Robert Novak writes a political round up. He says Newt Gingrich will consider running for president only if Thompson’s campaign tanks…Doesn’t look like that will happen.

Although, it appears Fred Thompson was taken by surprise in South Carolina when more people showed up wearing FairTax stickers rather than Fred Thompson buttons. It seams Thompson didn’t know what the FairTax was, well that is not good…maybe he is a quick learner…

New Rasmussen poll shows Fred Thompson in the lead for the Republican nomination and he hasn't even announced that he is running! Thompson 27% Giuliani 23% Romney 12% McCain 10%

Mike Huckabee winner of debate...Mike who??? yeah my first thoughts too.

Up until this debate I really have not been to excited to vote for any of these candidates and have been pretty upset with the Republican Party. Which is sad because politics is my passion.

I am a life long republican, but in recent years have felt the party has left its principles.

I thought last nights debate was refreshing. Especially compared to the Democrats who seem to think they are running against President Bush..... The Republicans although they did spurred over some issues with each other seemed to want to talk about issues.

There was one moment last night that really drew me in and that was when Mike Huckabee embraced the FairTax....I literally about fell out of my chair with excitement and laughter about John Edward that was classic.

"We've had Congress that's spent money like Edwards at a beauty shop. And it's high time that we have a different kind of tax structure, and the FairTax would get us there."

I have found my candidate and have been energized to get out and campaign for him. Mike Huckabee for President... he is my winner from the debate....

Romney looked good. Romney got quite an applause when he criticized McCain-Feingold. Even though I'm opposed to no child left behind I thought Romney answered the last question very well. He was also able to explain some issues of why it may appear that he is not solid on.

"Look, I've been governor in a pretty tough state. You've heard of blue states. If you ever bought a suit and you look at it and you can't tell if it's blue or black, that's how blue Massachusetts is."

Overall Mitt Romney I think he will be the front runner Mike Huckabee is going to gain a lot of ground I think. Huckabee will find himself making the top 3 in polls real soon

I believe.McCain looked horrible...and proved a old dog can’t learn new tricks by telling the same jokes from years ago... He also struggled with questions and kept saying he is the candidate that works across the aisle with Democrats.

News flash John. Republicans have been working across the aisle for too long. That is why we are all upset. We want a candidate that is going to stand up to Democrats on conservative principles not meet them half way, but I digress.

Here is the old joke that he has used over and over again. Kind of like an old man I know that tells you the same story everytime you see him...

"In 2001, I proposed massive tax cuts, but I also proposed to rein in spending...We let spending go out of control. We spent money like a drunken sailor, although I never knew a sailor drunk or sober with the imagination of my colleagues. By the way, I received an e-mail not long ago from a fellow who said -- I repeat this story -- "As a former drunken sailor, I resent the way that Congress continues being compared to members of Congress."

Giuliani wasn't doing so hot in my opinion either, but was saved when he helped Ron Paul sink his ship... Ron Paul is finished.

Ron Paul set off a time bomb when he pretty much implied 9-11 was our fault!!! Bomb explodes in 3-2-1..“Have you ever read the reasons they attacked us? They attack us because we've been over there; we've been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We've been in the Middle East.”

Rudy Giuliani ignoring the rules and asking to go out of turn: “Wendell, may I comment on that? That's really an extraordinary statement. That's an extraordinary statement, as someone who lived through the attack of September 11, that we invited the attack because we were attacking Iraq. I don't think I've heard that before, and I've heard some pretty absurd explanations for September 11th.” (Applause, cheers.)

And I would ask the congressman to withdraw that comment and tell us that he didn't really mean that. (Applause.)

Ron Paul did not withdraw the comment and went on to blame our foreign policy for the late 1970s Iran hostage crisis!!! Wow…blame America first, would you Ron. Highly entertaining moment.

Tommy Thompson blew my mind when he struggled to answer a question about what programs he would eliminate....how about No Child Left Behind for starters hell I would go as far as starting to eliminate departments. I also do not agree with him on Iraq.

Duncan Hunter had a good night as well and gets much praise on the terrorist scenario about interrogation and torture.

"Yeah, let me just say this would take a one-minute conversation with the secretary of Defense. (Laughter.) I would call him up or call him in. I would say to him, in terms of getting information that would save American lives, even if it involves very high-pressure techniques, one sentence: Get the information."

