Let's be blunt: if you are inclined to look for disappointments in your life, Saturday night’s Republican debate, held in Spartanburg, South Carolina, met expectations.
The problem was not preparation --- unlike previous encounters, no candidate had failed to set up their position. Each held her/his ground vigorously. The problem was that those territories were indistinguishable from one another. In a debate that was a showcase to make a move on front-runner Mitt Romney, that was good news for the former Governor of Massachusetts, but it did not do much for anyone else.
This is not to say that some candidates did not cross the lines of the reasonable into the realms of conspiratorial idiocy. With the exception of Ron Paul, who really should be running under the Libertarian Party’s banner, and Jon Huntsman --- who would make a proud Democrat --- the rest of the candidates tried their best to adopt the views of the Tea Party.
There was not even the spark of confrontation. At one point, Newt Gingrich was asked about critical remarks he had made about Romney in a radio interview. He politely refused to give an encore, declaring instead that Romney was a friend and would make a better President than Barack Obama.
The only question that could be answered with the extremely short amount of time allotted to the candidates was the one on torture to obtain information from terrorists. All candidates except Paul and Huntsman gave similar answers that boiled down to this:
Waterboarding? Fair game.
Enhanced-interrogation techniques? Useful!
Guantanamo Bay? Invaluable.
Otherwise, on the foreign policy terrain offered in answers of less than a minute, the more conservative candidates largely endorsed these views:
Iran? Halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and help the opposition "rebels". (Yes, they used that word.)
Pakistan? Re-evaluate the relationship and cut funding if necessary. Only Rick Santorum stood out from the rest, admitting that the US would have to deal with Pakistan, no matter what, because it is a nuclear power.
Afghanistan? "Obama done wrong" was the theme, but there was some muddling when candidates divided between pulling troops out immediately, getting Pakistan to help with the situation, or even getting Iran involved.
China? This clip from South Park.
This is about all that could be reasonably gleaned from the debates, pending a candidate doing more than a sound-bite to explain statements. For now though, this should reassure observers about a Republican foreign policy:
Michele Bachmann has established that the President is letting the American Civil Liberties Union run the CIA. Rick Perry will cut foreign aid to countries whom he does not consider deserving. Ron Paul will be Ron Paul. Obama's ideas and his approach are Very Bad.
Thank you and good night.