Lightning Crashes

Yes, I did watch all two hours of the Republican debate last night. I'm not sure why. To be honest, it was a bit boring. The biggest question that pops up in my mind from this, and from the Democrats' debate, is why some of these guys are still in it.
For the Republicans, why is Tommy Thompson still in it? Honestly, I look for a little more charisma in a candidate, and he is definitely lacking. While I mostly agree with Tancredo on immigration, he came across last night as petty (with his vindictive attitude towards Bush and Rove) and just a little unhinged. Huckabee seems likable, and I'm sure is squarely with me on the issues, he just doesn't seem up to snuff. Duncan Hunter and Ron Paul just don't excite me in the least.
As for the frontrunners, while I am still behind Romney, I don't think he pulled off as good of a performance as Giuliani. McCain was McCain, although he was pretty weak in his defense of immigration, which may be what sinks him this time around. The best he could come up with was that this bill is better than nothing. The problem is, nothing is not the alternative. We already have immigration legislation. Nobody wants to enforce it, but we have it. His argument that not passing this bill would permit "silent amnesty" also doesn't address the fact that passing this bill would be glaring amnesty. Why is that better? But Romney didn't do a good job attacking the bill. He could have addressed more than just the Z visa. That is not the only problem with the bill.
Giuliani definitely is a crowd pleaser. The guy has charisma, and, with the exception of his stumbling over his answer to the abortion question in the first debate, is a good speaker. I agree with Brownback, however, in the belief that the pro-life position is a core position of the Republican party, and we shouldn't abandon that. Would I vote for him should he get the nomination? Yes. He would still be infinitely better than anybody the Democrats would put up.
So I was kind of disappointed with Romney's performance. He got off topic too many times with answers that should have been slam dunks.
As for the other big elephant in the room, I'm not sure yet how I feel about a Fred Thompson in the race. In general, I am optimistic about him. I don't like his support of McCain-Feingold, but at least he is acknowledging the shortfalls of it, and that it really hasn't accomplished anything it set out to do. I don't know yet if he can offer more hope than hype. But Dems seem to be a bit afraid of him entering into the mix, so he definitely deserves some further looking into.