Monday, December 14, 2015

My predictions for the 5th Republican Debate!

CNN graphic

Once again, it's time for yet another Republican debate. The main debate starts at 7:30 pm central and will be shown on CNN. The undercard debate will begin at 5:00 pm central. The people involved has changed slightly. Chris Christie, who was in the undercard debate last time, has been bumped back up to the main debate. In the undercard, Lindsey Graham and George Pataki have been promoted back to the undercard after not making the debates at all for the last debate.

I'm fairly disappointed that there are going to be more people participating in this debate. The last debate was a lot more interesting with fewer candidates. With so many people participating, it will hard to get to know any one candidate. And at this point a lot of the people that are still in the race should not be. That is especially true for the undercard debate. I don't think any of those guys should still be in the race.

This debate will focus on national defense and terrorism, and believe me there will be a lot to cover. Obviously, ISIS and the recent terror attack in San Bernadino is going to be talked about extensively. But that's not the only foreign policy problem I expect to hear about. I'm hoping to hear about Turkish/Russian tensions, the war in Libya, China, North Korea, and Iran. I also expect to hear quite a bit about the refugee program and immigration in general.

As always, here are some predictions for the debate. After that I will post a few questions that may or may not be asked by the moderators.

-Donald Trump will be hit hard about his proposed ban on Muslims entering the country. 100%
-Despite the attacks, everyone will essentially agree with him on the issue and will call for a travel ban from countries where ISIS is active and the end of Obama's refugee program. 80%
-Someone will come up with a different solution to the problem. 5%

-ISIS will dominate the debate, and will be the most talked about topic. 85%

-If the topic of Turkish/Russian tensions come up, the candidates will take Turkey's side. 80%
-Donald Trump will be the only one that disagrees. 25%

-Establishment candidates, like Carly Fiorina and Marco Rubio, will again go nuts when it comes to Russia and will suggest something stupid like a no-fly zone in Syria. 100%
-Someone will call out this plan as stupid. 75%
-If someone does call it out, it will be Rand Paul and/or Donald Trump 100%

-John Kasich will spend most of his time attacking Donald Trump. 95%
-Despite the attacks, Trump will remain unstumped. 99%

-Ted Cruz will again call for attacks on Iran. 75%
-Nobody will explain why this is a bad idea. 100%

-Jeb Bush will have yet another terrible performance. 100% I'd go higher here if it was mathematically possible.

-In the undercard debate, the only one that will make any sense at all will be Mike Huckabee. 90%
-Lindsey Graham will go full war hawk. 100%
-His position won't help him at all in the polls. 100%

And now for a few questions:

For all of the candidates, Donald Trump has created controversy by calling for a ban for Muslims entering the country. Though this plan has major problems, how do you propose to stop ISIS from infiltrating through visa and refugee programs? Isn't some kind of ban necessary?

For Donald Trump, if your plan is implemented, isn't there a huge threat from Muslims already in the country who may be radicalized? Won't your plan only stop infiltration, and not do anything about our own home grown extremists?

For all the candidates, Turkey has shot down a Russian jet and could potentially draw us into a war against Russia. Why on Earth should we still back them? Shouldn't we kick them out of NATO, if not for their incident with Russia, but for the fact that they are taking a huge step back in terms of human rights and basic freedom?

For all the candidates that support a no-fly zone in Syria, why the hell do you think it is worth going to war against Russia to overthrow a government and hand the country over to a group of terrorists linked with al-Qaeda? Isn't what you are proposing not only incredibly stupid, but high treason as well? Doesn't it make a lot more sense to work with the Russians to fight against ISIS and al-Nusra?

For all the candidates, even though ISIS has gained all the attention lately, what will be done with the other jihadist terror groups active right now? AQAP, al-Nusra in Syria and Boko Haram are all threats as well, will you do anything about them?

Will we have to eventually deploy ground troops in Syria, Iraq and Libya to defeat ISIS?

How will you stop the refugee crisis? Isn't it better to take care of the refugees in the Arab countries around Syria, and not to take any in this country?

For Ben Carson, what did you learn when you went to the Syrian refugee camp?

What role do guns have in our national defense? The Democrats response to the San Bernadino attacks was to try and disarm civilians. Isn't it a better idea for people to arm themselves?

As always, I will be live tweeting the debate. You can find my twitter account here. I'm on vacation this week, so I should be able to post my reactions to the debate right after it is over. It may take me awhile to write everything up, but my reactions won't have to wait until tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment