To quote Emma Stone as she stares at the six-pack that Ryan Gosling is carrying when he takes off his shirt in the new comedy Crazy, Stupid Love, "Seriously?"
That expression had to be uttered in millions of households last night during the middle of the GOP Fox News-Washington Examiner televised debate, when moderator Bret Baier asked if there was any candidate who would walk away from a deal to reduce the deficit that would that would include 10 dollars of spending cuts to 1 dollar of tax increases.
All eight candidates raised their hands in unison, saying they would not accept that deal.
I look forward to hearing Mitt Romney explain what he was thinking of if he's in a debate from Barack Obama a year from now, for though that attitude about no new taxes, ever, obviously plays well in Iowa two days before a straw poll in early August of 2011, if all those candidates, including Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman really would walk away from that sweet deal, they obviously don't really care at all about coming to a compromise with Democrats on reducing entitlements, which would need to be a part of a serious deficit reduction deal.
That was the starkest moment of last night's debate, but there was plenty of other entertaining moments in last night's two hour affair from Ames, Iowa, such as this exchange on U.S. foreign policy between Ron Paul and Rick Santorum:
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com
This article appears in Aug 11-17, 2011.