Optimism and Fact Checking

Last night my roommate and I curled up with two giant mugs of tea and a bowl of popcorn to watch the Republican primary candidates debate on Fox News. I consider myself incredibly fortunate that I didn't break my tea mug chucking it across the room in annoyance at the two hours of debate that followed, but I'm trying to look on the bright side, so here's the things I liked about the debate last night. I'm afraid I don't have candidates name's down, so they'll all be "that guy" except for Michelle Bachmann, who gets to keep her name.

I appreciated that some guy supported withdrawing troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

I was pleased that Rick Perry stood up for giving undocumented young people in-state tuition at state colleges. He even called the other candidates heartless!

I was glad that they let the gay soldier from Iraq speak, even if he got booed. I also liked that they pointed out that 66% of Americans support raising taxes on the wealthy, despite the overall mega-conservative tone of the debate.

I liked that the winning option on the question "What should we do about immigration?" was "Create a path to citizenship." I also liked how uncomfortable this seemed to make the hostess.

So there you have it, the highlights of last night. I recommend checking out the New York Time's fact-check page on some of the claims made last night.