Analysis of the YouTube Republican Debate Hosted by CNN

The much anticipated Republican debate featuring questions posed to the candidates via a YouTube video. The concept is interesting and could have been a very interesting format. The questions were ripe with their own controversy and in their own right are not easy to answer within the allotted amount of time.

The debate was aired on CNN and hosted by Anderson Cooper, who host his own show on CNN called "Anderson Cooper 360^o." Now, on a personal note, I do like Mr. Cooper and enjoy his show. I found Mr. Cooper to be fair and very likeable and if he has any particular political affiliation it was not readily apparent in his duties as host.

Fireworks started rather early in the debate and was initiated by Mitt Romney when he accused Rudy Giuliani of running a sanctuary city, in regard to illegal aliens. Rudy countered by accusing Romney of hiring illegal aliens to work in his mansion. At the end of the exchange it was clear that Romney had hired a contractor to work on his mansion and indeed, the contractor may have hired illegal aliens to do the work.

It was a feeble attempt by Giuliani to toss a little dirty water on Romney, by accusing him of hiring the illegal aliens and it was not enough to deflect from the fact that Giuliani filed a lawsuit against the Federal government when they tried to enforce immigration laws.

Another highlight of the evening came when John McCain attacked Ron Paul. It was a pretty lame attempt to misrepresent Ron Paul's stand on foreign policy. McCain tried to label the Texas Congressman as an isolationist, which is not an accurate portrayal of Ron Paul at all. Ron Paul is a non-interventionist, which means that he believes in trading and dealing with other countries, but not to force our way of life on them through the use of force.

McCain went so far as to say that he was speaking on behalf of the men and women serving in the armed forces. The funny thing is that apparently John has not been keeping up on current information because if he had, he would have known that Ron Paul has the largest amount of military donations than any other candidate running.