I didn't watch it, and so can't tell you whether this is true, but from Marc Ambinder's wrap-up, last night's Republican debate sounds like it was almost....sane. Instead of taking place in this parallel universe where Romney's primary attribute is a principled and steady conservatism while Giuliani's approach to dealing with entitlement spending is to bash Hillary Clinton, Romney actually defended the health plan he helped shepherd in Massachusetts, Giuliani gave apparently smart answers on Medicare and Iran, and issues were apparently discussed. Sadly, the actual campaign is occurring in the parallel land, where Romney's health care proposal sacrifices everything that was useful about his Massachusetts law while Giuliani's Iran adviser is a dude who desperately wants to attack Iran. Still, it's nice to pretend, if only for a night, that half of the presidential field isn't being pushed into taking insanely dangerous and irresponsible positions, and are actually offering serious and comforting solutions for our problems.
