennsylvania. Cain and Johnson are  unknowns among South Carolina Republicans. Paul polls well among the tea party,  but poorly among social conservatives and the mainstream party faithful, and Pawlenty pulled in two percent in a recent Winthrop poll of likely GOP voters.

So all of the participants tonight hope to show well for any potential constituencies as the big names stay on the sidelines. When that field steps forward, or not, things will hash out rather quickly in South Carolina. The biggest name in South Carolina Republican circles, Sarah Palin, hasn't decided if she will run. But the biggest beneficiary of her political largess, Gov. Nikki Haley, will be on hand tonight – in the audience.

11:40 am: The dance begins for the first in the South GOP debate with reporters quietly queuing up for press credentials in the lobby of the Westin Poinsett downtown. Fox Network, sponsors of the debate, have already staked out a choice spot for their TV van on the banks of the Reedy River behind the Peace Center. There were no lines of party faithful at the box office hoping for a last minute cancellation at the sold-out event, just an air of tense expectation as the eyes of the Republican world turn to Greenville. At least for tonight.