Republicans debate at 8 tonighton Fox. Comments welcome here.

My midway Huckabee report:

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1) He dodged a question about whether he’d significantly increase troops in Iraq if generals suggested it. But he said he’d certainly listen to generals.

2) Big laugh line on taxes when he said government “spent money like John Edwards at the beauty shop.” But it masked a fundamentally shallow position on taxes that will be hard to defend if he stays with it and gets into the thick of the race. You can’t shut down the IRS, end personal income taxes, etc., and replace it with a revenue neutral consumption tax without imposing a flat tax somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 percent or more. This would be a kiiller to poor people.

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3) He’s still dissembling on his tax record with the tired and misleading claim that he cut taxes 93 times. And now he’s blaming the Supreme Court for the need to raise taxes to improve schools. He also flatly lies by saying he passed the first tax decreases in Arkansas history. He knows better. Again, if he stays in the race, he’ll be eaten up on bodacious boasts such as these.

4) Huckabee’s voice cracked a bit when he dodged a direct answer to the question of whether he bore any responsibility for Wayne Dumond, who killed again in Missouri after Huckabee wrote that he supported the rapist’s releae from prison. “I didn’t let him go,” Huckabee said. “The parole board did.” Under pressure from him, he didn’t add. He said he’d made tough decisions, hadn’t always been perfect and had lived with his decisions. (He lives uneasily with this one, clearly. And, again, press examination of his role won’t be pretty.)

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