Tom Tancredo in response to the same hypothetical terrorist situation:
"Well, let me just say that it's almost unbelievable to listen to this in a way. We're talking about -- we're talking about it in such a theoretical fashion. You say that -- that nuclear devices have gone off in the United States, more are planned, and we're wondering about whether waterboarding would be a -- a bad thing to do? I'm looking for "Jack Bauer" at that time, let me tell you."

I kept a score card during the debate. and graded each candidate on their answers and then divided that number by the amount of questions they answered. Here is how I scored the grades.
A+=6
A=5.5
A-=5.0
B+=4.5
B=4.0
B-=3.5
C+=3.0
C=2.5
C-=2.0
D+=1.5
D-=.5
F=0Here are my overall scores from the debate.

Huckabee 4.7
Romney 4.5
Hunter 4.5
Tancredo 4.1
Giuliani 4.0
Brownback 3.3
McCain 3.1
Gilmore 3.0
Thompson 2.5
Paul 1.5

Not much of a surprise here. I tend to be a lot more conservative than the majority of the party so Giuliani and McCain have never scored well with me.Although I like McCain's they will follow us home and Giuliani is not scared to call them islamic terrorists.

Ron Paul usually scores a lot higher with me, but his comment on 9-11 sank him last night...his comment is not all that surprising.

The real surprise here is how well Romney scored on my sheet...and Huckabee, I didn't even know who he was until the debates started. I started to like him and he got my support last night after embracing the FairTax.

Where you at the FairTax rally and missed the debate? Here is a full transcript

One candidate embraces FairTax in debate! Thanks for making the FairTax rally absolute success!

Wow!!! You guys did it!!! The FairTax rally was a huge success in Columbia S.C. last night. News reports estimate the numbers between 7,000 to 9,000 people were there.

Not the 10,000 I wanted, but it got the job done! It drew lots of media attention and the attention of the Republican candidates.

Tom Tancredo and Duncan Hunter and Governor Mike Huckabee all 2008 presidential candidates who not only made an appearance at the rally, but unequivocally endorsed the FairTax.

Mike Huckabee actually embraced the FairTax during the debate. The others did not, so as of now Mike Huckabee has my vote.

McCain staffers questioned some FairTax supporters about how they got there, thinking that they had been bussed in. They seemed impressed that most of the people there had driven to Columbia on their own, some from more than a 1,000 miles away.

There is no doubt that this rally last night had an effect. The crowd was so large that it cannot be ignored. You have put the FairTax on the National stage.

When I first started promoting this FairTax I never thought it would make it as far as it has as quickly as it has and it is all because of people like you.

Just goes to show that grass roots efforts can still accomplish things in politics. The two big presences in Columbia last night were the presidential candidates and the FairTax.

Thanks so much for the sacrifice you made to get there.

One last comment on this. I mentioned it got lots of media attention. However some media outlets stated opinions from critics that are just flat out lies.

The link above ends the story with this lie, "Critics of the national sales tax say it puts a larger burden on the poor, who often need to spend all of their income on necessities."

Not true, the FairTax is the only tax reform plan that completely lifts the tax burden off the poor because nobody pays taxes on spending up to the poverty level.

That's right you actually get a check every month up to the poverty level with the FairTax so that the neccessities of life are not taxed.

John Edwards announces run for presidency.

Tomorrow Begins Today...

Former Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards is running for president for a second time.The former North Carolina senator formally announced his candidacy Thursday from New Orleans' 9th Ward, which was hard hit by Hurricane Katrina.

I find it completely ironic that a Democrat would announce his candidacy for the presidency at the site of one of the biggest Democrat political failures in history? I'm speaking, of course, of the failure of Democrat Mayor of New Orleans Ray Nagin and of Democrat Governor of Louisiana Kathleen Blanco to handle the Katrina disaster in anything relatively close to a responsible manner then passing the buck to the federal government and President George W. Bush.

Oh .. and Edward is also announcing in the home district of Congressman William Jefferson, the Democrat who is on his way to an indictment. What a great place for an announcement of a campaign, Senator Edwards!

Anyways the campaign slogan is "Tomorrow begins today." Whatever the hell that means…I suppose that is better than “Hope is on the way.”"This campaign is about changing America," the Web site read, listing five priorities that fit with Edwards' message of economic equality: "Providing universal health care for all Americans," "Rebuilding America's middle class and eliminating poverty," and "Creating tax fairness by rewarding work, not just wealth."

So, I got a question for John Edwards: How do you eliminate poverty? The only way you can eliminate poverty is to eliminate wealth in a complete socialistic system where everybody has the same amount of everything…a task that has been tried and failed to work…it was called Communism.